Published 03/05/21 at 6:40 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff
(Oregon Coast) – History is full of surprises, even on the sparse, unassuming Oregon coast. Sometimes it’s the startling changes in landscape that have happened. Sometimes it’s the people themselves.
(Photo above: the Eye of the Needle structure at Heceta Head Lighthouse, courtesy Keepers of the Heceta Head Lightstation)
Here’s three examples of rather eye-popping bits of the past of this region. Part of it even leads to .er, um...heavy metal music.
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It was way back on December 1 of 1952 that a local newspaper ran the headline of “Twice Buried Whale Returns to Depoe Bay.” This was almost two decades before the infamous “Exploding Whale” in Florence, and even back in the ‘50s the thing to do was to bury the beast, which they did the first time way back in April of that year.
Adding an extra curiosity to the article is the term “excessively dead” to describe the state of this 40-foot returning cetacean, quite possibly in the same jesting manner as this article. The “mass of blubber” as they called it found its way to some beach in the Depoe Bay area, although it doesn t say which. Depoe Bay is largely rocky cliffs around for miles, so it s possible they re talking about Fogarty to the north, Lincoln Beach, Whale Cove, or maybe way down at Beverly Beach next to Devil s Punchbowl.
Lincoln City s SW 35th Street Access: Oregon Coast History and Tidal Surprises - There are layers of history here, wild to curiously odd tidal and sand action, and gobs of space.