DEPOE
BAY HISTORY
Ó
CHAPTER
2
(Click on any photo for an enlarged view)
Around 1908 Harvey L. Collins and a group of businessmen from the Portland area heard of a charming isolated “ sea cove” on the Oregon Coast accessible only by trail. Curious, the group trekked from the Willamette Valley to the coast to determine if it the cove might be a good investment.
Charlie and Minerva DePoe’s heirs wanted $10,000 for
their land which the men thought was too much for such an isolated spot and they
started the hike back to the Willamette Valley. On the way one of the men, Harry Treadwell Kent, changed his mind
and convinced the others that one day the spot might be more accessible.
The men formed the Sunset Investment Company and purchased the two
hundred acres of land from Charlie and Minerva’s heirs. Among the investors were Harvey L. Collins,
Harry Treadwell Kent, R. C. Yeast, who became the President of the Company, and
E. B. Winchel. These men became the
founders of Depoe Bay.
It was not until May 29, 1927 when The Roosevelt Highway and Depoe
Bay Bridge were completed and the land it had invested in became accessible
that the Sunset Investment Company began promoting the development of the
“playland facilities along the Roosevelt Highway. ” An official grand opening was announced claiming Depoe Bay was
“Where the highway meets the sea.” The
public was invited to come and witness a natural phenomenon, The Spouting Horn,
which was predicted to rival the famous Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone
Park, and one of two natural harbors on the Oregon Coast. They explained that the phenomenon was
caused by ocean tides running back under the rock cliff then forcing its way
forcefully through a two-foot hole in the ceiling of an underground cavern.
On June 16, 1927 a Vancouver newspaper reported that Ray Lang
just returned from Depoe Bay and reported that the roads were in excellent
condition. The one hundred and thirty
eight mile trip from Depoe Bay to Vancouver only took Mr. Long four and a half
hours. Mr. Long claimed he made such
good time because the highway to Sheridan was paved and from there to Taft the
roads were in good condition being either oiled or macadamized. From Taft to the Depoe Bay, according to Mr.
Lang, was a good dirt road, unless the rains set in again.
A crowd of people staring with curiosity at a dead
octopus on
the side of a road was the inspiration for the opening of one of the first
businesses in Depoe Bay. This was The
Depoe Bay Aquarium, built in 1927 by H. L. Collins, one of the city’s
founders. It was the first aquarium to
be built in Oregon and until its closure on Labor Day 1998, was reportedly the
oldest privately owned aquarium in the United States.
Throughout the years
octopuses
remained one of the main attractions of the aquarium, specimens being captured
by the proprietors from as far away as the caves on the Olympic peninsula. Local fishermen furnished most of the other
live specimens, some of them unidentifiable. The aquarium also furnished
specimens to other aquariums, once sending a live octopus to Norwich,
Connecticut. It also served as a
rehabilitation center for harbor seals and sea lions and other sea creatures, a
custodian once feeding six baby sharks with eyedroppers full of fruit juice.
The seals and sea lions became the real
crowd-pleasers, performing antics while swimming around in their tiled pool,
and applauding themselves in an attempt to get more food. In 1998, John Woodmark, then owner of the
Aquarium, claimed all of their animals were over twenty years old. One seal, Oscar, who was named after the man
who brought him in, lived to be thirty-seven years old and at one time was the
oldest living seal ever recorded.
Although whether Oscar was male or female was not was not known as it
was difficult tell the difference between seals’ sexes at that time. But whether male or female, the crowd’s
admiration for Oscar as well as some of the other seals would lead to their
deaths.
In spite of “no feeding” signs posted at the
Aquarium,
visitors, for some unknown reason, insisted on throwing coins and other objects
into the seal pool. One pool yielded
nine thousand pennies, together with a considerable amount of silver, all
deposited over a one-year period. When
Oscar died a post mortem revealed the cause of his death. His stomach contained on hundred and eighty
six pennies, five dimes, four nickels, three rocks, two copper military buttons
and a piece of shale. The objects
filled a one-pound coffee can three quarters full. Oscar was so sorely missed by visitors and Aquarium personnel
that the aquarium ticket agent wrote and ode to him.
Depoe Bay continued to grow. Four years later, in 1931
R. C Yeast, then president of the Sunset Investment Company, announced that it
had built an office building, a store, a gas station and platted on hundred and
eighty-five lots, seventy of which had already been sold and would soon have
cottages built on them. He tantalized
visitors and would-be purchasers with promises of boating, stream and ocean
fishing, and an auto camp with free water and wood, and a soon to be
constructed water system.
One of the oldest businesses still operating in Depoe
Bay today is the Spouting 
Horn Restaurant. Built in 1934
by Clyde Crawford it was originally a single story building. Prior to the construction of the Spouting
Horn the Bridge Lunch Restaurant was located near the Depoe Bay Bridge on
the Highway. It was moved back to
accommodate the Spouting Horn. Purl
Taunton bought the Spouting Horn from Crawford in 1944 and used the old Bridge
Lunch Restaurant as a cottage until it burned down. A second story was added to the Spouting Horn in 1936 with the
restaurant downstairs and rooms upstairs.
Also in 1963 a lumber barge sank and its cargo of redwood washed
ashore. Much of the redwood was used as
siding inside the restaurant. Since
that time the front and back of the building have been added onto several
times, but it still is said to have one of the best views in Depoe Bay. Members of the Taunton family own and run
the restaurant to this day.
One of the most innovative tourist attractions created by Depoe Bay
townspeople was the Fish Derby. These
Fish Races with real fish as the entrants were held in the mid 1930’s. The Fish Races, as they were called, were exactly
what the name implied—live fish placed in a painted trough darted for black
painted gates at the far end of the trough, which when hit would release a
balloon. The first balloon to float in
the air determined the winner of the race.
The 1935 Fish Derby attracted a reported a
crowd of two thousand. Codfish were the
favorite entrants with the big winner being a long shot—a codfish named Addie
Jo that paid ticket holders $4.80. In
1936 a newspaper feature
entitled “Oregon Oddities” by Jack Winter reported that the Fish Races at Depoe
Bay “are one of the states’ most unusual sport events. Ten thousand saw one of the races and bet on
the fish. Rock cod is the best bet.”
By 1936 Depoe Bay had added two new service stations, a new
garage, a fish market and the state highway department had constructed some
parking areas. Two deep-sea
passenger-fishing boats and about twenty commercial boats were leaving port
regularly. It was announced that before
summer’s end plans might be announced for a new store and hotel.
But all stories have their down periods and Depoe Bay’s is not immune. In the fall of 1936 the city was almost destroyed by a fire that burned for six days before county fire officials took it seriously. On the sixth day warm weather and an east breeze suddenly whipped the fire into an inferno which reached Depoe Bay and spread the fire miles east with a two and a half mile front on the west. Then the breeze increased to a thirty-five mile per hour wind and raced toward Depoe Bay threatening it with destruction. Over two hundred men from around the state and all local available men concentrated to battle the blaze that had spread to the south. Small but powerful water pumps were placed at every accessible stream and traffic was stopped as flames jumped the highway and the Oceanlake fire department loaned its pump to the Depoe Bay fire fighters.
It seemed that the blaze would rage unchecked through the city and many
hurriedly evacuated their homes. But
miraculously only two small cabins in the woods east of the bay were burned
down. No other buildings were destroyed
and only two townspeople suffered injuries, from which they recovered.
One of the most exciting new developments in Depoe
Bay in 1937
was a wildlife museum said to be valued at $75,000, constructed by The Depoe
Bay Museum Company. It housed the
private collections of J. C. Braly and Ed. S. Currier. The museum’s displays included birds and
eggs collected from all over the World, including an extinct passenger pigeon.
Heads, skins and hides of many mammals were displayed, many now extinct or
endangered, but thought at the time to be easily replaceable. Over two hundred specimens of butterflies as
well as many Indian relics were also housed within the museum walls.
The only blight upon the museum’s reputation seems to have
occurred when one of its curators, Elmer Griententrog, was arrested for
zealously and illegally attempting to stock the museum’s display by shooting
puffins from a powerboat within the three-mile limit of the coast.
The museum itself though now long gone, was located on what is
now Bay Street in the building behind the brass shop that in recent years has
been a restaurant.
Circa 1938, Stan Allyn, a Portland newspaperman,
decided to retire and go fishing. He
invested his $800 life savings in a twenty-eight foot boat and started down the
coast from Astoria. Somewhere off Depoe
Bay his engine died and he was able to limp into Depoe Bay Harbor with the help
of a commercial fisherman. Allyn was
the original owner of the Tradewinds Trollers and its first charter fishing
boat was the Kingfisher. The business
grew until in 1953 with two partners, it boasted a fleet of 12 boats and its he
name was changed to the Tradewinds
Charters. At one time the Sunday
Journal Magazine claimed that his [Allyn’s] enterprise has virtually
made Depoe Bay what it is, and the town thrives on business generated by the
Tradewinds.”
Rich Allyn took over from his father and operated the business
for about twenty years until he sold it to Tim Harmon in March 2001. Mr. Allyn says he still enjoys skippering
occasionally for the Tradewinds. The
original Kingfisher remained the Tradewinds’ flagship until about mid 2001 when
it was it was retired and donated to the Lincoln County Historical
Society. Fred Wahl Marine Construction
of Toledo is restoring the Kingfisher and it is scheduled to be put on display
as a museum in the near future in Newport Harbor. But the business started by Stan Allyn so many years ago is still
alive and well in Depoe Bay.
After the federal government began to improve the
Depoe Bay
area for sport and commercial fishing, the first deep-sea boat built
specifically for carrying passengers out of Depoe Bay was launched into the
Siletz River at Kernville in May of 1939.
At a cost of $10,000 it was constructed of Port Orford cedar and
mahogany and was reported to be able to accommodate forty-five to fifty
passengers while cruising at ten to thirteen knots.
This
is part two of a multi-part history. Installment III will continue the
Depoe Bay story as the City’s growth is interrupted by World War II, and Depoe
Bay takes steps toward becoming an official Lincoln County city.
All rights reserved.
Acknowledgements:
The Lincoln County Historical Society, and Jodi Weeber the Society’s Registrar
and Research Librarian; Bob Ward, Founder of the Drake Society in Oregon; and
Pery Murray, Depoe Bay City Recorder.
Photographs are used with the permission of the Lincoln County Historical Society for research and display purposes only. They may not be reproduced, rented, or resold other than for the described purposed without the written consent of the Lincoln County Historical Society.
Editor’s note: We welcome comments, corrections and memories of anyone knowledgeable about the History of Depoe Bay, to enable us to have an accurate and complete history of our city.