DEPOE BAY HISTORY

FOURTH AND FINAL CHAPTER

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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.

A possible recurrence of the 1936 fire concerned the citizens of Depoe Bay. They’d been lucky in 1936 but realized that except for a shift in the winds, the town could’ve burned to the ground. They wanted their own fire department. At a town meeting held on March 27, 1941, J. C. Braly, President of the local Water Co., announced he’d installed a fire hydrant in the middle of town and would furnish free water for fire department use if the citizens would buy 500 feet of one and one half inch fire hose, which was the size that would fit on the hydrant. The offer was accepted and the Depoe Bay Volunteer Fire Protection District was born. Fred Houchen was the first fire chief.

But Mr. Braly’s plan was never carried out. Instead of 500 feet of fire hose a 1924 Buick fire engine was purchased from the Oceanlake fire department. Plans for use of the Buick fire engine were never carried out either—it was kept in a garage but never used. In March of 1949 it was sold “as is” to W. W. [Bill] Wahl of Imperial Marine in Depoe Bay for $16.10. Mr. Wahl’s bid to the Chamber of Commerce for the engine carried the caveat: “This bid is null and void if the truck has been stripped of parts or stolen.”

Then the Cliff House Restaurant on the waterfront was destroyed by fire in 1946. Once again the citizens were aware of their vulnerability to fires. A group of businessmen got together and made a concerted effort to set aside the Depoe Bay Volunteer Fire Protection District as a separate district with fire fighting equipment housed there. With the help of the citizens, eventually their efforts would be successful.

On February 10, 1949 a brand new triple combination fire engine with a dodge chassis was purchased for $9,142.35. The department's name was changed to the Depoe Bay Rural Fire Protection District and Graham Ainslee was Fire Chief. The new engine was used for the first time on March 24, 1949 when a chimney fire erupted at the home of Jack Bradley in Mirocco. There was no damage to Mr. Bradley's home.

In 1950 construction of a fire hall was undertaken south of the bridge. Then on May 8, 1950 the Office of the Secretary of State of Oregon filed a Certificate of Filing of Articles of Incorporation by the Depoe Bay Volunteer Fire Department. The Certificate listed Graham Ainslee, Raymond A. Platts, M.D. Mc Dade and Harry L. West as presenters of the Articles.

For the next few years the department averaged about 8 to 12 alarms a year. In 1952 there were 12 alarms: 2 domestic fires and 10 beach or brush fires. In 1954 Purl Taunton’s home behind the Spouting Horn burned to the ground, which was one of the most serious fires of that time.

Along with the City the Fire Department continued to grow. In 1962 two lots were purchased in Gleneden Beach and soon after a Depoe Bay substation was created and the department’s name was changed to the Depoe Bay Rural Fire Protection District. In 1963 a new Pirsch Ford Fire Truck was purchased for $21,000 and a fully equipped ambulance was purchased for $563.00 from Western Lane County Hospital in Florence for use by a first aid team. In 1970 a new Otter Rock Fire Station became a substation of Depoe Bay and another new fire truck was purchased for $34,000.

Those who resided in Depoe Bay in the years the Fire Department was in its infancy recognized the help given to them by the U. S. Coast Guard both in fire fighting and rescue operations. In 1967 the Coast Guard was granted Honorary Membership in the Depoe Bay Volunteer Fire District for its valuable assistance to the City’s citizens.

The Depoe Bay Fire Department does not just put out fires. It renders a variety of rescue services, including assisting other agencies when needed. Volunteers are often called upon to leave a warm meal to rush to a rescue or fire. More often than not it is a rescue.

One such rescue occurred in 1975 when in rough weather a small boat named “Suitsme” lost its engine just as it neared the Depoe Bay Harbor entrance. The Coast Guard rushed to the rescue and threw the skipper a towline. During his effort to secure the line to the bow of his boat a large wave knocked the skipper overboard. Luckily he was wearing a life jacket but the water was too shallow for the Coast Guard to rescue him and he began to float southerly in the currents. When the “Suitsme” skipper reached South Point, Fire Department volunteers helped the Coast Guard drag the bedraggled and embarrassed skipper ashore.

The present fire department headquarters was built in 1977. It has been added onto and remodeled a few times and now has 14 apparatus consisting of 3 fire engines and eleven staff and rescue vehicles. The Department has four paid staff members: a Fire Chief, a Lieutenant Training Officer, a Lieutenant Support Services Officer and an Administrative Assistant. It also has 24 enthusiastic volunteers who consist of plumbers, contractors, U.P.S. deliverymen, super market checkers, hair stylists, fishermen and many others.

Depoe Bay traditions began for different reasons and in different ways. Even though stories of these traditions have been told over and over, no history of Depoe Bay can be told without including them. One such story is the tradition of the Fleet of Flowers.

The origins of the tradition came from an incident that occurred on October 4, 1936 when Roy Bowers and Jack Chambers returned to Depoe Bay from a fishing trip in their boat the Cara Lou. While watching a raging storm from the Depoe Bay Bridge they caught a glimpse of a salmon trawler, the Norwester, caught in the storm and fog. Bowers and Chambers quickly took the Cara Lou back out to sea to help rescue the trawler. The storm lasted all night and no other boats could leave the harbor. The next morning the damaged Norwester made it into the harbor with the Captain and his crew bedraggled but safe.

The same day the Cara Lou was found swamped but still afloat with Bowers and Chambers dead from exposure. The men’s ashes were scattered at sea, then flowers were thrown upon the water. Both men were posthumously awarded the Carnegie Medal for heroism. There is a memorial to them in the middle of the Depoe Bay ocean front park.

It was not until 1945 that the first Fleet of Flowers was held honoring the two heroes. It has been held each year since that time and has grown into a moving ceremony, including huge crowds who come to remember departed family members and friends, men and women who gave their lives in defense of their country, and all those lost at sea.

Volunteer Depoe Bay citizens as well as those from neighboring towns gather each year to fashion wreaths and decorate boats with live plants and flowers. For several years the Ceremony has been opened by the entrance of the U. S. Coast Guard Color Team, which is usually followed by welcoming addresses and the introduction of guest speakers. The Ceremony ends with flower and wreath laden private boats led in formation by Coast Guard, leaving the harbor and circling around the Coast Guard boats and the channel buoys, where wreaths are tossed into the sea.

In 1986 a News Guard editorial reported anonymous threats to file a law suit against the citizens of Depoe Bay for “polluting” the ocean by its Fleet of Flowers celebration. The editorial’s title reflected the writer’s opinion of the threats: “No sense at all.” The threat was not taken seriously or heeded by Depoe Bay citizens.

In 1942 Emil Vanyi started a non-denominational Sunday School that was held in various locations in Depoe Bay. In 1945 the Sunday School became an official church, but did not have a building of its own. Then in 1948 the church members requested affiliation with the Assemblies of God.

With assistance of the Assemblies of God, on April 10, 1949, the cornerstone for the first Church to be built in Depoe Bay was laid on Collins Street. Reverend Oliver Bacon acted as Master of Ceremonies. Reverend Atwood Foster of Salem delivered the sermon while the cornerstone, which was donated by Gleneden Brick & Tile Co., was laid by Ira Copley of Waldport, the contractor who was to lay the bricks. The first service was held in the new church on Easter Sunday 1950. Services are still being held in the Assembly of God Church on Collins Street.

Reverend Mark Scott is now the pastor and the cornerstone laid in 1949 is still visible on the right side of the original entrance to the church near the juniper bush. The Church serves many denominations and has strived to keep its original purpose alive—that of a community church serving the needs of different denominations of citizens of Depoe Bay.

After the Cliff House fire in 1946 the State bought the ocean front property where it had been located turning the entire stretch of waterfront property from the bridge to the edge of the business district into a park. For a while, this acquisition made Depoe Bay the only coastal town in Oregon with an unobstructed view of the ocean from its main street.

As tourism increased the need for rest rooms became urgent. In the early fifties the citizens prevailed upon the State to build some rest rooms on the west side of the Highway. The citizens wanted a low one-story structure that would not interrupt the ocean view, but the State insisted it be able to obtain revenue from the building and a larger 2-story structure was erected. The lower part of the building is still rest rooms and the upper portion has been occupied by a succession of retail shops. The rest rooms with their upstairs retail shop are the only thing that obstructs the ocean view from the business district.

Bill and Sis Wahl’s first jobs in Depoe Bay were as crab shakers and fishermen. Then in 1946 they started Imperial Marine, a small boat repair shop. It was the first business on the south side of the harbor. Behind the shop is a large building where Bill Wahl and his two sons, Fred and Jim, built their fishing boat, The Trial. They fished commercially and sold their fish in Depoe Bay and Newport.

In the eighties Imperial Marine was a hang out for old-time Depoe Bay citizens who stopped by regularly for coffee. They also swapped stories about “the good old days” when fishermen huddled beside a fireplace Bill Wahl built where the Coast Guard Station now stands. In those days the area was grass and fishermen often camped there, using the fireplace for warmth and to cook food.

Bill Wahl worked on the crew that dredged the harbor before the Harbor Improvement Development Plan was completed. The dredged material was piled into a pit until it became a hill. Referring to those times in a Statesman-Journal article on October 3, 1982, Bill Wahl “recalls looking over the harbor one day counting 180 boats lined up side by side across the bay. The harbor was shallow then and when the tide went out it drained the basin completely. ‘All those boats were laying on their side in the mud like sardines,’ he said.”

Jim Wahl says he has worked at Imperial Marine all his life. He took over its operation about 20 years ago. He recalls that the shop was originally farther south on the road next to a soap factory that is no longer there. The boatlift and fuel dock were added later. Until the City built a road with a boat launch to the edge of the water, Imperial Marine’s boatlift was the only way to get a big boat into the harbor. The old boatlift is still on the north side of the dock. On the west side of the shop is a stairway that appears to go nowhere but actually gives deliverymen access to the large fuel tanks located on the south side of the shop. Imperial Marine no longer does boat repair; in addition to operating the fuel dock, it does metal fabrication and related activities.

Fred Wahl now builds boats in Reedsport, Oregon. He also is the owner of Fred Wahl Marine Construction in Toledo which is in the process of restoring the Tradewinds’ first charter boat, the Kingfisher. Hopefully the Kingfisher will be ready for display as a museum in Newport Harbor sometime in 2003.

At the end of World War II many Japanese mines still floated in the Pacific and due to the tides many came dangerously close to the Oregon Coast. A mine was subject to demolition if discovered before it reached shore. In November 1947 such a mine was found and its demolition occurred a little too close to Depoe Bay, causing considerable damage to windows in some of coastal residences and resorts as well as other damages to the home of Mrs. Paul Jeffrey who resided in Depoe Bay at the time.

Weary of driving either 15 miles South to Newport, or 9 miles North to Lincoln City to buy liquor, in 1947 residents petitioned to get a liquor store of their own in Depoe Bay. Out of an adult population of about 500, there were 437 signatories on the petition with only 17 dissenters. For Depoe Bay, this is tantamount to unanimous. As the Oregon Liquor License Commission destroys most of its records after 20 years, the only documentation on record of any application for the selling of liquor in Depoe Bay in that era is a contract issued to George Penshorn of Depoe Bay on March 24, 1948.

The location of the liquor store has changed several times over the years. Bob Jackson, former four-time mayor of Depoe Bay recalls that for awhile it was located in the Highway 101 building where the Chamber of Commerce is now located. At present Mr. Jackson is proprietor of the liquor store in Mall 101. Although other businesses in the mall come and go with frequency, the liquor store never seems to lack customers.

Ainslee’s Salt Water Taffy store was opened in 1947 by Graham and Helen Ainslee on the east side of Highway 101 in what is now the heart of the business district. Though many confectionary shops have come and gone over the years, including one owned by the Braly’s and another called Aunt Betty’s, Kenneth Wisniewski, who has lived in Depoe Bay for 73 years, believes that Ainslee’s is the oldest such shop still operating in Depoe Bay in 2003. In 1967 the Ainslee’s sold the store to Dale and Cindy Nelson. John Dempsey is currently the manager and plans to purchase the store from the Nelson’s when they retire. Ainslee’s has a circa 1939 candy-kiss wrapper and fire mixer, a circa 1940 batch roller originally used to make candy canes, and a taffy puller, which is its newest piece of equipment. When the puller is in operation, crowds gather outside and watch through the windows and doors, wondering what keeps the taffy from breaking as it stretches on the puller. The taffy is made from sugar, corn syrup, vegetable oil and flavorings and has always been one of the most popular tourist purchases. In July and August Ainslee’s sells almost 10,000 pounds of taffy each month.

The Salmon Bake is another well-known Depoe Bay tradition that began in 1955. But unlike the Fleet of Flowers its origin is murky. A story published inThe News Guard in September 1967 claims the Salmon Bake originated from the “Salishan family of Coastal Native American tribes who each year paid tribute to the spirit gods of fishing for the abundance of the salmon catch.” Split saplings were used as racks to suspend fresh salmon fillets over open fires.

In September 1999 another story in The News Guard reported that Bill Ellsworth and Bonnie Osborne’s research indicated the Salmon Bake originated in a community bake called the Free Fish Fry that began in the 1930’s, when fishermen brought their catch to cook on wire racks over open fires or in frying pans.

The telling of fish stories was part of the Fish Fry.

Whatever its origins, from 1956 to 1972 the Depoe Bay Salmon Bake was held in the Depoe Bay State Park from an observation platform along the sea wall. When the crowd grew too large for that area, the ceremony was moved to Fogarty Creek State Park about two miles North of Depoe Bay, which had better parking and sanitation facilities. Free shuttles to Fogarty Park were offered to Depoe Bay residents and visitors. In 1993, the State Department of Recreation and Parks started charging a $3.00 per car parking fee so the Salmon Bake was moved to its current location, the Depoe Bay City Park.

In the early days of the Salmon Bake volunteers wore borrowed Indian costumes to start a fire about 5:00 A.M. Although today the volunteers do not wear costumes, the salmon is still baked in much the same way as the Indians are said to have baked it. A cooking trench about 60’ long is dug and filled with wood taken from cords of fire word stacked nearby. When the fire burns down properly, salmon fillets attached to cedar racks are suspended over the trench. Serving begins about 10:00 A.M. The Salmon Bake is always a huge success. In 1999 2,500 pounds of salmon was served to over 2,000 people.

In 1972 Salmon Bake tickets cost $1.75 per person; in 1995 the price increased to $10.00; in 1999 the price was $12.00 for adults and $6.00 for children. The Chamber of Commerce does not yet know what the price of the tickets will be for the 48^th Annual Salmon Bake to be held on September 20, 2003.

In 1963 and 1966 measures to incorporate the city were defeated. Former Mayor Bob Jackson headed the incorporation committee when finally on May 22, 1973 the voters approved incorporation. At the time an estimated 450 persons lived within the borders of Depoe Bay. Of those 173 voted for and 53 voted against incorporation. Not as overwhelming as the vote to get a liquor store, nevertheless it was 3 to 1 in favor of incorporation. In an interview in the News Guard published May 27, 1998, then Mayor Bob Jackson said that, “It [incorporation] always failed because the people in town weren’t happy with one another.” Jackson believed that the measure passed this time mostly “because the Port of Newport was going to give us all the harbor equipment if we became a city…” At that time the harbor still belonged to the Port of Newport District, but in 1975 it relinquished the harbor to the City of Depoe Bay.

In August 1973 the citizens elected five City Councilors: Graham Ainslee, Stephen Cottrell, Bob Jackson, Ed Kosack and Jean Quinn. His fellow Councilors elected Stephen Cottrell as the first Mayor of Depoe Bay. The Council held its first official meeting on August 6, 1973. Minutes of the meeting reflect the first business conducted by one of the youngest cities on the Oregon Coast.

Depoe Bay is truly a city built by volunteers. The growth, progress and traditions of the City are attributable to their efforts over the years. These volunteer-citizens have been members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Volunteer Fire Department, and Chamber of Commerce, those who tackled Washington D. C. to fight for harbor development, all of the City Councilors and Mayors over the years, members of all of the various commissions and committees, the business owners who donated and continue to donate services and goods to the City, those who risked their lives and those who lost their lives attempting to save others, those who stoked the fires of the first Salmon Bake and wove the wreaths for the first Fleet of Flowers and those who continue to do so today, and many, many more.

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; The Depoe Bay Volunteer Fire Department; Pery Murray, Depoe Bay City Recorder; Depoe Bay Mayor Bruce Silver; Fred Robison and many other citizens who shared their time and memories, and Terry Wells for sharing the scrapbook of her grandfather, Jack Patterson.

Some photographs are reproduced 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. The 1968 fire engine photograph was reproduced with the permission of The Depoe Bay Rural Fire Protection District scrapbook.

Editor’s note: To enable us to have an accurate and complete History of Depoe Bay we welcome comments and correction. We would also welcome stories, either taped or written, about the early days of Depoe Bay.