Oregon Coast History Videos: Shipwreck Facts, Volcano, Joe the Sea Lion

Published 07/27/2017 at 6:03 PM PDT - Updated 07/28/2017 at 5:03 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast) – Sometimes, knowing the history behind a spot on the Oregon coast can add much to your experience there. It fires up the imagination and helps you take in the vibe that much more, soaking up the sense of the place from all sorts of angles. (Above: a secret shipwreck at Rockaway Beach).

This shoreline's history is full of surprises – some of which you can still see and touch at times. These three videos cover such subjects and shed light on aspects of the past that will amaze, helping you to dive into these beaches in a whole new way.

Back in the early '30s, the Oregon coast was still fairly inaccessible to many as a tourist destination. Parts of 101 were still being built and the roads to the beaches were not traversable when it got really rainy.

Yet one kooky sea lion changed that for a week or so.

They called him Joe, after this fairly-scarred male sea lion was found just flopping around the beaches of what was then a village called Nelscott (Lincoln City wouldn't be founded until the '60s, made up of little villages around this one).

One local managed to get him into a pen, where Joe quickly became as enamored of his human captors as much as they were of him. He loved getting his back scratched with a broom, getting hosed down – but most of all he loved escaping. Each night he'd get out and – while presumably thinking these were caves – he'd be found in the doorway of a home, or even inside one.

One article on the goofy beast and all of a sudden Nelscott was dealing with hundreds upon hundreds of tourists. Sadly, the neighboring burgh of Taft got jealous and complained to local authorities, which took him away and released him back into the wild.

Now, however, we realize this was the right thing to do, whatever the motives of Taft really were.

See the full story on Joe the Sea Lion here – and you can see a statue of him at the SW 35th access in Lincoln City.

Three Amazing Oregon Coast Shipwreck Facts You Didn't Know. There are definitely more than three shipwreck tales that are amazing and astounding on these shores, and in fact there is this deeper insight into Five Amazing Shipwreck Facts that is truly full of surprises.

But did you know?....

The wreck of the Peter Iredale at Fort Stevens nearly bit the big one in World War II? That infamous (yet not very well known) bit of history where a Japanese sub fired upon the U.S. mainland carries the unusual snippet of trivia that the wreck was nearly destroyed by the volleys. There's another fun factoid in the video as well.

The video also makes note of the J. Marhoffer shipwreck that not only gave Boiler Bay its name (near Depoe Bay), but the flaming ship set some of the trees of the bay on fire. (Historical photos courtesy Lincoln County Historical Society in Newport).

Also in this little movie: the secret shipwreck of Rockaway Beach and how to find it.

Scary Pre-History of Yachats and Its Volcanoes. Imagine a fiery, hellish landscape of molten lava covering your favorite beach and plunging into the nearby ocean. Imagine that area filled with toxic gasses and plumes of burning objects shooting into the air from a volcano right near you.

This was what would be the Yachats area around the Oregon coast about 50 million years ago, and that volcano was the beginnings of the famed Cape Perpetua. Granted, the actual shoreline was more than 80 miles east at this point and the volcanic Perpetua had likely sprung up from beneath the waves, however.

This and other volcanic action around this area is why there are so many layers of basalt. The video says more, but even more details are found at Yachats Geology: Wonders and Frights of Central Oregon Coast. - Oregon Coast Hotels in these areas - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

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