Bayocean – The Lost Resort Town
Bayocean was a community in Tillamook County, Oregon. It was known as “the lost resort town” or “the town that fell into the sea”. Bayocean sat on Tillamook Spit, a small stretch of land that forms one wall of Tillamook Bay. It was built at a time when the West Coast was bustling for the sophisticated lifestyle of the Atlantic Seaboard. The town boasted a hotel, a dance hall, a 1000 seats movie theater and a bowling alley. It also has a portable rail system and many other amenities uncommon for a small town during that time.
The Development
Thomas Benton Potter and his son, Thomas Irving Potter discovered the location for Bayocean while sightseeing and hunting along the Oregon Coast. They envisioned the development of “Atlantic City of the West”. Construction began in 1906 on the spit between the Pacific Ocean and the Tillamook Bay. The first lots were sold to Francis Drake Mitchell in 1907. He built the first hotel and general store. By 1914, 1600 plus lots had been sold out of 2000 plats surveyed. By 1920, the Potter had invited over 2000 investors to visit their resort that saw 1000 to 2000 visitors every weekend in summer. From 1930s to 1950s Bayocean has 600 property owners and 50 plus personal homes built.
The Demise of Bayocean
The demise of Bayocean started in the early 1930s. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed two jetties to stabilize the channel. The colossal cost to build the second jetty was too much for the residents so the Port Commission decided on just one. This decision changed the current of the channel and began to steadily wear away the sand on which the whole town rested. Then there were war and rough weather. By 1938 59 homes had disappeared and residents had started leaving. There were attempts to salvage the resort town but heavy seas had breached the spit. It created a blowout and turned Bayocean into an island. By 1971, the last structure was destroyed. This YouTube video explains it well.
Hiking
The breakwater at the mouth of the bay allowed the island to become a peninsula once more. The second jetty was completed, not to save the spit but to stabilize shifting sands at the inlet. We started our hiking from an old road track on the bay side called Bayocean Dike Road. This is a shorter hike as we picked up one of the trails heading through the dune forest to the beach. The spit is also a great venue for a family bike ride. The flat terrain makes it easy going on both the interior gravel road and the packed beach sand at the tidal interface. Scotch broom, evergreen huckleberry, and stunted spruce and shore pine dot the grassy wilderness. We love the scotch broom flowers. They are blooming at this time of the year making our hike really interesting.
The Ruins
There is really nothing much left of Bayocean. The first ruin we see on the spit is an old telephone pole with a sign saying, “Bayocean Town site 1906 to 1971.” There are markers showing where buildings were; hotel, store, a residence and some wooden broken down structures. The vegetation has taken over covering what used to be a popular resort town. The trail leads us up to the sand dune and down into the Pacific ocean with a 4 miles long beach.
Hiking to Bayocean is a great activity for something unique to do when visiting the Oregon Coast. Shane and I continue to discover more places every time we visit his sister and husband. Click HERE for the places and things we do in Oregon.