Highlights of Depoe Bay History
CHAPTER II
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.