BAY CENTER
BUSINESS AND SOCIAL LIFE IN THIS
NORTH PACIFIC COUNTY SMALL TOWN
STILL REVOLVES AROUND THE WATER
W
illapa Bay is the
most productive
coastal ecosystem
in the continental
United States, and
the town of Bay
Center is the hub
of oyster production.
The Goose Point Peninsula, which juts into
the bay where the Palix River enters, was the
site of a native encampment and trading ground
long before and many years after the arrival of
white settlers. The natives called both the river
and their camp “Palix,” meaning “slough cov-
ered with the trees,”
)armers and ¿shermen settled the area in the
early 1850s. They built a town perched on the
end of the peninsula, which they also called Pa-
lix. Oyster harvesting and processing companies
formed, the town grew, and in1875 the name was
changed to Bay Center. The early residents were
a pious lot and built so many churches that the
town was known as New Jerusalem or Saints
Rest, and they rest today beneath the headstones
of the Bush Pioneer Cemetery.
Like most towns in the area, roads were
slow to arrive, so boats were the chief means of
transportation. The town pier was Bay Center’s
main street, the nucleus of social and business
life. It still is.
There have been changes, of course. The
population today is less than 300 and only two
churches remain. Only one out of seven resi-
dents is Native American; the Chinook Tribal
Of¿ce is located in Bay Center next to Bush Pi-
oneer County Park. What hasn’t changed is that
the town still survives on the harvesting and
canning of oysters, Manila clams, salmon and
Dungeness crab. Business is still centered on
the harbor, and that’s where people still gather,
at a café and bar called Dock of the Bay.
Most often you’ll ¿nd Danielle .irpes be-
hind the counter, dispensing opinions with the
hotcakes and sandwiches. The menu is standard
café with the addition of a lot of oysters, pre-
pared by .irpes or her mother. Whatever you
want to know about Bay Center or its people,
.irpes will probably have the answer, or she’ll
know somebody who does.
The decaying house at the edge of town?
Ben Cheney built it and Cheney Stadium in Ta-
Oyster barges rest in Bay Center’s harbor.
The two-masted sailing vessel Hero greets visitors as you approach Bay Center. The historic ship was the last wooden vessel used as a
research ship in the Antarctic.
coma, although his true claim to fame was stan-
dardizing the size of 2x4 wall studs. What about
that two-masted sailing vessel, the Hero? Many
visitors ask because Hero is the ¿rst thing you
see as you approach Bay Center. It was moved
there years ago on a high tide because its draft is
too great otherwise. It was to become a bed and
breakfast. Never happened. Now the boat is in
bad shape and probably headed for a scrapyard.
That would be unfortunate, because Hero is
an historic ship. With diesel as well as sail and a
wooden hull, the National Science Foundation
launched the ship in 1968 as a research vessel
for the Antarctic. There it served for years, the
last wooden vessel used in the Antarctic, the
end of an era.
Today there are two major topics of conversa-
tion in Dock of the Bay. The ¿rst is the increas-
ing dif¿culty, almost impossibility, of making a
living ¿shing out of Bay Center. (veryone seems
to be semi-retired or working other jobs. “(very-
thing’s kind of side work,” says .irpes.
The other topic is the Shoreline Master Pro-
gram, mandated by the state and implemented
by Paci¿c County. One of those most concerned
is Nick Jambor, who founded (kone Oyster
Company with his wife, Joanne, in 1982. He
fears that the plan will gradually eliminate
many businesses on or near the water, and if
enough of the canning and harvesting infra-
structure is eliminated, Bay Center, deprived of
its only industry, will fade away to be replaced
by vacation homes.
(kone is a Chinook word meaning “good
spirit,” and Jambor’s company is taking an in-
novative route to the future by raising triploid
oysters, which, like seedless watermelons, have
an extra chromosome. This results in a sterile
oyster that spends more time growing and less
time fooling around, producing a larger and
¿rmer oyster. (kone is also growing oysters
on long lines, a labor-intensive technique that
raises the oysters above their greatest natural
enemy, the ghost shrimp.
It seems that, one way or another, oysters
and Bay Center will be with us for some time.
Which is a good thing because, as .irpes says,
“It’s a neat little town.”
Nick Jambor founded Ekone Oyster Company with his wife, Jo-
anne, in 1982, in Bay Center, Washington.
Bush Pioneer Cemetery holds graves from the small town’s early residents.
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Story and photos by DWIGHT CASWELL
January 21, 2016 | coastweekend.com | 9