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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2021)
B4 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2021 Bayocean: Little evidence of the resort city remains Continued from Page B1 One of the fi rst people on record to buy a plot was Francis Drake Mitchell, who even- tually became synonymous with the city. He built a general store and the Bayocean Hotel. His wife served as the city’s postmistress. The couple was the last to leave the city when it met its fate decades later. Some minor coastal landscape erosion was reported in Bayocean’s early years. Beach erosion did not threaten the city in a dire man- ner until 1914, when citizens decided to sta- bilize and improve safety of the mouth of the Tillamook Bay — thus sealing the city’s demise. At the time, Bayocean did not have a road connecting to the mainland. Visitors instead arrived by way of a steamship called the S.S. Bayocean. The three-day trip became par- ticularly unpleasant as the yacht neared the unprotected mouth of Tillamook Bay and contended with rough waves. Citizens turned to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a solution in the form of a jetty. Usually, jetties are built in pairs to prevent inadvertently creating damaging cross cur- rents. Bayocean, however, could not aff ord to fund both jetties. Despite the Corps’ strong recommendations against doing so, the city proceeded with building one jetty. The 5,600-foot structure jutting out of the north end of the bay was completed in 1917. Losing coastline, fast The singular jetty caused “drastic fl uc- tuations of wave patterns” and dramatically accelerated beach erosion. Historic accounts detail residents’ reports of portions of their front yards regularly washing out. Oth- ers moved their summer cabins inland for safety. One man lost his home completely. He couldn’t fi nd the structure during a vacation because it had fallen into the ocean. In his research on Bayocean, Oregon histo- rian Jerry Sutherland noted that the “destruc- tion became a tourist attraction of its own” and some vacationers would visit to take photos of “houses hanging on the edge of the dune.” Around 1928, the group managing the city Tillamook County Pioneer Museum The Bayocean Hotel was one of many unusually extravagant tourist attractions for Bayocean in its early years. Tillamook County Pioneer Museum Before a road from Tillamook to the peninsula was built in 1928, visitors arrived to Bayocean by way of the S.S. Bayocean. built a road to the spit from Tillamook. Four years later, a large storm crossed the beach and destroyed the city’s natatorium wave pool. Around the same time, the Corps began extending the jetty. The additional length exacerbated the ero- sion. By 1950, more than 20 homes had fallen into the ocean. Bayocean’s landmass was noticeably smaller. Often, the road onto the spit would washout, temporarily stranding the city from the mainland. The Potters had long abandoned the resort city to pursue other projects, leaving residents to deal with the erosion. Mitchell stepped in, appointing himself as protector and spokesperson for the city. He continued to lure vacationers to the island, despite a growing lack of luxury. When win- ter storms washed out roads, Mitchell and his wife would use “a wheelbarrow full of sand and rocks and a shovel trying to shovel back in the land and prevent erosion,” Cutter said. There was little one man could do to com- bat the forces of nature. In 1952, a huge breach occurred, entirely cutting Bayocean off from the mainland. That same year, Mitchell’s wife suff ered a stroke. The couple left Bayocean to seek medical help. They never returned. Mitchell’s wife died. He was sent to Oregon State Hospital in Salem by court order. Some reported he was driven mad by his failed pur- suit to save Bayocean. The Corps eventually built a second jetty in the early 1970s and most of the erosion stopped. Today the spit is managed by Tilla- mook County. Visitors can walk the beach, hike trails and picnic. Little evidence of the once extravagant resort city remains. Crafting the album Cutter said he wants Rectangle Creep’s “Bayocean” album to increase awareness of the true cautionary tale of interfering with natural landscapes without proper research. He wants listeners to remember that human actions have consequences. “I would hope for people to see … how easy it is to mess with your surroundings with something as innocuous as building a jetty — then all of the sudden you are literally watch- ing the land slide away before your eyes,” he said. “I really think that climate change is going to reach that point unless people are willing to recognize that things are defi nitely happening, even if you don’t perceive them happening incrementally.” Cutter based most of the album’s lyrics on extensive research he conducted about the lost resort city. Some of the songs, though, add a dramatized reimagining of history, Cut- ter said. For example, in one song about the Potters, Cutter sings, “Go get the Buick and load up the shotgun,” referencing a potential business deal. “TB Potter, the elder developer, and his son … were defi nitely pretty ruthless land devel- opers. The son was the bulldog that would go in there and make the hard sell,” Cutter said. “But as far as I know they weren’t into any serious mafi a leg breaking … That was all just to inject a little drama into the proceedings.” Cutter said he makes music for fun, not fame but he does envision one day striking it big enough to gather his bandmates for a trip to Oregon, where they could perform live before an audience in honor of Bayocean. “We joke amongst ourselves that maybe when our record goes platinum, they will invite us to the Bay City Arts Center to play a show,” Cutter said. “That would be a dream, to be able to put together a whole libretto and show around that record and perform it in Bay City.” Mallory Gruben/For The Astorian The Bayocean spit straddles the Pacifi c Ocean and Tillamook Bay. Get to The Point. Tile Cabinets Countertops Astoria Est. 1981 15% OFF Yorktowne Cabinetry Through June! Expert Service. Guaranteed. 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