B1
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2021
CONTACT US
FOLLOW US
Alyssa Evans
aevans@dailyastorian.com
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 2021 • B1
Oregon’s lost coastal city
The tale of
Bayocean inspired Maryland musician’s new album
By MALLORY GRUBEN
For The Astorian
VISIT THE SPIT
BAYOCEAN PENINSULA PARK
A
lthough he lives in Maryland,
musician Matt Cutter is inti-
mately familiar with a lit-
tle-known piece of Oregon’s history:
the rise and fall of Bayocean.
His band, Rectangle Creek,
released an eponymic album about
the city in June. Cutter discovered the
so-called “city that fell into the sea”
while researching for a speculative
fi ction novel he wants to write about
post-ecological collapse in the U.S.
Bayocean was once a resort city on
a peninsula between Tillamook Bay
and the Pacifi c Ocean. The peninsula
is now covered with brush, with few
remaining clues about its history.
“It is literally a ghost city because
there is nothing left of it whatsoever,”
Cutter said. “It’s all just fl at and
smooth for miles and miles. (There
is) literally no trace of this town but
it’s amazing that there was a
natatorium — a huge indoor,
steam-powered wave pool
with a 1,000 seat movie the-
ater. They were trying to
build an Atlantic City on the
W est C oast.”
Bayocean has all the mak-
ings of a compelling saga:
rich investors, luxurious ame-
nities, fearsome natural forces,
persevering fi gureheads and inev-
itable destruction. It is the tale of
how a once extravagant resort des-
tination eroded away a few decades
after it was built.
between Tillamook Bay and the
Pacifi c Ocean. Potter decided to
build a resort community on the
land.
Potter and his son, T. Irving Pot-
ter, built dozens of lots, recruited
buyers and contracted with other
developers to erect what they envi-
sioned would become a “play-
ground for millionaires.”
By 1914, roughly 2,000 people
lived in the resort city. Dozens more
vacationed there in the summer.
See Bayocean, Page B4
‘The Atlantic City
of the West’
In 1906, well-established real
estate promoter Thomas Benton Pot-
ter stumbled upon a stretch of beach
LISTEN TO THE ALBUM
‘Bayocean,’ by Rectangle Creep, is a 22-track
album retelling the story of Bayocean.
Online album available at
rectanglecreep.bandcamp.com/
album/bayocean
Tillamook County Pioneer Museum
TOP: One of Bayocean’s most prominent
attractions was its natatorium. ABOVE: Francis
Drake Mitchell and his wife, Ida, were the
fi rst family on record to buy a plot of land in
Bayocean. BACKGROUND: Erosion of the beach
at Bayocean left a number of houses perched
on sand dunes a few yards from the shore,
including the Burger Boodie house on Clark
Street, pictured here circa 1950.