4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL November 16, 2016
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
'Atlantic City of the West' was
swallowed up by the sea
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
J
ust off Highway 131 near the town of
Tillamook, there’s a scenic overlook
from which you can gaze out over a long,
barren peninsula, slender and low-lying
and sandy, dotted with beach grass and
Scotch broom.
The name of the peninsula is Bayocean
Spit. It’s named after the posh resort town
that once crowned it — a town that, over
a 35-year-period, dropped house by house
into the ocean. Today, nothing remains but
beach sand, memories and whatever’s left
of an old Bell System telephone cable,
which as of 1989 was still in place.
Bayocean had its start in 1906 when a
real-estate mogul named Thomas Benton
Potter learned of the spit from his son,
who had just returned from Tillamook.
The younger Potter told of a great wa-
terfront headland, shaped like a club, its
head towering 140 feet high and half a
mile wide between the bay and the ocean,
covered with pine trees, salal bushes and
Oregon grape. And it was available for de-
velopment.
The elder Potter soon visited the site,
and the possibilities enchanted him. It
looked to him as if, with the proper pro-
motion and investment, the site could be-
come the Atlantic City of the West Coast.
There was plenty of room for it to grow, a
full 600 acres; and the lovely, broad, fl at
beach seemed to stretch on forever, from
the mouth of Tillamook Bay down south to
Cape Meares — nearly fi ve miles.
It was the perfect opportunity to steal a
march on the competing developers who
were at that very moment, Potter knew,
drawing up plans for a resort at Seaside.
And so he purchased the land and got to
work.
The plan was for a world-class resort
community. Potter envisioned a majestic
hotel — the concept drawings look very
similar to the old Portland Hotel, which
once stood where Pioneer Courthouse
Square is today; a massive natatorium
on the beach full of heated seawater and
equipped with a wave generator, so that
guests could choose between warm and
cold surf; a movie theater; a dance hall
and many other resort amenities. The town
would have telephone service, indoor
plumbing utilities, electric lights and ce-
ment roads.
Potter built most of these things imme-
diately, then got busy selling lots in the
new and growing town. Getting people to
the town was a challenge, which he met by
having a 150-foot motor yacht built — the
largest yacht on the Pacifi c Coast, suitable
for accommodating 100 guests at a time
— and leading excursions out to Bayocean
via the open sea. This was phenomenally
expensive, of course, and the trip took
three days; Potter always took his guests
on a sort of “scenic route” to Bayocean,
going far out to sea, ostensibly so that he
could show guests the Columbia River
Lightship and Tillamook Rock Light, but
his real motive was to prevent anyone
from catching a glimpse of the hated rivals
at Seaside.
Upon arrival, the “marks” would be
wined and dined and sales-pitched in the
classic time-honored fashion before being
ferried back again to Portland. Potter was
a top-shelf salesman, and the town really
was striking; many of them bought in on
the spot.
When the railroad line came through
close by, these excursions became far
more economical for Potter, and faster to
boot. Sales continued very briskly.
Following the grand opening in 1912,
the town grew quickly for a couple years.
But by then Potter’s health had started to
fail, and he handed things over to his son
— who had other interests and didn’t fan-
cy a life of promoting Bayocean like his
father had. By 1915, neither Potter was re-
ally involved any more.
The Potters left Bayocean, essentially,
half built. Its growth had been mostly fi -
nanced by lot sales, and lot sales hadn’t
yielded enough cash to fully realize their
dreams. The grand hotel was yet unbuilt
— they’d built an “annex” hotel, which
they hoped would one day be used as
housing for resort workers, but now it
looked as if that would be it. The roads
were very nice, but there was no connec-
tion to the outside world, so the only cars
on the streets were brought in by ship. The
telephone exchange worked fi ne for local
calls but lacked a connection to the out-
side world. And the water supply lacked a
booster pump to send water service up the
side of that 140-foot-tall bluff, on which
all the nicest homes were built.
But that bluff wouldn’t be 140 feet
tall for much longer — not after 1917, it
wouldn’t.
That was the year that the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers built the North Jetty,
extending out from the north side of the
entrance to Tillamook Bay. The Corps had
wanted to build two jetties — the confi gu-
ration that’s there today — but the resi-
dents of Tillamook, Bay City, Garibaldi
and Bayocean would have had to pay a
quarter of the cost of such a jetty, and none
of them wanted to do that, especially now
that the railroad gave them alternatives for
shipping out produce. So, over the Corps’
warnings that a single jetty would be at
best a temporary solution, it agreed to put
one in.
The results were obvious almost imme-
diately. That broad sandy beach at Bay-
ocean started getting less broad. During
winters, the storm-driven waves started
getting higher and higher.
Then, in 1932, a particularly vicious
storm drove waves ashore that washed the
footings out from under the gorgeous sea-
side natatorium with the heated saltwater
swimming pool and wave generator.
The waves, surging over what used to be
the beach, started to undermine the 140-
foot bluff. Great fl akes of hillside started
falling into the sea, carrying with them
trees and bushes and, eventually, houses.
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 7A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Fear trumps reason
There’s a sea change happening
across the globe, and the United
States has become the latest casual-
ty. With multinational corporations
squeezing the top off the world
economy, factory towns are becom-
ing ghost towns. As the concen-
tration of wealth has increasingly
risen to the top, blue collar workers
are feeling marginalized.
Rural Americans see their jobs
being shipped overseas, to places
like China and Mexico, and they
begin to develop a hatred of Chi-
nese and of Mexicans. Nevermind
that it’s Americans like Trump who
are directly responsible for those
jobs being shipped overseas, or that
Trump has employed more illegal
aliens than any other presidential
candidate in U.S. history — all he
has to do is fan those fears, creating
an Us versus Them mentality, and
he’s seen as a savior. Nationalism
has replaced patriotism.
Despite the fact that the lower
one-third of America’s economic
class has actually seen an increase
CORRECTION
An article in the Nov. 2 Senti-
nel indicated that Eugene-based
Shelter Care had been seeking
funding to construct an apartment
complex near Our Lady of Per-
petual Help Catholic Church. The
article misstated the name of the
organization. In fact, the proposed
in their standard of living over the
last eight years, that increase has
been tenfold for the top one percent.
Since trickle-down economics nev-
er works, the division between rich
and poor is growing. Looking at the
breakdown of the electoral map the
night of the presidential election, it
was clear that rural areas — areas
with the least diversity and the least
education — were overwhelmingly
in favor of Trump, whereas Clin-
ton won nearly every urban district
— areas with the most diversity and
the most education. Trump is from
New York City, and he’s very well
educated; how did an East Coast
billionaire convince Middle Amer-
ica that he was their champion? It’s
fairly simple, really: Clinton fo-
cused her campaign on the middle,
and Trump focused his on the mar-
gins. The fact that Trump doesn’t
care, at all, about rural America is
irrelevant; his message was always
directed at them, making them feel
less marginalized. Clinton’s passive
message of building coalitions was
no match for Trump’s aggressive
mantra of hate and spite. Fear will
development was initiated by
Shelter Resources, Inc., a Wash-
ington-based company that works
to develop affordable housing in
partnership with local non-prof-
its. The company partners with
South Lane Mental Health, and in
mid-September, the partnership
applied for low-income hous-
ing tax credits for the proposed
always trump reason.
However, the real tragedy here
isn’t that a rich, racist, reaction-
ary Republican won the election;
it’s that he received more than one
percent of the popular vote. What
does that say about this country?
Aside from the obvious conclusion
that wealth controls politics, what it
also tells me is that wealth controls
(and owns) the media; we can fi nal-
ly put this myth of a ‘liberal media’
to rest. The mainstream media is a
multi-trillion-dollar industry, and if
it was liberal, there’s no way Trump
would have been able to spew his
venom so effectively. Trump’s vic-
tory is a validation of all that is
wrong with our political system.
We have entered a dark time in
American politics; there are real
similarities to the Weimar Republic
of 1930s Germany. Trump’s brand
is fear, and Trump’s currency is ig-
norance. How long until he leads us
into WWIII?
Matt Emrich
Cottage Grove
32-unit development. According
to representative Jody Rolnick,
the competition for these funds
is fi erce, and the organizations
recently learned that their project
was not to receive funds and will
not be proceeding at this time.
The Sentinel regrets this error and
any hardship it may have caused.
What does sugar do to the brain?
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
G
lucose is the primary fuel
for the human brain, but
what happens when the brain is
exposed to the excessive added
sugars of the standard American
diet?
Elevated blood glucose dam-
ages blood vessels, and this
blood vessel damage is the major
cause of vascular diabetes com-
plications such as retinopathy.
The vessels in the brain can also
become damaged by elevated
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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blood glu-
cose, and
there is evi-
dence that
this dam-
age
con-
tributes to a
progressive
decline in
brain func-
tion. Studies on those who have
lived with diabetes for many
years have found defi cits in
learning, memory, motor speed
and other cognitive functions.
Frequent exposure to high glu-
cose levels likely diminishes
mental capacity, as higher
HbA1C levels have been asso-
ciated with a greater degree of
brain shrinkage. Even in those
without diabetes, higher sugar
consumption is associated with
lower scores on tests of cogni-
tive function. These effects are
thought to be due to a combi-
nation of not just the episodic
high blood glucose, but also the
metabolic effects on cholester-
ol, fat storage and blood vessel
disease that results. It is not sur-
prising that higher blood sugars
increase the risk of Alzheimer’s
Disease, and that Alzheimer’s
has even been called “type 3
diabetes.”
Sugar’s harmful effects on the
brain don’t only occur in the long
term; even a single and episodic
instances of high blood sugar
can slow cognitive function and
lead to defi cits in attention and
memory. Excess sweets can
also affects your mood. Eating
commercial sweets and baked
goods are linked to higher rates
of major depression. Brain im-
aging suggests that high glucose
levels impairs the brain’s abil-
ity to process emotion, even in
healthy young people.
In addition to the damag-
ing effects on cognition and
mood, sugar also has drug-like
effects in the reward system of
the brain. Our physical and hor-
monal satiety signals seem to be
overwhelmed by the unnatural
concentrations of such concen-
trated sweeteners.
The ability of sugar to pro-
duce a powerful reward re-
sponse was demonstrated by
a study in which rats were al-
lowed to choose between press-
ing two levers: one lever gave
them access to sugar-sweetened
water, and the other a dose of
intravenous cocaine. The rats
preferred sugar over cocaine. In
humans, high-glycemic foods
have been found to activate re-
gions of the brain associated
with the same reward response
as illegal drugs. They produce
an intense desire to overeat.
It is not easy to rid oneself of
their desire for sweets. It takes
knowledge and experience to
help people with the nutritional
tips and emotional techniques to
beat sugar addiction, and take
back control of their health.
Remember, added sugar is a
dangerous food, and the only
way to avoid these dangers by
enjoying sweet, delicious dried
and fresh fruits in place of re-
fi ned sugars, in recipes and
desserts. You won’t sacrifi ce
enjoyment of food, even sweet
desserts can be healthful when
you learn the innovative cook-
ing techniques using only dried
and fresh fruits to make healthy
food taste great.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
board certifi ed family physician
specializing in lifestyle and nu-
tritional medicine. The Eat To
Live Cookbook offers over 200
unique disease-fi ghting deli-
cious recipes and his newest
book, The End of Heart Disease,
offers a detailed plan to prevent
and reverse heart disease using
a nutrient-dense, plant-rich eat-
ing style. Visit his informative
website at DrFuhrman.com.
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