4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History: 101 and the beach
T
By Finn JD John
o
m
McCall
was a
smart,
articulate man, and not easy to swindle. But Glenn
“Mr. Oregon” Jackson was, by all accounts, even
smarter — and he had something he wanted from
McCall.
Which was fair enough, because McCall also
wanted something from Jackson — wanted it bad-
ly: An endorsement of his candidacy for governor.
It was 1966. Tom McCall, having clinched the
Republican nomination, was going up against the
smart, tough-minded state treasurer, Democrat
Bob Straub. McCall and Straub were very simi-
lar in many respects, and although Oregon voters
tended to favor Republicans at that time, the out-
come was by no means a sure thing.
And Jackson, the state highway commissioner
and owner of ten Oregon newspapers, was the
most powerful behind-the-scenes player in the
state. People answering to him built the Interstate
freeway system and made Oregon’s secondary
highways the envy of the West.
So for McCall, a lot depended on this endorse-
ment interview. Put starkly, Jackson was in a po-
sition to choose the next governor; neither McCall
nor Straub could win without his infl uence.
On that day, McCall found Jackson in a genial
and friendly mood. And the meeting seemed to
go very well. After the preliminaries, the com-
missioner made a proposal: There was a project
he was working on, he explained. A highway im-
provement over at the coast. It would bring huge
economic benefi ts to the communities there; it
would open up the north coast to motor tourism
from surrounding states; it would give Orego-
nians access to a part of the coast that few would
otherwise see. All the engineering work was done;
it was ready to go. But Jackson was running into
some trouble with the usual ragtag band of local
obstructionists, and this particular group was es-
pecially noisy.
Now, if McCall would commit to taking a strong
position in favor of this project, and promise to
help Jackson get the job done, Jackson would
For The Sentinel
endorse McCall full-throatedly, with all the infl u-
ence he and his ten community newspapers and
network of well-connected friends could provide.
McCall, lulled into complacency by the friend-
ly and laid-back character of the conversation,
accepted immediately. One pictures him walking
on air as he left the building. With Jackson’s en-
dorsement, he would be elected governor; it was
almost guaranteed.
But it couldn’t have taken McCall more than a
day or two to fi nd out he’d been conned. The fact
was — as McCall would have quickly learned if
he’d looked into it before saying yes — he already
had Glenn Jackson’s support, simply because he
was running against Bob Straub. Jackson would
sooner have cut off his left foot than endorse Bob
Straub. Bob Straub was Glenn Jackson’s num-
ber-one political enemy.
Also, remember that ragtag band of local ob-
structionists whom Jackson had casually men-
tioned? It was neither ragtag, nor local. It was, in
fact, led by Bob Straub.
The project over which Straub and Jackson
were locking horns that year was a doozie. It was
a plan to move and straighten Highway 101 be-
tween Neskowin and Tillamook. If you’ve ever
driven up that way, you’ll doubtless have noticed
that the highway leaves the coast behind and
plunges inland for 35 miles — routing around
sandy estuaries at Nestucca Bay, Sandlake and
Netarts Bay, and impassible granite promontories
at Cape Kiwanda, Porter Point and Cape Lookout.
That was a lot of grand ocean scenery that
was inaccessible to anyone not willing to drive
miles out of the way on little bumpy back roads
and maybe even get out of the car and walk. And
this was the era of Sunday drives; dependable
and comfortable cars were, in the mid-1960s, a
relatively new thing for most people of modest
means.
So in 1964, Jackson’s highway department
worked up a plan to do something that would
bring those Sunday motorists to that grand ocean
scenery: Build a highway right through the mid-
dle of it.
There were actually three possible plans for
the new highway, but the cheapest one, and the
one the department wanted, was to have the new
highway route start just north of Neskowin and go
straight to the beach. From there the roadbuild-
ers would blast through Porter Point, cross the
Nestucca River with a 90-foot-high bridge, then
traverse the length of Nestucca Spit State Park on
a causeway built on pilings drilled into the sand.
It would then go through Cape Kiwanda with the
aid of more dynamite, across McPhillips Beach
and through the Sandlake Estuary on a roadbed
made with acres of trucked-in fi ll, and fi nally re-
join the current highway route just south of Til-
lamook.
Public response to the plan was mixed, but
mostly favorable. The local year-round residents
were mostly in favor of the plan, but the week-
enders — Willamette Valley residents who owned
cabins at the beach — were less enthusiastic.
Where the trouble arose was with residents who
particularly enjoyed natural features that the plan
was about to completely ruin. These now started
to form groups to oppose the plan — notably one
called “SOS,” which stood for “Save Our Spit.”-
No problem. The department was used to this sort
of thing. A few public hearings so folks would
feel “listened to,” and then construction would
start whether they liked it or not. You couldn’t
stop progress — not in 1965 you couldn’t.
What the department was not used to was pow-
erful politicians getting involved. And that’s what
happened now. Because among that small group
of locals who enjoyed natural features that the
plan was about to ruin was one Robert W. Straub,
the state treasurer — and a regular visitor to
Nestucca Spit State Park.
Straub took one look at the plans and instantly
became Jackson’s worst-case scenario. He wrote
hundreds of letters and memos, carried a petition
with 12,000 signatures around with him much of
the time, organized marches and protests — all
the while continuing to do his job as state trea-
surer and, in 1965, launching the bid for the gov-
ernorship that brought Tom McCall to Jackson
with cap in hand. If only McCall had done a little
research before he showed up for that meeting ….
So history marched on, and McCall was elect-
ed. He kept his word to Jackson and pushed for
the highway, albeit with far less enthusiasm than
Jackson might have wished for; ironically, he
was doing this at the same time as his far-more-
well-known fi ght to preserve public beach access.
The optics of this were terrible, and people were
already starting to ask uncomfortable questions
about it.
Luckily, the matter was taken out of McCall’s
hands before it could go any farther. Bob Straub
had been in contact with Interior Secretary Stew-
art Udall after learning that most of Nestucca Spit
had carried a deed restriction when the federal
government ceded it to the state back in 1961: it
had to be used for a park.
Jackson, of course, fi gured this was no prob-
lem. The spit was already a state park; the high-
way would simply provide better access to it. But
Straub thought Udall might not consider that to be
in keeping with the spirit of the deed restriction,
and brought it to his attention.
It took a while for Udall to get around to look-
ing into the matter. But when he did, he was un-
ambiguous about it. No, the state of Oregon could
not build a highway there. If it did, the Bureau
of Land Management would take action to cancel
the land transfer.
And just like that, the fi ght was over. The high-
way department prepared and presented a new
plan — a much costlier one, involving running
the highway around the former BLM land on a
raised causeway over miles and miles of open wa-
ter in Nestucca Bay. It seems likely this plan was
offered as a face-saving move, because it quietly
died a few months later, and Nestucca Spit has
been a peaceful, highway-free park ever since. In
1987 its name was changed to Bob Straub State
Park.
As for Straub, he was fi nally elected governor
of Oregon in 1974 after McCall’s second term
ended. He lived long enough to see his beloved
Nestucca Spit State Park renamed in his honor; he
died in 2002 in Springfi eld.
Dr. Fuhrman: Eating healthy while on vacation
Whether you are taking a road trip
or fl ying to some distant destination, if
you are committed to following a nu-
trient-dense diet style, you do not have
to leave your healthy eating habits at
home. With a little pre-planning and
thinking outside the box, it is possible
to relax and make healthy food choic-
es. Here are some of the strategies I use
when I vacation with my family.
American highways offer an endless
line-up of fast food chains, however,
visiting them does not have to be part
of your food agenda. Instead, invest
in a large cooler, stock it with plenty
of ice packs and bring along a supply
of salads, cut up raw veggies, fruit,
whole-grain wraps, raw nut butters,
and unsalted raw nuts and seeds.
This is actually a lot more relaxing,
especially if you are traveling with
young children, because you do not
have to worry about fi nding a restau-
rant everyone agrees on and foods that
everyone likes, and it is cost effi cient.
Make accommodation arrangements
ahead of time so that when you get to
your destination, you have a refriger-
ator available or even better, a small
kitchen so you can stock up on lots of
healthy options for breakfast and lunch.
At night, refreeze your ice packs if
you have a
fridge with
a freezer in
C ottage G rove
S entinel
your room or travel with plastic bags
and fi ll them up with ice from the ho-
tel icemaker. Don’t forget to bring your
insulated water bottles that can be fi lled
with ice and water when needed.
Of course, eating out is part of being
on vacation and you don’t need to give
up restaurant dining completely. Most
restaurants have web sites and make
their menus available on-line. Many
places will make special accommo-
dations. Call ahead and ask. I recom-
mend eating dinner at a nearby Whole
Foods Market or other healthy market
that has a large salad bar. Many of the
Whole Foods stores not only have sal-
ad bars, but cooked options too, such as
steamed vegetables and veggie soups.
It is easy to fi nd oatmeal and fruit for
breakfast; you can even make it your-
self by soaking it in the room the night
before or cooking it in the coffee maker
in your room.
As I always say, “Make your salad
the main dish.” Order a double-sized
salad and let them charge you double.
Ask for your salad dressing on the side
and use it sparingly or ask for oil and
vinegar and just use a little bit of oil.
Because restaurant soups are always
high in salt, it is best to avoid them.
Ask the waiter not to bring bread to
your table so you are not tempted to fi ll
up before your meal arrives.
Request an extra side of steamed
vegetables instead of pasta, potato or
white rice to accompany your main
dish. Ask for them to be made without
butter, oil or salt. You can also just re-
quest a double serving of vegetables as
your entrée.
If you order a conventional entrée,
choose simple broiled fi sh or chicken
items and share with someone you are
dining with.
On vacation, you may not eat per-
fectly at every single meal but the goal
is to eat very well the vast majority of
the time. If you eat some conventional
foods, don’t despair. Just start eating
healthfully again at your next meal,
and continue for the entire next few
days until the vacation is over. In other
words, pick one or two meals during
your week away, where you might eat
something off your regular diet, such as
an animal product.
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