TILLAMOOK HHJADL1QHT, AUGUST 10. 1911
ILLAMOOK HARBOR AND
BAR IMPROVEMENTS.
ome Interesting Facts as to
iVhat is Being Done to Make
Tillamook a Shipping Port.
B y L. A. F ernsworth .
[When the railroad shall have been
Binpleted into Tillamook, but half
he necessary factor in her indus-
pal advancement shall have been
rovided. Co-important with the
hilroad in the proper development
I the wonderful resources of this
¡underfill county, are the provi-
ion and maintenance of deep, con-
knient and safe harbor facilities
ti Tillamook Bay. The importing
I lumber and of lumber products,
mnsportation facilities to meet
bery particular shipping require
ment, and commercial indepeud-
hce all demand it.
[Realizing this the people adjacent
I Tillamook Bay are just now
■ore than ever lending their efforts
I improve their harbor. Long time
Ko these efforts first began, but the
bvernmexit aid, which they sought,
king steadfastly denied them, their
ttdeavors were vain, and for some
¡uie dropped into disuse.
Within
ke past five years they have been
Ivival with renewed vigor and
bw, although no demand has been
runted, they have for the first time
Ben rewarded with any meed of en-
huragement. The Board of Dis-
flct Army Engineers appointed to
bvestigate conditions relative to
arbor improvements reported fa-
prably and recommended in its en-
rety the plan for improvements of-
fred by the Tillamook Bay people,
nd although the government en-
ineers at Washington vetoed the
ridings of the district board, with
leir veto there went alao a glim-
ter of hope.
ceedings taken for the institution of
the Port of Coos Bay, the Supreme
Court again upheld the constitu
tionality of the law, as well as the
procedure for incorporation.
So
the contestants have really but one
leg to stand on, and that a shaky
one, namely, the point regarding
the existence of the old port, and
the resultant confliction of the new
port.
The case will be given a speedy
trial in the circuit court, at a spec
ial session, after which it will be
taken to the Supreme Court, where
its quick disposal is expected. The
second suit seeks to restrain the
port from collecting taxes, or the
payment of bonds, and is based on
practically the seme grounds. At
torney Ralph R. Duniway has
been retaiued to represent the
plaintiffs.
lected thereafter by the votes of the
Drt. They hold their offices for
irms of four years. The ports are
icorporated under the "port act”
I the legislature of 1999, and by its
revisions are municipal corpor-
hons having powers to do anything
tat would tend to promote the mar
itime. shipping and commercial
Iterests of their districts.
The present Port of Tillamook was
Utborized by election September 13,
109. Its commissioners are all re-
rcsentative men of Tillamook, be-
Ig: H. T. Botts, lawyer, the presi-
rnt; A. G. Beals, representative in
>e legislature, the first vice-presi-
Bnt; D. Fitzpatrick, dairy farmer,
lie second vice-president; M. F.
each, meat dealer and shipper,
reaaurer ; JamesWalton, jr.,cashier
I the First National Bank, secre-
■ry. The Port of Tillamook has a
btal area of 210,063 acres, of which
12.635 acres are timber lands, and
Is assessed valuation is <6,230,160.
I is authprized to issue bonds not
> exceed ten per cent of the a sees-
Bd valuation, or to the amount of
(23.916, and to levy taxes of not to
Breed ten mills.
I Since its incorporation, the Port
f Tillamook has made two tax
[vies but no bond issue was declar-
d until this Spring, when the com-
bissioners voted to bond the port
n the sum of $456,000.
Tillamook Bay is about fifty miles
south of the Columbia River. It is
Baid to be the largest bay on the
coast, between the mouth of the
Columb'a River and the Golden
Gate.
From mouth to head it
stretches about six and one-half
miles, and its width is three and
one half miles. It has a surface of
approximately 23 square miles.
The name Tillamook is an Indian
appellation of peculiar aptness. It
means “the gathering of waters,”
and Tillamook Bay is that in a sin
gular degree, for five rivers, drain
ing the central and the northern
portions of Tillamook County, dis
charge their waters into it. At its
extreme eastern head, the Trask
and the Tillamook Rivers flow into
the bay, only a short distance from
each other and a little further north-
waid and somewhat lower down,
the Kelchis and the Wilson Rivers
run into it. The Miami River, ex
tending into the Nehalem Valley
and draining the MiamiValley,flows
into the bay about three miles from
the ocean.
Bay City Active.
The Port of Bay City was author
ized by election May 4, 1910. It ex
tends from Bay City eastward to
the county line, embracing a strip
about 10 miles wide by 30 miles
long, or 300 square miles in all, and
nas an assessed valuation of $2,002,-
620. A ten per cent bond issue, the
limit permitted, enables it to raise
$200,262 for harbor improvements.
Its board of commissioners consists
of John O. Bozorth, the president;
Dr. W. C. Hawk, the vice-president;
Theodore Jacoby, the secretary;
Gust Nelson, the treasurer; and
Charles W. Pike. It has collected
a one mill tax this year, but has
issued no bonds as yet. Attorneys
employed by the Port of Bay City
Ports Work Together.
have examined into its status, and
There are three principal factors
pronounced all the requirements
<orking at Tillamook in effecting
for legality satisfactory. Suitshave
te harbor improvements. These
not threatened it thus far.
re the Port of Tillamook and the
The proposed Port of Bayocean
ort of Bay City, constituted by law,
nd the Bayocean interests. Bay- takes in the Bayocean Peninsula,
Cean also contemplates organizing and half of the timber covered
■elf into a port, and will hold an mountain known as Cape Meares.
¡ection for this purpose August 31. from the watershed downward to the
he affaire of each of these T'orta Tillamook Bay side. The valua
re in the hands four commieeion- tion of the port, according to as
rs appointed upon the incorpor- sessment, is somewhat over one
on ports by the governor, and million dollars.
Saits Retard Work.
¡The decision to bond the port has
lot pleased sundry citizens, who
Be residents of the territory added
> the new port at its creation, and
k«-y have instituted suit attacking
be powers of the new port, pend-
■g the settlement of which, all
Voits of the port are baited.
; The first suit was instituted by
i V. and Lillian Anderson. Their
Bine i pa I contentiona are that the
Id port, which, being created by
be legislature of 16W. bad preceded
(e present port, has never been
(■solved, and that aa a conae-
¡Bence the present port ia an usur-
Btiun of the old port; that the
Drt law under which the new port
bs incorporated. ia uncoastitu-
Dnal . and, that the port has not
Ben incorporated in the mode and
tenner provided in the said port
I*
The constitutionality of the
brt law. however, has already
Ben auatamed by the Supreme
Burt in the case of Straw va.
krria, and is he cnee of Bennett
Bust Co. va. Mewgatocken. a autt
rvolvmg the validity of the pro
Bay Has Three Channels.
Tillamook City is at the head of
Hoquarton Slough, a very crooked
back-water stream and is eastward
about two and one-half miles above
the bay. Bay City is on the north
side of the bay, a little east of mid
way between the mouth and the
head, while further down, two miles
from Bar City, is Hobsonville, a
lumber town, and three miles down,
on a shore line, Garibaldi, a can
nery town. On the south side of
the bay Cape Meares rises, and at
the west, with a reach of not quite
four miles, the Bayocean penin
sula stretches northward, dividing
the bay from the ocean. Between
the northern point of this penin
sula and the shore on the opposite
aide ia a very deep and narrow
pass, forming the channel through
which the bey discharges and re
ceives the ocean’s tides. At low
water it ia but a few hundred feet
acroaa. from shore to shore
The
bar ia about one mile further out
from this point. There ia a heavy
growth of timber on t ape Meares.
and good null sites are along the
shore line, but neither towns nor
roads are on that side of the bay
yet
Tillamook Bay has three princi
pal channels tor reaaela and two of
these era open, while the opentar
of the third ia urged in some quart
era The taro open channels are
keeping the south channel open as tide, will be left in its present con
against the expense via the main dition. It skirts the north side of
channel.”
the bay and touches Garabaldi,
Hobsonville and Bay C’ty. Near
Disuse Impairs Channel.
About fifteen years ago the Stur its lower part it has a rocky bottom,
geon channel was a natural deep which would make dredging very
channel, used regularly by vessels difficult. Bay City ia reached by
coining to Tillamook. At that time, water by means of a big »lock, 1809
however, the govern met undertook feet long, built out into this chan
a little improvement work on the nel. The Bay City Port, however,
bay, and proceeded to render the proposes to extend this disk out
middle channel available by render into the middle channel, by length
ing the Sturgeon Channel useless. ening it to 30tXt feet. Bay City ia
They closed it by placing a jetty reached at present by water by
across its head at Dick's Point, and means of a short and narrow cut of
they built several jetties along the about 1590 feet, leading from the
middle channel from Dick's Point main channel to the Bay City
Engineers Report Favorably. Slough Easily Improved. to
Bay City, the evident intention channel. Ims cut was dredged out
The necessary harbor work for
It is generally conceded now that being to force the water towards about five years ago.
keeping the bay and slough in their it will be a task allotted in its en Bay City.
The abandonment of the Bay City
present state of navigability, is in tirety to Tillamook to improve the
As a consequence of disuse the channel would effect only Hobson
the hands of Captain John Groat, Slough, and to deepen and main
Sturgeon channel lias been filling ville, as all the channels consoli
who has been stationed at Tilla tain the middle channel as far aa
up, but it has still a depth of from date at Garibaldi. There are no
mook by the government for many Biy City, in caee that channel ia
one to ten feet at low tide.
It is forces which would tend to fill up
year^p He is provided with a small decided upon. The improvement
held, however, that it could be re this channel, and the Miami river
drente, and has at his disposal a of the slough involves the elimina
opened aud maintained u consider emptying into the bay in a swift
regular annual appropriation of tion of curves, the maintenance,
current midway between Hobson
$6(X0. which, however, does not go at present, of a channel teji feet ably lesser expense than the middle
ville and Garibaldi, tends to keep
very far. When this appropriation deep and 100 feet wide and the dig channel can merely be maintained.
a part of the channel clear, Hob-
The
Sturgeon
channel
runs
along
becomes exhausted, the Port of ging of a basin 600 feet long aud
sonville could always be reached,
Tillamook or the citizeus have been 200 feet wide to provide terminal the southern shore of the bay,
aa at preaent.by vessels and lumber
where
besides
providing
means
of
want to contribute money to the re facilities for vessels at Tillamook.
schooners of goodly size.
water communication for that part,
maining essential work.
This plan is in keeping with the
With regard to bar improvements,
Any project for making a good intention of securing as great a which has been hitherto unsettled,
a
division of opinion also exists,
but
ia
opening
up,
it
ia
protected
harbor of Tillamook Bay, naturally depth in the channels us on the
being as between the merits of a
resolves itself into three parts: bar. When a greater depth has been by Cape Meares from tile high
jetty on the south side of the bar
first, the improvement of Hoquar secured on the bar, the aleugh will southwest winds, which menace
ton Slough from Tillamook to the also be deepened and widened, and shipping in time of storms, and also and a jetty on the north side. A
jetty on both sides would of course
head of the bay ; second, the main the terminal facilities at Tillamook tend to drive sand into the un
be the best plan, but it is conceited
protected
channel.
Besides
this,
tenance of a deep channel in the will be enlarged. Ultimately, it is
that
this ia too big an undertaking
bay ; and third, the deepening and intended to maintain a depth of Hi it is the channel now used by the
The government
Bayocean interests for a consider for some time.
improvement of the bar.
feet on the slough.
Hoquarton
engineers have recommend the
able
distance
up
from
its
mouth.
Last fall a proposal was made Slough from Tillamook to the mouth
north jetty, and the Port of Bay
to the government by the Ports of of Trusk River, two miles, has seven Boats to reach Bayocean from
Tillamook, or Tillamook from Bay City ’a also favoring that plan, but
Tillamook and Bay City, acting big
horse shoe bends in
it,
while the Port of Tillamook has not
jointly, to deepen the middle chan which, besides juat doubling the ocean, now are obliged to go down
gone on record, pro or con, a
nel from Bay City to the bar, and distance between these two points, the middle channel and up the
strong sentiment exists in Tilla
Sturgeon,
or
vice
versa,
thus
giving
to build a jetty on each side of the present considerable difficulties to
mook favoring the south jetty.
bar, so that at low tide there would vessels attempting to reach Tilla them a tide to “ buck” either way.
be 16 feet of water in the channel, mook, and prevent others entirely The Bayocean people, moreover,
Bar Presents Difficulties.
and 28 feet on the bar. The two from getting there. About 129 feet when their port ia organized, will
The Tillamook bar is at present
ports offered to bear one fourth of ia the maximum length at which maintain a considerable portion of constantly shifting,
both us to
the cost if the government would vessels can now reach Tillamook. this channel themselves, thereby position and to depth. The heavy
bear the remainder. A committee An 116-foot coaster is making regu further reducing Tillamook's ex southwestern gales of the winter
of three government engineers was lar calls at the port now. The pre pense by nearly half. Bayocean time drive the channel far north,
appointed by the Board of Engi sent plans involve the making of lias already expended a consider sometimes causing it to divide into
neers at Washington, to examine entirely new channela at two places able sum of private money in many small channels, while the
into the project, and to report their on the alough by cutting straight digging a channel nearly u mile northwestern winds of the summer
findings, with their recommenda through the land encircled by long with a 16-foot high tide depth, drive it southward. The range of
tions in the matter. The committee curves at these points; also, the from the Sturgeon Channel to the fluctuation is more than two miles,
consisted of Col. John Biddle of attaining of a channel width of 150 Bayocean docks.
and the shifting to the north ia
San Francisco, Ma.'or Kutz of Seat feet at the other curves. The elimi
Rivers Carry Silt.
much more pronounced than that
tle and Major Monow of Portland. nation of these two lienda would
Should the Sturgeon Channel be to the south. Part of the summer
The special committee found that shorten the distance to the mouth agreed upon, the Ports of Tilla time the channel extends straight
the proposed improvements would of the Trask River to 9000 feet. mook and Bayocean would expect out to sen.
cost about $1,722.000 and recom When the larger improvements are to bear the whole coat of opening
The advantage of a south channel
mended that the plan submitted taken up, most of the other bends and maintenance.
The cost of its exponents say, ia that it would
by the two ports be adopted by the will also be eliminated from the opening to a ten foot depth at low
prevent the southern current and
government.
The Board of En channel, and thereby the distance
tide has been estimated at from sands from shifting the channel
gineers at Washington, however, from Tillamook to the heud of the $35,900 to $40,009.
The distance by northward, and that it would also
refused to sanction the report, bay will be cut in half. The esti this channel from Dick’s Point to
offer a comparatively safe conduit
but hinted that if the people adja mated cost of the slough improve Bayocean is some three and three-
for vessels making Tillamook Bay
cent to the harbor agree to contrib ments outlined is $89,609.
fourths miles, to the Garibaldi in stormy weather. All big storms
ute half of the cost of the work, the
Sentiment Favors 8tnrgeon pass a little lees than six, and to are from the southwest, an I the
plan would be more favorably
the bar a little leas than seven. south jetty would tend to check the
Channel.
viewed. The fact that the Washing
From Tillamook to Dick's Point is force of the wind on the water of
The
slougli
itself
is
already
from
ton engineers were not accustomed
slightly more than four milea, and the channel, making them less
receive to favorable reports concern 100 to 300 feet wide throughout its thus from Tillamook to the bar
turbulent, while thia effect would be
ing Tillamook Bay harbor improve length, and the 100-foot width and this way would be just about the
just reversed with a north jetty.
ments, together with the fact that 10-foot depth of the improvement same ae by the middle channel,
The north jetty advocates, how.
the report was submitied at an in plans refer to the width and depth eleven miles.
ever, say that a north jetty would
opportune time, at a time when of the channel at low tide The
The cost of improving am! main
act as a
bulwark against the
President Taft was insisting on preaent low tide depth is three feet.
taining the middle channel from
rigid economy in government rf- Large vessels are always obliged to
northerly shiltiug of the channel,
Dry Stocking Bar to Bay City, four
and Chat the ndditiopnl impetus
fairs, were greatly responsible for wait f<Jr low tides to go to depart
miles, lias been placed at $60,099.
the rejection of the recommenda from Tillamook thereby hampering
given to the curreqt J>y the jetty
shipping considerably. The pro The Kelchis and the Wilson rivers would check the augl'1 shifting to
tions.
posed improvements would obviate flow into the bay about thia point, the south
They taaini out as an
Original Plan Abandoned.
and their waters merge, making
thia handicap.
additional argument- that the north
In paying one fourth of the cost
From the mouth of the Trask one channel, which constitutes the jetty, with a railrowd'constructed r
of the improvement, Bay City was would be another half mile of upper part of the Bay City channel.
willing to pledge herself for the alough to maintain to the head of The channel which they form, the north side, and -with suit title
limit permitted by law, namely, the bay, at Dry Stocking Bar, and fiends in an elbow very dose to the rock neurby, coit’f fie eonstru id
much more clie.ipty ihan the s< dh
$20X282. This would leave $230/238 from this point thsre will be one middle channel, thus tending, and
to t»e born by Tillamook, or to tie and one half mile of bay channel particularly so at high tide, to wash jetty. A rough estimate lias placed
divided between Tillamook and to Dick’s Point, where the Sturgeon all the sediment and silt from the the coat of constructing a jetty on
the north aide sufficient to main
Bayocean, should the latter port be Channel branches off southward river into the main channel.
tain a 14 foot depth on the bar, at
incorporated. As the Port of Tilla
from the middle channel. The dis
It may be a hard matter to induce
mook, at its present assessed valu tance by channel route from Tilla the government engineers to per $009,000, and that of building a
similar jetty on the south side at
ation, can bond itself for $623,016,
mook to Dick’s Point ia slightly mil the opening of the Sturgeon $1,060,000.
by paying the remainder alone, it over four milea and to Bay Cityjuat channel, however, for the govern
Captain Paul Schrader, master
would still have $392,778 with which seven milea. From Tillamook to ment plans have always reckoned
of the Sue II Eltftore who has
to improve Hoquarton Slough and the paaa at Garibaldi by the middle with the middle channel.
been running into Tillamook for
the channel from the mouth of the channel is ten milea, and to the bar,
The principal argument of tl>e i many years,
and who ia un-
slough to Bay City.
eleven miles.
opponents of the Sturgeon Channel i doubtedly the tieat informed man
But when the plans were rejected
A divided opinion exists with re is not that it is not the natural
of Tillamook bay and harlior con
at Washington, and that hint about gard to the maintenance of either
channel, but that it would benefit ditions, thinks that the south jetty
paying one half came, the original the Sturgeon Channel or the middle
only Tillamook. They point out tliat I ia the pro|ier one, but concedes a
plan was abandoned, for it was patent channel, but a very strong senti
the opening of the Sturgeon Chan ' superior knowledge to the govern,
to all that the payment of one half ment of well-informed persona ia
nel would leave the opening of the ment engineers in their decision.
of the cost of the proposed project urging the opening of the Sturgeon
main channel still a necessity, and
was considerably more than could Channel. The argument in favor
that the government would lie un Captain Favors North Jetty.
be undertaken by the ports. New of thia channel is that it is the nat
willing to maintain or authorize the
Captain F. K. I lodge, an old time
plans were made—and here comes ural channel, is protected from
maintenance of two channels on the mariner on the Oregon coaat, and
the parting of the ways.
the winds and can beat and moat bay.
particularly on Tillamook bay,
The Bay City Port offered to con cheaply be maintained.
The middle channel will always
favors,
on the other hand, the north
tribute
its
limit
of $260,262
J. H. C. Lockwood, consulting be needed to accommodate the towns
jetty.
Captain Dodge says that
towards building
a jetty
on engineer for the Port of Portland
on the north side of the bay aa far when he come to Tillamook first, in
the north side of the bar, st an es for the last ten years, gives suc
as Bay City, and the opening of the 1892, there was a depth of 24 ft-«-» > i
timated cost of $600,000, and in cinctly the reasons for opening the
Sturgeon channel and the abandon
the bar, and that the northern shore
maintaining a channel with a 14 | Sturgeon Channel. Mr. Lockwood
ment of the other would cut Bay line extended uiucti further wswsrd
foot depth at low tide, as far as was employed by the Port of Tilla
City off entirely from the head of than it does at present. The water
Bay City, if what remained towards mook in the latter part of May, to
the bay and from Tillamook. Strong
in those years, lie says, has t er
half of the cost be given by the advise it as to the best plan to fol
advocates of the middle channel in washing the northern shore,
Tillamook Port, either alone or in low in making harbor improve
Tillamook point out that Tillamook
conjunction with the proposed Bay ments, and in his report he recom
allowing current tn sprea«!, and
could afford this as little as Bay vitiating its force in waskiog •?..
ocean Port There are those, how mended the opening of the south
City.
channel clear, until nos <li dttu-
ever, who favor a jetty on the south or Sturgeon Channel. His recoin
side of the bar instead of on the [ mendation says :
North Channel Unimportant. nel ia becoming obliterated
north side and there are those who
” The choice of routes on the
There are those, also, who think theory is that a north jelly ah<
favor the opening of the Sturgeon lower section lies clearly with the that by diking the main channel on lie built, thus not only preventi'i ■
channel instead of the middle ship south channel, as the estimated the north side, the side on which the channel from shifliup nor.
channel, so that the course to be amount of material to bo excavated the Kelchis and the Wilson rivers ward, I mt confining the short- li
by that route ia SO,000 cubic Varda
pursued in the improvement of the as against 3H1,<U) cubic yards via flow, and by depositing the materia) with somewhat Hie smite eff<. i as
channels and the bar is juat now a the main channel, and the inainten removed from the channel behind had the shore line in early days, SO
aoce charge is sure to be materially
flu lusting quantity.
this wail or dike, the silt from the that the force of the water could
The Tillamook port, however, has
keep the channel clear. He tluiiks
” By the south channel you avoid 1 rivers could be prevented from
decided upon one thing, sod that is ■II silt from the Wilaoo and Kil washing into the channel, and that that «and will begin to pile up
the immediate improvement of Ho chia Rivera, and your maintenance thus it could be maintained at a against the north side of the jetty
quarton Slough as far ae Dry Mock expense will be limited to moving lower coat than at first estimated.
■ nd tlist thus the former seawsrd
ing Bar, which la practically the the e>lt from Trask and Tillamook
Ths Bay City channel, with a shore line will again be eatabliaiied
rivers.
You will certainly eave
head of the bny, and the deepening half of your maintenance charge tn depth at this time of 10 feet nt high on the north aide.
the Bay City channel, open aa far'
as Bay City, four milea from the en
trance to the bay, and skirting the
northern shore, touching at the
town» of Garibaldi and Hobson
ville ; and the middle or ship chan
nel, the channel mainly used by
vessels, - and the
channel lead
ing to
Tillamook.
On
the
south side of the bay, skirting Bav-
ocean and Cape Meares, is the south
or Sturgeon Channel, which is not
open, but which is being strongly
advocated by many as the expedi
ent channel to open and main
tain.
of one channel or the other at once
thereafter. To this end they have
resolved to bond themselves for
$450,006, and they will push the
work with energy aa soon as the
pending litigation is decided. What
the Tillamook port means to secure
just aa soon ae it poaaibly can, iaaa
great a depth to the mouth of the
bay aa is the depth of the water on
the bar. They propose at present
to leave the deepening of the bar
entirely to the government, and to
take up the work of slough and
channel improvement either inde
pendently, or with the aid of the
other ports.