Local History
Manzanita through the Looking Glass: Pioneer Dreams
Mark Beach
October 2021
Manzanita is experiencing a growth spurt. Some residents worry about the loss of small community intimacy. Others shrug and say that growth is the natural way of things. How does today’s growth compare with the dreams of the area’s early pioneering developers? Would they recognize this small strip of the Oregon coast?
Manzanita through the Looking Glass: Our State Parks
Mark Beach
December 2021
The Nehalem Bay/Neahkahnie region is fortunate to have two state parks offering surfing, hiking, fishing, picnicking, and camping along with stunning views of the north Oregon coast. Was our good fortune inevitable? In our October 8 issue, local historian Mark Beach wrote that the developers of the early 20th Century dreamed of private resorts and beach communities that included the land areas now comprising Oswald West and Nehalem Bay State Parks.
From Mule Trains to 8-Wheel Rigs - Building Highway 101 North from Nehalem Bay.
Mark Beach
April 2022
In 1877, four homesteaders petitioned the Tillamook County Commission for a road “from the mouth of the Nehalem River via Necarney Mountain to the county line to intersect a road being made from the Clatsop Plains.” The settlers knew their lonely homesteads would not thrive without convenient transportation to the outside world.
Getting to Tillamook from Manzanita: The evolution of Highway 101 South.
Mark Beach
August 2022
In 1873 the first detailed survey map of north county showed a trail from the mouth of the Miami River near Garibaldi to the tidal limit of the Nehalem River. Tillamook was already a thriving city, Garibaldi was growing rapidly, and settlers had claimed the prime nearby farm lands.
Manzanita Golfing: History and Current Operations
Donna Morrow
October 2022
Manzanita’s 51-acre, nine-hole golf course is the only one remaining in Tillamook County and has been a core part of the city’s identity for the 35 years since it opened in 1987. Until 2016, the Erickson family owned and operated the course. Manzanita Links now owns and operates it while the City of Manzanita holds a conservation easement that ensures the 51 acres will remain a golf course or open space in perpetuity. Manzanita Today asked Donna Morrow to explore the history of the course and recent changes in its operations.
Manzanita Yesterday
By Mark Beach
January 2024
September 2024 will mark 110 years since Oregon’s deadliest shipwreck. Timber baron A.B. Hammond deployed the steam-powered schooner Francis H Leggett to haul lumber, wheat, and passengers up and down the west coast. On its final run south, the Leggett took on 37 passengers and what may have been an excessive load of lumber and railroad ties in Grays Harbor, Washington. After passing the Columbia River, the ship encountered 60-mile-per-hour gales in an unexpected storm. Just off Tillamook Rock west of today’s Ecola State Park, the rolling seas shifted the lumber and ties, causing the ship to list dangerously. Waves washed into the hold through a torn hatch cover.
From the Archives of Nehalem Valley Historical Society
Ben Lane: Real Estate Huckster or Community Visionary?
March 2024
Edmund and Merti Lane dreamed of turning their coastal landholding into a tourist destination. They formed Laneda Inc. to attract real estate buyers and investors. Despite those dreams, growth remained sluggish until the 1920s when motorcars and newly built roads brought more visitors. Their son Ben, and his wife Joanna, continued the family’s real estate promotion business and named the town’s main street Laneda Avenue. Their real estate and “Chamber of Commerce” office on the corner of Laneda and Carmel is the site of today’s visitor center—a replica of the earlier building.
Shipwreck draws tourists to Manzanita in 1916
Mark Beach
April 2024
Coastal lumber schooners sailed the west coast from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. We covered the deadly Leggett shipwreck of 1914 in the January 2024 issue. On March 19, 1916, the three-masted lumber schooner Oakland, built in 1902 and owned by the Fyfe Lumber Company of Humboldt County, California, sailed from the Coquille River in Oregon with a cargo of railroad ties. Two days later the steamer Saginaw, bound for Seattle, rescued the Oakland’s seven-member crew from the apparently water logged vessel.
We were here first!
Mark Beach
May 2024
In 1966, Ted Erickson purchased 51 acres of dunes south of town from Ben Lane where elk wandered freely. Erickson spent five years building the 9-hole Manzanita Links golf course, which welcomed the first players in 1987. Ever since, golfers have shared the course with the former inhabitants who enjoy the new grasslands and provide fertilizer in return.
Dike Road: a key link in the Nehalem Bay transportation network.
Mark Beach
June 2024
Prior to the 1920s, the only road connection between Garibaldi and the Nehalem Bay communities ran along the west side of the Miami River and the east side of Foley Creek, the route we call Miami-Foley today. Travelers between Nehalem and Wheeler relied on ferries to cross the Nehalem River and Bay.
Nehalem Bay Elementary School 1921-1988
Mark Beach and Lucy Brook
August 2024
In the early 20th century, Nehalem was the commercial hub for valley residents and the new tourist developments of Manzanita and Neahkahnie. Logging, fishing, and farming brought settlers to the Nehalem Bay region. Those industries, in turn, generated commercial and retail activity. The families attracted to the economic growth pushed their communities to educate their children as required by the 1859 Oregon Constitution.