Historic Taft Waterfront EarthCache EarthCache
Historic Taft Waterfront EarthCache
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Historic Taft Waterfront is located where the Pacific Ocean meets the Siletz River. Taft is named after President Taft. While the Siletz River and Bay received their names from the Siletz Indians who lived in the area.
“When the Port of Newport built the Taft boat dock on the Siletz Waterfront in 1928, it quickly became the center for all fishing, boating, and log hauling activity…the Taft dock [had]…the famous Dodeca, a tugboat that took rafts over the treacherous Siletz Bay bar to the sea. Russ Bailey constructed a new dock in 1946 that eventually included a restaurant and a boat-rental facility. During the years of Russ Bailey’s ownership, the dock became even more of a hub for recreational activity on the bay. Bailey is also credited with rescuing 28 people from drowning who were trapped in the dangerous currents of the Siletz bar.” (pg 46 of Images of America Lincoln City and the Twenty Miracle Miles by Ann Jobbe Hall).
“The most dangerous part of a tug’s journey out to sea was crossing the bar at the mouth of the Siletz Bay, where ocean waves crashed over a sand pit. A captain had to wait for just the right tide level to cross, and sometimes he did not make it. Some tugboats were grounded on the bar and had to be rescued by other tugboats, …” (pg 34 of Images of America Lincoln City and the Twenty Miracle Miles by Ann Jobbe Hall).
The Siletz Bay breaks off into two water confluences. One is the Siletz River and the other is Schooner Creek. “Schooner Creek was named for a schooner that ran aground in Siletz Bay in the mid-1800’s…” (pg 42 of Images of America Lincoln City and the Twenty Miracle Miles by Ann Jobbe Hall). Rumor has it that the schooner is still there in the Bay, but buried by all the sand.
Look to your left towards Hwy 101. We see what remains of an eroded basalt dike. These rocks in a line are all that remain of a basalt wall like structure that flowed intrusively into the surrounding sandstone formations millions of years ago. The basalt was more resistant to erosion than the rock into which it intruded. Those rocks appear in many photos these days because of their picturesqueness.
As you visit this location you will get to experience a full bay or an almost empty bay. The tides affect the bay dramatically. When the tide is out you can almost walk completely across the bay. Where did all this sand come from? As you stand on this pier and look down on the bay imagine a boat docking here. Why is this not a possibility anymore? In your email to me please explain how this change would happen in less than 75 years. What geological change would affect this?
Now look at those homes that are between the bay and the ocean. Here we can see a long sand spit that has formed along the outter bayline. The northward long shore current has created this spit from a sandbar with sands that have been carried in from south of this bay. In years past, the spit was much larger, nearly 300 feet wide. Many homes were built along its northern terminus during the '60s, but erosion began in the '70s from unwise practices, construction of rip-rap surge walls, mining of beaches for sand. Today many of the houses are gone and the spit is only 150' wide. If a tsunami were to hit, how would those homes be affected? I am amazed, that with all the rain that we get here, that those homes even have sand/land to build upon. In my Junior High Science class we had lessons on erosion. We had sand by itself, rock and sand mixed, and dirt. The sand by itself washed away very quickly. The sand and rocks was next, then the dirt. So how do you think those homes have survived? That is something to ponder.
Some of this information was retrieved from: (visit link) and
“Images of America Lincoln City and the Twenty Miracle Miles” by Ann Jobbe Hall
For credit to log the cache you must do three things:
1. Post a picture of you with the pier amd the rock formations in the background.
Email the following two:
1. Explain in your own words how all of that sand came to be in the bay? And how it could happen in less than 75 years.
2. Tell me whether it was high or low tide and how you determined this?
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