As the popularity of fresh seafood increased, small villages grew up on both sides of the bay, Yaquina City, Oysterville, and on the south shore, Oyster City. By early 1900, the native oyster supply began to dwindle and efforts to grow eastern varieties failed. In 1907 Louie Wachsmuth opened the Oyster Bar in Portland and needed a continuous supply of flavorful and succulent oysters which led to the establishment of serious processing in Oysterville. All that remains of this village is the well established oyster farm tucked along the bay close to Johnson Slough. Oyster growers introduced the Pacific oyster from Japan in 1918 as a means of increasing the production, but the oyster could not reproduce in the cold water of the bay.
Research began in three insulated rooms that were built at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in 1968 and the Yaquina Bay oyster industry became one of the strongest areas of production on the West Coast. It is due to the research of Professor Willy Breese, Dr. Anja Robinson and others that the Yaquina Bay oysters have helped the West Coast to surpass the East and Gulf Coast in production.
The cache container is a large medicine bottle, camouflaged. From the cache site you can watch the harvesting from the beds along the river and enjoy the varied wild life. In an early morning fog, you might even see a schooner coming up river to load oysters and lumber to haul to San Francisco.