Why No City on the Oregon Coast Has 16,000 People
John Estes
196 views
The Real Reason No Big City Grew on the Oregon Coast
The Oregon coast had harbors, a railroad to the sea by 1885, and millions in federal money. So why is its biggest city still under 16,000 people?
This video follows the two things a port city on this coast needed at the same time: an entrance ships could cross over the sandbar, and a railroad through the Coast Range. We go from the steamship wrecked at Yaquina Bay in 1888 and the Oregon Pacific Railroad, which had $5 million sunk into it and then sold at a sheriff's auction, to Coos Bay waiting until 1916 for its railroad, to the jetty at Tillamook Bay and the resort town of Bayocean that lost its last house in 1960. Then we look at what Portland had, and how early it had it.
Along the way: what the 1967 Beach Bill actually did, what happened to Oregon's tsunami-zone building rules, and why the NOAA fleet at Newport has a decision coming before its lease ends in 2031.
Why No City on the Oregon Coast Has 16,000 People
John Estes
196 views
The Real Reason No Big City Grew on the Oregon Coast
The Oregon coast had harbors, a railroad to the sea by 1885, and millions in federal money. So why is its biggest city still under 16,000 people?
This video follows the two things a port city on this coast needed at the same time: an entrance ships could cross over the sandbar, and a railroad through the Coast Range. We go from the steamship wrecked at Yaquina Bay in 1888 and the Oregon Pacific Railroad, which had $5 million sunk into it and then sold at a sheriff's auction, to Coos Bay waiting until 1916 for its railroad, to the jetty at Tillamook Bay and the resort town of Bayocean that lost its last house in 1960. Then we look at what Portland had, and how early it had it.
Along the way: what the 1967 Beach Bill actually did, what happened to Oregon's tsunami-zone building rules, and why the NOAA fleet at Newport has a decision coming before its lease ends in 2031.