Praying for Oregon Counties: Tillamook

Cape Kiwanda

And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. Isaiah 32.18

Tillamook is one of the older counties. The Oregon Territorial Legislature created it out of parts of Clatsop, Yamhill and Polk counties in 1853, the 12^thcounty to be established. The town of Tillamook, population roughly 5,000, is the county seat and the first community to be settled beginning in 1851.

 

Tillamook County also has the distinction of being where the first American explorer, as far as we know, set foot on the Northwest coast. On August 14, 1788 Captain Robert Grey, sailing the “Lady Washington” dropped anchor in Tillamook Bay and came ashore. He believed, or hoped, that the bay was the mouth of the “great river of the west” everyone was looking for in those days. 

 

Oh my. How to write about Tillamook County? I could easily turn a blog post into a full-length autobiography. I have very early memories of Tillamook County and the Pacific Ocean. As a child I would drive with my family through the coast range to “Grandma’s house.” My uncle owned a dairy and in those early days lived there with his mother, my grandmother. The drive over the coast range took us through the Tillamook Burn, a huge area of 350,000 acres of old growth forest that had burned in a series of fires between 1933 and 1951. It was black and bleak and unpleasant. After a massive reforestation project, it is now the lovely Tillamook State Forest.

 

My uncle’s dairy was near Pacific City at unincorporated Sandlake. Near there, on Christmas 1890, a Norwegian schooner, the Shuan, wrecked and scattered her load of lumber all along the beach. The sailors had actually abandoned the ship ten days earlier when she sprung a leak, so no lives were lost and the locals got a great Christmas gift of lumber, some of which was used to build what became my uncle’s house. I have seen old photos of folks with wagons on the beach loading the lumber. And we could see the rough wood and square nails in the walls of the old house. The house was built of the lumber the ship carried, but the barn’s ridgepole was the ship’s keel itself - or so I’ve been told. 

 

My uncle’s dairy was part of the Tillamook County Creamery Association, which is a farmer’s co-op that has been in existence for well over 100 years. The Tillamook Cheese Factory is run by the co-op and is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the state. 

Tillamook Cheese Factory

Another popular – and unique – tourist attraction is the Tillamook Air Museum about four miles south of Tillamook just off Highway 101. During World War II a blimp fleet was used to patrol the coastline and huge wooden hangars were built of Oregon timber to house them. One burned down in 1992, but the other – ‘the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world,’ according to Wikipedia – houses a collection of vintage aircraft.  

Tillamook Air Museum

Timber and agriculture are two of the mainstays of the Tillamook County economy. A third is seafood, which includes oyster farming. In the early days wild oysters were foraged and shipped to San Francisco and other California markets. The California gold rush created a heavy demand and the Tillamook oyster population declined. In the early twentieth century oyster farming was introduced and became a major industry along Tillamook and Netarts bays. 

 

Another source of seafood is the unusual dory fleet based at Pacific City which launches their boats directly into the surf in the lee of Cape Kiwanda. They have been fishing this way for over 100 years. In the 1970’s my uncle retired from dairy farming and became part of this fleet, fishing the waters off the coast for Chinook and Coho Salmon, Dungeness crab, Albacore tuna, and rock fish. 

 

The fleet annually holds a “Blessing of the Fleet” ceremony where ministers pray for the safety of the fishermen, and dory captains bring their boats to be blessed. The Pacific City Dory Fleet has one of the safest maritime records in the world, having lost only six fishermen in over a century.  

 

Tillamook County is long and narrow, giving it a long stretch of coastline, an ideal situation to attract tourists. The drive down highway 101 is beautiful with plenty of charming places to stop and enjoy the scenery. Besides the county seat of Tillamook, other towns include Garibaldi, Manzanita, Bay City, Nehalem, Rockaway Beach and Wheeler.

 

Tillamook County is one of the safer places to live in the country, although the crime rate is higher than a number of other counties in Oregon. 

 

How do we pray for Tillamook County?

 

The county is governed by a three-person non-partisan board. Currently the Board of County Commissioners includes Mary Faith Bell, David Yamamoto, and Erin Skaan. Pray for them.

 

Due to associating it with the warm comfort of “Grandma’s house,” Tillamook County leads me to think of Isaiah 32:18, And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation and in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

 

I know the county has its share of crime, social issues and political differences, but also a rich history of hard-working and innovative farmers and fishermen. Pray they prosper, and that the area will continue to be a “peaceable habitation.”

Margaret