The Town That Fell Into the Sea - A Visit to Bayocean, Oregon

Great video, Sidetrack! Thought you might be interested to know Bayocean's school and five houses were moved to the little settlement of Cape Meares, nearby on the mainland, shortly before the Bayocean Peninsula became an island in '52. One of the structures that was relocated is the rightmost house seen in the historic photo featured at 6:32. It was known as the "Hicks House" and was cut in half, moved across the water to the mainland on a barge, and then reassembled on its new site (reports make it sound like a second floor was added too). Four of the five moved houses still stand today (to my knowledge) and the school building now serves as the Cape Meares Community Center. Additionally, there's another house at Cape Meares that was built using lumber salvaged from the Bayocean Natatorium building. So, in this small way, the town of Bayocean lives on.

I'm a native Oregonian and have lived here all of my 60 years. I had never heard mention of Bayocean ever before this. Now I need to pay a visit to the Oregon Historical Society to see what more I can find out about it. Thank you for enlightening me.

It's kind of sad how so many towns and personal histories can be washed away by such a short period of time, tides, wind and rain. Thanks for honoring the people and place of Bayocean.

You know a channel is very good once you watched every single episode and literally wait for uploads!!!

I road down the Oregon Coast, from Washington, into California. I've been around, but I'll admit. I kept looking out at coastline and thought. If, there is a heaven... This is what it would smell, feel and look like. 🏍️

What a fascinating story - thanks for sharing! Throughout the video I kept recalling Shelley's famous poem: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains.

I spent a winter working on a motel in Ocean Beach, Oregon. The whole time I kept thinking about how one good wave could wipe the town out of existence. This is kind of what I imagined. Nice video, very enjoyable history there.

The Oregon coast is simply gorgeous. We used to vacation north of Tillamook. The entire NEPAC (northeast Pacific) coastline is extremely vulnerable to weather and tsunamis. Thanks for the great vid.

At night, the waves are so loud there. One of my dear friends took me here about 15 years ago. I could understand wanting to live there. The beach sand is pleasantly soft on your feet.

Suffering wind, rain, and cold to bring us more interesting history! Thanks Steve! Great job! Bart

Although we live east of Atlanta, we love the Oregon coast. Really enjoyed your piece on Bayocean. I read about the history a few years ago. Before the highway washed out, we used to take the road to Cape Mears and stop as the road elevation went up and looked out where Bayocean was 100 years ago. Thanks for doing this. very nice to see things up close.

So that's where my favorite cheese comes from! I never knew this. The ice cream is great too.

Welcome to Oregon from a nearly 7 decade native. I thoroughly enjoyed your exploration of the history of Bayocean and the "remains" of the city. Hopefully one day you can explore the WW1, WW2, and Cold War sights of the Oregon coast.

My father's side of the family lived on the north Oregon coast since about 1912 and I knew all about Bayocean. Cool to see the story brought to light again though, what a crazy idea to build a town on a sand spit against the Pacific. They have towns like this all over the east coast but we have MUCH bigger weather and waves here. Not to mention the 'good deeds' of the Army Corps Of Engineers. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

I love going in these adventures with you. Thank you for posting!! I get to travel so many places with your videos

We were in that area last summer on vacation and had no idea the city of Bayocean ever existed. Unless I missed it, even the local museum didn't mention it. Thanks for another great adventure.

Always so fascinating to stand where towns once did with all those amenities and look around to see nothing left. Nature works fast in the whole scheme of things. Really cool story though! You never cease to introduce us to stories we hadn't heard of. 👍

My wife and I were in Portland in 2007(?) when she played in ,and won, the Nike Open Senior DivisionTennis tournament.During an off day, we drove over the Costal Ranges to see the ocean and passed right by the turnoff to Tillamook. If we had known the story of Bayocean , we surely would have stopped . Thanks for the story Steve, and maybe someday we will go back and this time look at the area!

I've had many trips to the Oregon coast. I did not know about Bayocean. Thank you for this.

Back before it became illegal we used to pack in and camp there overnight. Probably did so ten times over a period of about fifteen years. The trip was limited to one night because we had to pack in water. Always camped in the same spot and found someone had hidden a nice porcelain grill behind some large driftwood. We probably used that grill at least a half dozen times, placing it back in it's hiding place once done. Last time we went the campsite was a huge mess and the grill was gone. We cleaned up the area and packed out the garbage. A year or so later we read that overnight stays had become prohibited. Lots of great memories and a beautiful area. Sad because it was the only place along our coast for no trace backpacking.