Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosThe community of Oceanside nestles beside one of the finest sandy beaches on the Oregon Coast. An arts-oriented village of just over 300 people, Oceanside has a handful of small lodgings, a community center and a couple of cafes.
Photos by John Gottberg Anderson / For The Bulleti
Say ‘cheese!'
But there's more to Tillamook than its famous dairy farms
By John Gottberg Anderson •
For
/ The Bulletin
Last modified: January 24. 2010 4:10AM PST
TILLAMOOK —
Tillamook County is about much more than cheese.
From Neahkahnie Mountain to Cascade Head — 50 miles north-south from Manzanita to Neskowin and inland nearly 35 miles to the crest of the Oregon Coast Range — Tillamook County sprawls across a broad swath of coastal northwestern Oregon. Rivers like the Nehalem, Wilson and Nestucca drain the rain-drenched slopes of its forested summits. Where the terrain flattens into a coastal piedmont, these streams support a dairy industry that thrives in this damp Pacific climate.
The Tillamook Cheese Factory, which dominates the landscape on the north side of the little town of Tillamook, has become the leading attraction along this stretch of coastline, drawing nearly 1 million visitors per year. But it's only one aspect of a trip to this diverse county, which spreads around the second-largest estuary on the Oregon Coast.
North of Tillamook, on the shore of broad Tillamook Bay, the tiny port town of Garibaldi proudly proclaims its 19th-century maritime heritage. Farther up U.S. Highway 101, the resort community of Rockaway Beach is a quieter alternative for beach lovers than Seaside (35 miles north). West and south of Tillamook, the Three Capes Scenic Route winds past a series of impressive seascapes and through such pristine coastal enclaves as Oceanside, Netarts and Pacific City. And back in Tillamook, there are museums galore.
Around Tillamook
There are more cows than people in Tillamook County. About 28,000 dairy cattle — Holstein, Jersey, Guernsey, Brown Swiss — live on 120 farms in herds that range in size from 30 to 1,400, according to figures published by the Tillamook County Creamery Association. Each cow produces 6 to 8 gallons of milk per day, and that milk is churned into cheese, butter, ice cream and other products shipped across the United States and worldwide.
At the Tillamook Cheese Factory, large windows look out upon the factory floor, where workers may be observed at various stages of the cheddar-making process. Display panels and videos describe the large vats where cheese is heated, cultured and fermented. The cheese is coagulated into curd, cubed to separate out the whey, then aged and packaged.
Best known for its cheddar cheese, Tillamook is the second-largest producer of chunk cheddar in the United States. The factory also produces Monterey Jack, Colby, Colby Jack and Pepper Jack cheeses, as well as butter (since its inception in 1909), ice cream (since 1947), sour cream and yogurt (beginning in the 1990s). All of these products are offered as samples and sold in bulk in the market on the factory's main floor. There's also an extensive gift shop here and a cafe serving a full menu of breakfasts and lunches.
The Tillamook Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Information Center is right across the parking lot from the Tillamook Cheese Factory. The helpful staff there may also direct visitors a mile down the road to the Blue Heron French Cheese Company.
Traditional and flavored Brie cheeses are the specialty here. But Blue Heron is no cheese factory. It has an excellent cafe, perfect for lunches. It also sells a large selection of Oregon wines and locally produced gourmet food baskets. And it has a barnyard petting zoo that children love.
A hop, skip and meander off U.S. Highway 101 is the Latimer Quilt & Textile Center, a delightfully secluded outpost of visual arts. Works by Central Oregon artist Alma de la Melena Cox, who developed the colorful epoxy-on-wood “telamadera” style of painting, are presently on exhibit (through February) with pieces by Sisters quilter Jean Wells Keenan.
Lodged in a rural schoolhouse dating from the early 20th century, the Latimer Center has been a beehive of activity since 1991. On the one hand, said director Linda Machuta, it is a museum that exhibits quilts and textiles from as far back as 1851; on the other, it is a vibrant community hub where fiber artists may be seen weaving and spinning on traditional hand looms.
The center also has a gift shop and a research library, and it's the starting point for the Tillamook County Quilt Trail, a 13-stop driving route past farmsteads and other buildings that have decorative quilt blocks hanging on their walls.
Local history
In the heart of the quaint town of 4,500 people is the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. Here visitors might learn about Joe Champion, who is credited as the first pioneer settler along this stretch of coastline in 1851. Unchallenged by the resident Tillamook Indians, Champion set up residence inside a hollow spruce tree about three miles north of where the town now sits. A replica is in the museum. He stayed there a year, supporting himself by fishing and hunting until other homesteaders joined him.
Established in 1935 when the original 1905 Tillamook County Courthouse was moved to new quarters, the museum displays Abraham Lincoln memorabilia from the private collection of former Oregon Gov. and Sen. Mark Hatfield.
There are fine exhibits pertaining to the American Indian population, early settlement, the logging industry and natural history of the region. Director Gary Albright said the museum will celebrate its 75th anniversary, beginning in February, with a six-month display of items from each year of its existence.
The Tillamook Air Museum, about four miles southeast of downtown, recalls a particularly intriguing era of history. For three short years, from 1943 through 1945, Naval Air Station Tillamook was home to 15 blimps that patrolled Pacific coastal waters to alert naval convoys and submarines of possible attacks. One of the station's two hangars was destroyed by fire in 1992, but the other, “Hangar B,” was preserved as an impressive vintage aircraft museum two years later.
Six football fields could fit beneath the roof of Hangar B, which is more than 15 stories high and more than 1,000 feet long. More than 30 aircraft are displayed beneath its roof, including a fork-tailed P-38 Lightning still in flying condition and a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser cargo vessel, nicknamed the “Mini-Guppy,” that welcomes visitors on board.
The music of Glenn Miller and the Andrews Sisters fills the gift shop and '50s-style cafe and strains carry to the door of the museum in the hangar itself. During the summer season, scenic biplane tours are offered daily.
Tillamook Bay north
The first of several small communities heading north from Tillamook on U.S. Highway 101, along the eastern shore of Tillamook Bay, is Bay City. One of the largest oyster and fish markets along the entire coast, Pacific Seafood welcomes visitors to its wharf and processing plant. Shuckers and packers prepare about 400 gallons of oysters per day; there's a seafood restaurant here and a jetty trail with interpretive stations identifying wildlife.
An estimated 20,000 birds may be seen on any given day on Tillamook Bay, which despite its size (six miles long and three miles wide, second in Oregon only to Coos Bay) has an average depth of only about 6 feet.
Across the highway from Pacific Seafood is the ArtSpace Gallery & Café, a tiny treasure. Yes, there's good inexpensive food here — breakfast daily except Saturday, lunch Sunday through Wednesday — but the main reason to drop by is to experience its gallery. Often, the exhibits are the works of local artists; but through February, ArtSpace is displaying dozens of black-and-white prints of Depression-era Oregon by Dorothea Lange, one of the country's best-known photographers of that time period.
Next up the highway is the Port of Garibaldi, a busy working harbor community. Fishing boats unload their daily catches on the wharves that extend into the bay, and the small cafes on the waterfront are locally famous for their fish and chips.
A statue of Capt. Robert Gray, who came ashore in this estuary in 1788, stands in front of the Garibaldi Museum of Maritime History. Gray and his crew aboard the Lady Washington are considered the first white Americans to set foot in what is now Oregon. The museum, open May through October, recalls Gray's visit and has exhibits on 18th-century sailors' lives and the early logging and fishing industries along this stretch of coast.
Across the highway, in Lumberman's Memorial Park, the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad awaits passengers. A 1910 steam locomotive pulls the train from Garibaldi to Rockaway Beach, 90 minutes round-trip, weekends from Memorial Day through September. Occasional other trips are scheduled through the year, including a three-hour dinner train excursion to Wheeler, on the Nehalem River, on Feb. 13.
Rockaway is right on the Pacific Coast about five miles north of Garibaldi. It's an undistinguished strip of shops, small resort hotels and condominium developments lining both sides of U.S. Highway 101, but it does have a fine beach just out of sight of the highway, to the west. Many Portlanders and other Oregonians consider it a good alternative to frenzied Seaside or Lincoln City, to the south.
The northern section of Tillamook County is quite tranquil. Wheeler and Nehalem are quaint river towns a few miles from one another on the Nehalem River; farming and freshwater fishing are favored pursuits. Nehalem Bay State Park, on a spit at the mouth of the river, features one of the coast's finest campgrounds. Manzanita, a beach and golf community north of the river's mouth, at the foot of Neahkahnie Mountain, has a more refined, upscale flavor.
The Three Capes
There may be no better day's drive on the Oregon Coast than the 22-mile Three Capes Scenic Loop. A 60-mile circuit beginning and ending in Tillamook, the route winds past the Cape Meares Lighthouse, Cape Lookout State Park and Cape Kiwanda, Pacific City's landmark headland, before returning inland.
Beginning northwesterly along the south shore of Tillamook Bay, the two-lane road passes the broad, sandy Bayocean Peninsula, which separates the bay from the ocean. A crude sign identifies a narrow gravel road that leads to what once was dubbed the “Atlantic City of the West.”
In the early 20th century, a resort community called Bay Ocean stood here. A zealous entrepreneur built roads and a narrow-gauge railroad; installed water, electricity and telephone lines; and, of course, sold real estate. Before long, there were three hotels and other resort facilities. But World War I and the Great Depression took their toll, and left without proper maintenance, the property was gradually obliterated by Pacific tides and storms. By the 1950s, it had been abandoned.
Cape Meares has also suffered the ravages of time, albeit very recent time. Two weeks ago, vandals fired a dozen bullets into the lighthouse and partially destroyed the Fresnel lens for which the building, erected in 1889, is famous. Although at 38 feet it's the shortest of Oregon's nine lighthouses, it's always been among the most welcoming to visitors when it's open, from April through October.
Cape Meares itself is shrouded in dense coastal vegetation, particularly Sitka spruce. Among the trees is one known as the “Octopus Tree,” a unique specimen with branches that spread like a candelabra. Scientists dispute whether heavy winds created its exceptional shape, or if its young branches had been twisted by American Indians for use as a burial tree.
South of Cape Meares are the distinctive Three Arch Rocks, a national wildlife refuge that is home to myriad seabirds and a large herd of California sea lions. The rocks lie offshore the hamlet of Oceanside, which boasts a broad beach, several lodgings and a couple of small cafes.
Three miles farther is another village, Netarts, which sits at the mouth of Netarts Bay. “It's the most ecologically sound bay on the West Coast,” said Andy Neal, executive director of the Tillamook Area Chamber of Commerce. Neal, whose family owns an oyster farm, pointed me to a bayside restaurant called The Schooner for a plate of fresh Netarts Bay oysters, and I wasn't disappointed.
Cape Lookout is at the south end of Netarts Bay. The state park here has about seven miles of hiking trails, a campground and a fine beach. From November to March, it's known to be a great place for whale watching.
The Three Capes road travels through a stretch of sand dunes near the village of Sandlake and emerges at Cape Kiwanda, about 20 miles past Netarts. This promontory shelters Pacific City, well known for its surfing waves, its dory-fishing fleet and its Pelican Pub, one of the most popular brewpub restaurants on the Oregon Coast.
Two miles beyond Pacific City, the Three Capes route ends at U.S. Highway 101. A right turn carries travelers 20 miles to Lincoln City via the seaside village of Neskowin, at the south end of Tillamook County. A left turn leads 24 miles back to Tillamook, via the small inland villages of Cloverdale, Hebo and Beaver.
It's dairy cattle that support the economy in these little towns. And most of that milk finds its way back to Tillamook, and the cheese factory.
John Gottberg Anderson
can be reached at janderson@bendbulletin.com.
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