Bayocean, "the town that fell into the sea," stands as a warning to the hubris of our ever-spreading society. Subscribe to our channel for new OPB videos every week: ru-vid.com?sub_confi...
At the 20:07 mark. The man in the rolled down hip waders with his back to the camera is lawrence Root My grandfather , he lived on bayocean road just west of the memaloose point boat launch. My father went to bayocean school starting in 1934. I remember as a kid in the late 60's listening to the stories they would tell of bayocean.
And I find it hard to believe that they didn't know that at the time. At the very least, they would have realized their mistake by the time the erosion started. Ofc by then, the money had moved on and you only had a bunch of poors and stubborn business owners who didn't have much financial capital themselves or any real power living there. They decided that it was cheaper to let the community die than build a south jetty at the time.
Think of this. If they didn't build the north jetty the outcome would have been the same. They messed with "mother nature". Mother nature didn't mess with them.
That's what the broadcast suggests but its not true. Due to the changing currents and at times vicious storms, the sand dunes and bars on the Oregon coast are regularly shifting, still today. The Peter Iredale shipwreck on the coastline by Astoria is a good example. Some years it sits 25' tall and other years its practically buried.
@@Britishdave09 Considering the spit was covered in old growth trees when they first started developing it, it's probably safe to say that the spit was fairly stable prior to the north jetty being built.
There have been so many places like this. It is extremely difficult to create lasting settlements on places like beaches, spits, and bays. Or at least shallow ones. The ocean will win.
Judging by the fact it began to rebuild after the south jetty was constructed its hard to believe the corps north jetty wasn’t responsible for destroying Bayocean
Incorrect. If your statement were true, the spit would have never been there in the first place. Building the south jetty restored balance to the ocean currents along the coastline. The north jetty alone created an imbalance in the flow of the ocean currents, causing erosion from the south sand to accumulate rapidly in the mouth of bay to the north.
@@Kimoto504 i know this seems like a stupid question as i dont know much about that sort of stuff although similar things have happend in the uk along the north sea coast where there are dunes ect and coastal erosion has caused houses ect to fall into the ocean ect ...what would have happend if they built the Jetty on the south side instead of the north side ? would it have still eroded OR had the opposite efect building up the spit? ....as i say was just wondering as dont know about these things!
Thank you OPB. This is a great documentary on the clashes between human perseverance and the power of nature. I am an Environmental and Water Resources Engineering graduate student at the University of Texas. I graduated from Portland State with a BSCE in 2019. The reporting by OPB and OFG reminds me of who and what makes the PNW special. Thank you for bringing a bit of history, engineering, and environment to a homesick student. Also, shout out to Steve Amen, Todd Sonflieth, Ed Jahn, and Jule Gilfillan!
Hubris. My dad's favorite word and he let each of his 4 daughters know what the meaning is and what it can mean to one's choices. N.B.: No one can tame the Pacific.
So basically when the Army Corps of Engineers determined that the North Jetty wasn't responsible for the erosion, they were either lying or *extremely* bad at their job. Now that the South Jetty has been built and the spit has been literally rebuilding itself (thus proving the North Jetty was the problem this entire time) I wonder if there might be a case to make regarding legal liability by the heirs of those who lost massive amounts of money. Naturally, they finally built the South Jetty after the Mitchells died. Hmm, coincidence? Maybe, but I find it hard to believe that experts wouldn't have realized their mistake and how to fix it until the 1970s. It's not like they didn't know how this stuff worked. Experts have understood this stuff for well over 100 years (which doesn't mean we haven't learned a lot since then, but they knew plenty to understand jetties and erosion).
You neglect the fact that jetty construction was initially requested by Potter (and his investors), ostensibly in order to alleviate the rough passage through that inlet experienced by his newly built yacht which was designed to ferry people from Portland. The Corps of Engineers studied the problem and recommended TWO jetties. Funding was not available to build both, so they proposed the single jetty on the north side - which Potter and company approved of (no doubt on the basis of something like, "well , one jetty is better than none". That was a big mistake, because it actually made matters much worse by accelerating erosion all along the spit. So one can't lay the blame entirely on the Engineers: the North jetty was demonstrably 'effective'...except that it introduced unintended negative effects that proved catastrophic. Yet it was the wealthy developers - Potter and company - who asked for it. The fact that the addition of the South jetty alleviated the horrible erosion problem only much later after the Mitchells died arguably vindicates the original plan the Corps of Engineers submitted. Responsibility? I'd lay it at the foot of Potter for being fool enough to think what he imagined on that notorious coast would be ok with nature.
@@smartingamerica The jetties were requested by the town on the other side of the inlet (which I don't remember the name of rn) and Potter. Potter had already pulled their money out by the time the Army Corps of Engineers got around to it. So by that time, it was just the town that wanted the jetty as Bayocean had its road by then and no longer relied on the yacht. The town was only willing to pay for one jetty. There was no mention of Bayocean fronting any of the cost or if they were consulted by that point. The problem with erosion presented itself very quickly and the residents correctly identified the jetty as the cause. That began Mitchell's quest to have the south jetty built. And yet, no one would listen to Mitchell. The Corps claimed the jetty had nothing to do with the erosion, despite the science of ocean currents, jetties, erosion, etc being well understood for well over 500 years by that time. Yes, someone likely profited off the destruction of Bayocean. I suspect the main motivator on the part of the Corps was to prevent lawsuits against them (which could have resulted in a loss of budget and those in charge losing their jobs). The Mitchells had standing. Whether or not their heirs have standing is another question.
My mom used to talk about the Natatorium at Bay Ocean. She was born in 1922 so 18 years old in 1940. I will have to ask her if she still has any photos from then.
This article reminds me of a similar historic event in San Francisco, CA: the destruction of Sutro Baths, an enormous glassed-in swimming emporium that was on the coast adjacent to Land's End park and was just north of Cliff House. The original Cliff House was also destroyed (twice) by lightning and storm. Its modern version is much smaller than the original, and is only a restaurant; whereas the original looked something like Xanadu from the movie Citizen Kane and was also a hotel, ballroom, etc.
I grew up in a town on Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada. P.E.I. is basically a big sandbar in the Atlantic so a breakwater was constructed to shelter the harbor. After construction of the wharf the seaward side was lined with large cement blocks that were shaped like a pyramid to break the waves and each one was so large and heavy that they had to be set in place by a crane. After a particular hurricane passed through we found that these large cement blocks had been washed up from the water and were sitting on top of the wharf. Many had been washed completely to the other side of the wharf and had to be recovered from the water. Just goes to show that you can't mess with mother nature!
such a sad story. I had never heard of it. it reminds me of the story of Napatree point in RI. It was a spit of land sticking out into Long Island Sound. It was only wide enough for a single road with lots on either side. In the 1938 hurricane, it was scraped clean. Nothing left but sand. There are interesting stories connected with that hurricane. Katherine Hepburn was staying at a family house. When the storm surge started coming up, the house started to come apart, and they all had to dive out through a window to keep from being buried under the wreckage.
Well I enjoyed this video. Used to fish the south jetty. 30 years ago now or more. Never saw any buildings and actually never really knew the real back story until now. Was told it used to be a city by friends but never knew the details. Sad story for sure.
That's just heart wrenching! I'm not at all any kind of an engineer, but it made perfect sense that when they put that north jetty in, and how the currents of the Pacific come down from Portland way, the hydraulic whirlpooling effects south of the jetty would wash the shoreline away of Bayocean. Stand up on a bluff and watch it with your own eyes for petesake!! They drove that man insane. His heirs should be thoroughly compensated for the lost of all his investments and compensated for the pain and suffering they caused too. Had they built both those jetty's together, I'd lay down all I have that Bayocean would still be there today!! It's a bloody shame what they did!! I had to put in this edit, about the man who throughout the video, which is the same man at the very end, he tries to talk it all away, which tells me he was strictly narrated what to say. The old fella that use to live there, he'd of made it much more painfully clear of how the idiots that call themselves politicians and town counselors destroyed a dream what once was, and could still of been today, if they'd of just heard Mr. Mitchell's pleas to put in that south jetty!! Cities come and go I know, but to destroy a dream, that could of been shared by perhaps millions, is the saddest part of all! RIP Mr & Mr. Mitchell, you were an inspiration to be admired! But, as always, that's just my opinion! :(((
Don't make a martyr of Mitchell, who beat the hell out of his own wife and put her through decades of hell for his own delusional dreams. I had a lot of sympathy for him until they said he didn't want to leave with his dying wife and instead wanted to send her on her way. What a piece of shit. They also said he was a wife beater. His story is sad, but he's a loser. Don't beat your wife for your own failings as a man. Loser.
@@VanishedPNW How would I, or anyone else who watched that video know about the claims you are making...we couldn't. But if that was the kind of man he was, then he already had his day of judgement, so we all know where he is now. On the other hand, was there ever a record of these things with local officials? He's not here to defend himself, and to blindly believe what some stranger is saying, about a dead man, well, just consider that for a moment. Incidentally, if you look up Co-op Housing Federation here in Canada, and do some research into their policies, you will find one that I created, that is now a policy used in all Housing Co-ops throughout Canada...it's their domestic violence & child abuse policy. So trust in knowing, I would have no intention of making that kind of man a martyr for anything!!
It wasn't politicians. It was businessmen, as usual. When politicians do screw up, it's almost always either at the behest of businessmen, because they're businessmen themselves and stand to profit, or a combination of the two. The whole problem was because they insisted on pushing ahead with the yacht rather than waiting for the train (@) and the road. That decision precipitated needing the jetties which the *government* (army corps or engineers) wisely discerned that two would be needed. The over-stretched greedy businessmen couldn't afford it so they built one jetty which precipitated the destruction of the entire town. I find it interesting that all the facts were put before you but you still ended up ignoring them arriving at blaming the ('big bad') government... LOL. There's no limit to human stupidity.
@@bobloblaw1720 Yeah, it's funny how brainwashed people are to dogmatically blame the government for everything. Nevermind the fact that when the government screws up it's almost always because it's in cahoots with the greedy and financially powerful. Propaganda is a hell of a drug. People can't acknowledge the depravity of their super rich masters. They aspire to be like them and live vicariously through them. They also have a lot of self image and self justification for shared depravity built upon the image of said rich lords. Stupidity has no limits.
The construction of the Harbor in Santa Barbara California had the same effect on a coastal community some ways down the coast. the harbor spit, which take millions to dredge every year, started coastal erosion to the south and an entire beach side community disappeared into the ocean.
Glad you posted about Santa Barbara. Before the jetty Navy Destroyers we’re stationed there. You can see photos at the museum at the pier. Now the dredge is there full time. A slip at the marina costs a lot of money not sure how much is paid for by locals and how much is federal government.
I’m familiar with Santa Barbara and remember seeing crumbled foundations along Channel Dr across from the Four Seasons Biltmore Hotel in Montecito Ca. Now I know the cause of the crumbled foundations
Great documentary of a dream that never really materialized. People simply didn't understand the geology and hydrology of coastal areas back then. You just can't help but feel for Francis Mitchell; he literally had nothing other than the town left in his name. Even after Bayocean was mostly gone, he still had hope for the future of the town. He wasn't mentally insane, he was just in denial and heartbroken. After the great washout of 1952, only 6 people lived in Bayocean.
I do feel for him. However, he was a bit of a fucker. He did not want to leave when his wife had a stroke? That's ice cold. Talk about selfish and single-minded. Bayocean or NOTHING. Not even caring for his dying wife. She likely stopped sharing the dream and was smart enough to know it was time to cash out decades before he did, yet she kept quiet and supported her lunatic husband until her own demise, all while apparently getting her ass kicked by the guy. Now THAT is sad.
My husband is 58 and his grandparents built their retirement home in GAribaldi in 1972 and it sits just across the bay from here (in GAribaldi on Hwy 101). There's soo much rich history in this small area it's just amazing. Thanks for sharing.
This happens periodically on Fire Island, the barrier beach between Long Island and the Atlantic in NY. As a young child, we’d sometimes take the old bridge across after a hurricane and look at the rich people’s houses on stilts, 12 feet in the air or roofs and eaves disappearing into the ocean. My mother remembered before the New England Hurricane of 1938 going crabbing in a little cove. That was totally destroyed and bay side beach cabins washed away when the ocean broke through forming the Shinnecock Canal. After about a decade, it slowly began filling in again, but had become an established boat route, so they built jetties and have regularly dredged to keep it open. If a storm hits when dredging is cut back, it’s positively treacherous to navigate. Every year, some foolish or naive people ignore the warning and no swimming signs and drown. Even when the seas are calm, a person can climb on the jetty and observe the shifting rip currents and whirlpools.
I am a born and raised Oregonian, who moved to the coast 32 years ago. How I knew absolutely NOTHING about this town is beyond me!! LOL!! I guess that I grew up with too many stories from my parents, about how both of their families survived the Vanport flood, the Tillamook burn, and how our family survived the Columbus Day storm in 1962, to which I was alive for, but much too young to remember it. Oregon has much GREAT history of both good and bad. The older that I get the more that I appreciate ALL of the wonderful history of our great state.
I've been to Tillamook Oregon, back in 1994. It was so beautiful there. My late parents and I visited the Tillamook Dairy, my late father loved a cheese curd and my mother and I loved the ice cream. We didn't know about this jetty and sand bar, this is very interesting.
I absolutely hated the way the man talked about Mr. Mitchell "he was always a crazy old man". I honestly don't believe he was crazy. He had just lost everything he had worked so hard for and now his wife was dying and nobody would do a damn thing to help him. I think he just didn't care anymore what anyone thought and he was incredibly angry. I can't honestly say that I wouldn't have been just as angry. He was a stubborn, old man and nobody in this video ever said he was stupid. The erosion started immediately after the jetty was built and got worse when they extended it and he was in the town that had essentially killed his dreams and destroyed his home by being too cheap to build the second jetty even when their own fishermen were dying. The had him committed to shut him up and quit bothering them. He was a nuisance and a bother they didn't even have the decency to let him stay with his wife as she was dying. They shipped him off and good riddance, out of sight, out of mind.
This is similar to what happened in Port Hueneme, Ca. They built a harbor in 1940 on a wetlands that drained to the Pacific. After its construction, the beautiful beach at Hueneme was ripped away by the change in currents. To this day it only remains due to building another harbor up the coast that captures the sand, which is then dredged to replenish the sand an Hueneme.
I just Google earth’d the Bayocean peninsula. Wow the whole story is so tragic. It was a man made disaster waiting to happen. It’s infuriating that the army corp of engineers never admitted that they cause the erosion by not building that south one. Personally I would never live in a home right along the Oregon coast. Beautiful scenery but very vulnerable to storms and tsunamis. I’ve been as far north on that peninsula as Oceanside/Tunnel Beach but I had no idea there was a whole town up there. It would have been nice for someone to build another gas station. We had an empty tank in our motor home and crossed our fingers all the way to Tillamook lol.
A house up high on a rocky cliff would survive a tsunami easily and be safe from storms and waves. A place like Salishan near Lincoln City would be completely wiped off the map in the event of a tsunami. In fact, a couple houses there got destroyed by erosion in the 1970s.
I was out in Lincoln City just a few months ago, and I definitely would have checked out this area if I knew about it. Thanks for such a wonderful documentary, I will definitely check out that area next time I get up to the northern coast.
There is no doubt that not building the south jetty destroyed the city. I've seen the Corp of Engineers screw up before. I lived in New Jersey most of my life and the Barnegat Inlet is a perfect example of what happens to shorelines through erosion. Too much graft and lack of responsibility. Cheers, Rik Spector
Yes they messed up big time. Considering the bay entrances trend to be on the south side of all the bays here on the coast and was the natural historic entrance to Tillamook bay. The south side that opened up is where they should have built the jetty's on the south side and dredged out the old sand filled channel. The north side of the bay is always filling with the wind blown sand from the southerly winds that prevail on our coast here.
It’s so sad that Francis’ dream dissolved right in front of his eyes. Does anyone know what year he died? At least those still living who lived there have warm memories of their time there.
Actually, the mistake was building only one jetty... and before that building the yacht which made the jetties necessary rather than building/waiting out rail and road access.
Definitely a beautiful area. Been out there many times before I learned about Bayocean, which added to the mystique. Wouldn't mind revisiting and camping out there on the spit.
Perhaps it depends on who the investors are, they let it fall into the sea, then built a south jetty and the spit returned, who would have thunk it? If it had been big names that had invested might there have been a south jetty in a timely fashion. Mr Mitchell reminds me of the druggist in "It's a wonderful life". His heart was broken.
If you've never been to the Northwest Coast, you don't even know the pounding it takes from the storms in the cooler months. I remember when we stayed in Illwaco, Washington and remember seeing how stripped the land and the trees were from the power of the storms and the Pacific wanting to reclaim some of her space. I don't think the forefathers of this town realized what they were getting into because regardless of what screwups the Army Core of Idiots did, they were against some very unforgiving conditions combined with the screwups that basically made a great idea into a huge natural man made disaster that drove one man who didn't understand what he was up against totally insane.
Yes, the power of the ocean on the PNW coast is awesome! I live in the Puget Sound lowlands on a ridge about 600ft above sealevel and really don”t feel safe from storms and floodling. and earthquakes. We have camped in the state park@ Ilwaco in summertime and the campground is separated by dunes from the beach, when the tide is coming in and the wind is blowing, the roaring of the ocean is either soothing or disturbing as it is so loud and one can almost feel the ground shake from the pounding of the surf. My very first “view” of the pacific ocean was at Tillamook. Our family arrived at the state park and set up camp late in the day. I couldn’t wait until morning, so I took a flashlight and climbed over the dunes to see the ocean..my folks were hysterical with laughter…yeah she’s going to light up the ocean with a flashlight…I was met with darkness and the mighty roar of the waves crashing. In the sunlight, the beach and the ocean was just so vast and magnificent! At night in my tent, I listened to the foghorn, followed by an eerie shrill cry like a banshee? i was told that was a “shoal whistle” warning the ships away from the shallows. I never heard about the town that was taken by the ocean until I found this video. It is spooky to imagine a town way out beyond low tide, under the sand! Excellent story. Thank you
@@prarieborn6458 My dad owned a house that was on a knoll in Federal Way Washington and when the winter storms blew in, it sounded like there were banshees outside because the house would moan and I would think it would be ripped off its foundation everytime a winter storm blew through. Like I said, nothing matches the power of a Northwest winter storm in Tacoma, which is basically in the Puget Sound which can get really rough because you have not only the pacific ocean influence, but also the sound influence.
It's amazing how they brought the ocean water in and heated it. The Ocean here is freezing all year long. It's rare to see anyone swimming in this ocean. It's too rough and too cold. Literally takes your breath away just to step in the water in the hottest of the summer.
The same has happened up here in NW Michigan - Lake Michigan was at its highest level in years. Lakeshore eroding was rapidly consuming other dunes and leaving homes either in the water or balancing precariously on the edge. Some were moved back or torn down since there was no way to build any support. Thankfully, the high winds over the winter, spring and summer had abated and lake levels receded.
I took Oregon history in College, this is just a small bump in what is Oregon. You probably weren't taught of the people who gave Indians who lived on one of the islands in the Columbia blankets covered in small pox to wipe them out so they could run cattle on the Island. I think it was Sauvie island, might have been swan island. Oregon history is fascinating. Corruption, Power plays etc.
This are is one of my friends and I's favorite place to go sit and have a picnic or just watch the waves to escape the busyness of Portland. To think we have been doing this for over a year and never knew there were the bones of an entire town beneath us. So intriguing.
Some may think it cruel what DIDN'T happen to save Bayocean but I don't. There still prevails the mistaken view that the govt owes private developers the resources of the public coffers to build, sustain and maintain their private investments and financial successes. Unfortunately that only occurs for the politically well connected. Even then the original developer, as is often the case, had the business acumen to cut their losses and dump the white elephant to some other sucker when the expenses were piling up. Doing what was needed to keep the bay open and safer for the general maritime activity of the bay served the public far greater than the recreational aspirations of wealthy vacationers. Turning the Spit into another Cape Cod where the privileged came to frolic and push their money around while hard working locals rooted in the region kept the year around economy going unaided, is the American dystopia. The myth perpetuated today to keep developers well funded with taxpayer cash in that it will create local jobs is overblown. The low paying jobs are to only a small number of the locals and seasonal recreational work is economically unpredictable. Yet its mythology is persistently played out in countless shoreline communities around the lakes and rivers and beach fronts in this country. Exclusivity, wealth, ground floor investment in the next Pebble Beach or Nantucket or Cape Cod or Lake Tahoe or Great lakes! Exclusive development is the pipe dream. The south jetty was built when the bay traffic, not the Spit, needed it. Bayocean devolved back to it's natural conclusion.
It wasnt natural erosion. The government built a jetty that disrupted the natural currents. That damaged private property. They lied about it, of course, to avoid paying damages. As soon as they built the south jetty the erosion stopped and the spit began to rebuild. When nature takes the property thats one thing but if humans cause that damage they have to pay for it regardless if its a poor fishing town or a resort town.
Well thought out comment. Cape cod suffers more by urbanization, second homes, normal folk can't afford to live here and are forced over the bridge or into substandard housing.
You would rather a good thing not exist at all just because the “privileged” can also enjoy it? In case you didn’t watch the entire documentary: there was absolutely nothing stopping lower and middle-wage people from going here, and more of them actually lived there than did the upper crust. That take is ridiculous and even a tad spiteful.
I had no idea about this and I am from Oregon. At least people didn’t try and rebuild where they obviously should not have done in the first place ❤ . Thanks for sharing
Excellent documentary! Beautifully written story of the power of nature and man's determination to conquer the unconquerable. The tidbits from former residents are delightful, heartwarming and sad. Tactfully professional and compassionate. Great job OPB. This was so enjoyable I want to gush LOL
Another great video, hampered by bad sound. I think this is a TV feature film so in mixing for RU-vid stereo they may have messed it up. Narration is muddy-sounding. Music is too loud in relation to the voices and distracting. Need to use subtitles. Thanks to the filmmakers though. Great job on the general production. Interviews were well-done.
Just like "wash-away beach" in Grayland, Wa. 30 years ago there were 100's of houses along the streets of North Cove, WA. Now today 8-2022 the houses, streets & the land they were on is all gone.
I lived in North Cove in the early 70's. Second house from the beach on the beach approach. It was pretty common even then, to see huge trailers moving houses on the beach and past our house, at low tide in the summer.
It was that single jetty that spelled the end for the Resort town of the Bay Oceans Park. If they built the built that second jetty like they originally planned the town would stay be there to this day. They do say that hindsight is 20-20 after all.
That is one of the best hiking trails in Oregon. I think about 3 miles to the end and that is on the trail near the bay and then to return you can walk back on the beach with the wind at your back.
I road my bicycle down 101 in 2017/18. stayed in rockaway for a couple weeks and met some great people. stayed I'm their trailer actually. wish I could thank them
Just hiked around the peninsula for the first time and my son reminded me of this OFG episode. You'd never know this history if not for the plaques and markers. I wish the doc had delved into the long history of the site, how this land was cared for by the indigenous long before the wealthy whites showed up and "discovered" it.
The initial developer screwed up by over-strethching himself financially with the yacht purchase. He should have waited for the road and train access or at least invested in building rail and road access from the town's side to meet half way.
I DO wish those in Jackson Hole would get fear of ocean washing their houses, and move away! Over in crazily overpopulated Bend and area, the Three Sisters volcanic buildup should provide some hopefully near-term entertainment.
This is unfortunately not a unique situation. Communities up and down both coasts as well as in the gulf have been destroyed. The Mississippi has shifted hundreds of miles. The coast of England changes every year. When my Grandfather was a young man he purchased an island on the Mississippi. He said he was swindled. Perhaps he was. There was a railroad pass in Iowa named after my family that has been under water for almost a century. Water filled the silver mines under Tombstone Arizona. Who hasn’t visited a western ghost town and been thrilled with the stories?. Maybe this is a sad story but a good lesson about acceptance? We all love change when it is for the good. But we are not in charge. The oceans and Great Lakes are littered with ship wrecks. The wildlife is beautiful, especially on the west coast.
