Qualla: Cannon Beach, Oregon

Cannon Beach, Oregon: Introduction

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CC BY-SA 3.0. A cannon from a wrecked Navy schooner gave this town its name, but it took a tsunami to give it its identity. In 1964, the Good Friday earthquake sent a wall of water surging ashore along the Oregon coast, washing out the Highway 101 bridge that connected Cannon Beach to the outside world. Cut off from the highway and facing economic isolation, the town did something unexpected: it threw a sandcastle contest. That annual competition still draws thousands every June, and it captures something essential about Cannon Beach - a community of fewer than 1,500 people that has turned its remoteness, its weather, and its dramatic geology into assets rather than liabilities.

Read more: Cannon Beach, Oregon on Qualla

Image: CC BY-SA 3.0

Cannon Beach, Oregon: Clark, Sacagawea, and the Whale

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag Meißen, CC0. William Clark arrived here on January 10, 1806, at the end of a three-day journey from Fort Clatsop. He had come to see a beached whale. Clark and his companions - including Sacagawea, who had insisted on making the trip - found a group of Tillamook people boiling blubber for sto...

Read more: Cannon Beach, Oregon on Qualla

Image: Brück & Sohn Kunstverlag Meißen | CC0

Cannon Beach, Oregon: The Cannon That Named a Town

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Sane from Oregon, USA, CC BY 2.0. The USS Shark, a Navy schooner, wrecked while attempting to cross the Columbia Bar in 1846 - the treacherous river mouth already known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Debris scattered southward along the coast, and a carronade, a short naval cannon, washed ashore near Arch Cape,...

Read more: Cannon Beach, Oregon on Qualla

Image: Ian Sane from Oregon, USA | CC BY 2.0

Cannon Beach, Oregon: Haystack Rock and the Needles

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ronincmc, CC BY-SA 4.0. Haystack Rock is the town's unmistakable landmark, a 235-foot sea stack of dark basalt rising from the beach southwest of downtown. At low tide, especially in summer, you can walk right up to its base and peer into the small cave system that penetrates its igneous core. Tidepools...

Read more: Cannon Beach, Oregon on Qualla

Image: Ronincmc | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cannon Beach, Oregon: A Town That Refuses Chains

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kingofthedead, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cannon Beach has deliberately kept itself small. Chain stores like Safeway and McDonald's have been discouraged from building here, a conscious decision to preserve the local economy and the town's character. Hemlock Street, the main road, runs the length of the city from north t...

Read more: Cannon Beach, Oregon on Qualla

Image: Kingofthedead | CC BY-SA 4.0

Cannon Beach, Oregon: Hollywood's Favorite Beach

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Richardmouser, CC BY-SA 4.0. If Cannon Beach looks familiar, it should. The Goonies filmed here in 1985, using the view from Ecola State Park for one of the film's most recognizable shots. Free Willy followed in 1993, then Point Break in 1991, Twilight in 2008, and the B-movie Hysterical in 1983. The combina...

Read more: Cannon Beach, Oregon on Qualla

Image: Richardmouser | CC BY-SA 4.0