Qualla: Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge: Introduction

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pitkin, David, Public domain. Two young men in a rowboat changed the future of American conservation. In 1901, photographer William L. Finley and his partner Herman Bohlman began paddling out from the village of Oceanside, Oregon, to a cluster of sea stacks half a mile offshore -- three large rocks pierced by natural arches, surrounded by six smaller islets, the whole formation barely fifteen acres of bare stone. What they found there horrified them. Hunters were slaughtering dozens of sea lions at a time for skin and oil. Sportsmen were shooting seabirds purely for entertainment. Because chicken farms were scarce along this stretch of coast, seabird eggs fetched up to a dollar a dozen, and collectors were systematically raiding the nesting colonies. Finley and Bohlman spent years documenting the carnage with their cameras, then carried the evidence to Washington. In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt declared Three Arch Rocks a National Wildlife Refuge -- the first west of the Mississippi River.

Image: Pitkin, David | Public domain

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge: A Fortress Built by the Sea

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M.O. Stevens, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three Arch Rocks sits about a half mile off the coast near Oceanside, in Tillamook County on the northern Oregon coast. The formation consists of three large rocky islands and six smaller ones, their surfaces carved by millennia of Pacific swells into the natural arches that give...

Image: M.O. Stevens | CC BY-SA 3.0

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge: The Photographers and the President

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark Rosengarten, CC BY-SA 4.0. William Finley was twenty-five years old when he first rowed out to the rocks. He and Bohlman were not scientists by training but naturalists with cameras, part of a new generation that believed photographs could accomplish what written petitions could not. They returned to Three...

Image: Mark Rosengarten | CC BY-SA 4.0

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge: Quarter-Million Wings

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit M.O. Stevens, CC BY-SA 3.0. More than a century after Roosevelt's order, the refuge protects Oregon's largest seabird nesting colony. Over 230,000 birds breed on these rocks each season, a staggering concentration of life on such a small footprint. Tufted puffins dig burrows into whatever thin soil accumula...

Image: M.O. Stevens | CC BY-SA 3.0

Three Arch Rocks National Wildlife Refuge: Keep Your Distance

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USFWS Pacific, Public domain. The refuge is strictly closed to public entry. No one may land on the rocks, and boats must keep a minimum distance to avoid disturbing the colonies. Aircraft are required to maintain at least 2,000 feet of clearance overhead -- a restriction that underscores how sensitive these ...

Image: USFWS Pacific | Public domain