Cannon Beach

History

Cannon Beach and its surrounding coast was previously settled by the Tillamook people. William Clark, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, journeyed to Cannon Beach in early 1805. The expedition was wintering at Fort Clatsop, roughly to the north near the mouth of the Columbia River. In December 1805, two members of the expedition returned to camp with blubber from a whale that had beached several miles south, near the mouth of Ecola Creek. Clark later explored the region himself. From a spot near the western cliffs of the headland he saw "...the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in front of a boundless Ocean..." That viewpoint, later dubbed "Clark's Point of View," can be accessed by a hiking trail from Indian Beach in Ecola State Park. Clark and several of his companions, including Sacagawea, completed a three-day journey on January 10, 1806, to the site of the beached whale. They encountered a group of Tillamook who were boiling blubber for storage. Clark and his party met with them and successfully bartered for of blubber and some whale oil before returning to Fort Clatsop. There is a whale sculpture commemorating the encounter between Clark's group and the Tillamooks in a small park at the northern end of Hemlock Street. Clark applied the name Ekoli to the creek now spelled Ecola. Ekoli is a Chinook Jargon word for "whale". In 1846, a carronade, a short naval cannon, from the US Navy schooner Shark, which had sunk earlier that year, washed ashore just north of Arch Cape, a few miles south of the community. The schooner hit land while attempting to cross the Columbia Bar, also known as the "Graveyard of the Pacific." The cannon, rediscovered in 1898, eventually inspired a name change for the growing…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. The Tolovana Park neighborhood is south of the downtown core, adjacent to Tolovana Beach State Recreation Site. This region experiences mild, dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Cannon Beach has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Pacific Ridge Elementary School
  Elementary · Seaside · 597 students · 12.2:1 ratio
• Seaside High School
  High · Seaside · 453 students · 15.1:1 ratio
• Seaside Middle School
  Middle · Seaside · 392 students · 18.7:1 ratio
• The Cannon Beach Academy
  Elementary · Cannon Beach · 44 students · 14.7:1 ratio