Cannon Beach: Where Clark Found a Whale, and Rising Seas Now Threaten Cultural Sites

Clark's whale

On January 6, 1806, William Clark and some members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition set out to investigate reports of a beached whale, reaching this spot on the Oregon coast two days later. In his journal, Clark admired the beauty of the coast and the great sea stacks offshore. By the time they reached the whale, local Indigenous people had already taken everything but the skeleton.

A coast under threat

Rising sea levels and more frequent storms are speeding erosion along the Oregon coast — and with it the loss of Indigenous cultural and archaeological sites all along the Pacific shore.

• Near Ecola Creek, such places include shell middens, fishing structures, petroglyphs and village sites.
• One study found Cannon Beach eroding by about 1.6 feet a year on average since 1967.
• Even a small rise in sea level sharply increases the risk of flooding.

Adapting the coast will be necessary to reduce the risks of flooding and erosion. The site is part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, whose climate change pages describe other places along the trail at risk.

Sources

Based on "Cannon Beach," Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. It cites the Park Service's Pittsburgh to the Pacific: High Potential Historic Sites of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail (2022), Clark's journal entry of January 8, 1806, the Fifth Oregon Climate Assessment (2021), Oregon Sea Grant's Regional Framework for Climate Adaptation (2015), and Moss and Erlandson (2008). Its photograph, under a Creative Commons license, is not reproduced.