The Cannon That Named the Town

This town is named for an actual cannon. In the summer of eighteen forty six, the United States Navy schooner Shark sailed into the mouth of the Columbia River to survey the harbor. On its way back out, the ship struck the treacherous Columbia bar and broke apart.

A section of the deck, with three cannons and a windlass still attached, drifted south and washed ashore near Arch Cape, just below Tillamook Head. A sailor found it in the breakers. The cannon was rediscovered in eighteen ninety-eight, and the community, then called Elk Creek, was later renamed Cannon Beach at the Post Office Department's insistence because Elk Creek was confused with Eola.

Then, in February of two thousand eight, a father, his daughter, and a family friend spotted two more cannons from the same wreck on an Arch Cape beach, buried for one hundred sixty two years. They were restored at Texas A and M University and now sit in the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria. The first cannon, the one found in the breakers, is in the city museum, and a replica stands beside United States Route One Oh One.

The town's other landmark is Haystack Rock, a sea stack two hundred thirty-five feet tall. In January of eighteen oh six, William Clark's party, including Sacagawea, reached a beached whale near Ecola Creek and bartered for about three hundred pounds of blubber.