How Cannon Beach got its name

Cannon Beach, Oregon
The story goes that in 1846 a US Naval schooner foundered and sunk on its attempt to cross the Columbia Bar near Astoria. When the ship broke up, a part of it carrying 3 cannons drifted south and washed ashore near what is now Cannon Beach. One of the cannons was retrieved from the wreckage and carried ashore by a midshipman from the schooner with the help of 3 Tillamook Indians, the local tribe resident on this part of the beach. The midshipman and the Indians pulled the cannon onto a creek bed for safekeeping. They named the creek Shark Creek and the location “Cannon Beach”. However, due to shifting tides and blowing sands, the cannon was buried in the creek bed and eventually forgotten. It was found many years later by a mailman making his rounds on horseback. The cannon was then pulled out of the bank of the creek and put on display in town. Eventually the cannon was moved from it’s original display location and exhibited on highway 101, the Pacifici Coast Highway, which runs past town. In 1989, the cannon was moved to its final resting place, in the Astoria Heritage Museum. The above picture is a replica of the cannon which is still displayed on highway 101, just outside Cannon Beach.