HAYES OYSTER COMPANY
Dealers in Shellfish since 1912
Bayocean Spit
In November 1952, the Pacific Ocean broke through the Bayocean Spit. Bayocean Spit is the northern tip of Cape Meares and separates Tillamook Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The Spit's northern tip is the bar - the only entrance from the ocean to the bay.
The breakthrough, besides causing catastrophic destruction to the Bay, also destroyed many of Hayes Oyster Company's oyster beds.
The 1952 breakthrough was caused by the Army Corps of Engineers miscalculating the effect that erosion would have on the Spit when they installed the north jetty in 1914.
That erosion also caused the destruction of the resort town of Bayocean.
Jesse Hayes (1883-1957), President of Hayes Oyster Company, his friend and the manager of the Port of Bay City (now the Port of Garibaldi), Basil Edmunds, went to Washington DC, where with the help of Oregon's Senator Wayne Morris, they successfully lobbied for and were granted $11,000,000 for the ACOE to repair the north jetty, and to install a new south jetty to counter the destructive erosion, thereby saving the Bay and Tillamook's oyster industry.
Hayes Oyster Company then donated its lost oyster land (including the newly built road out Bayocean Spit), to Tillamook County.
The aerial photo below, shows todays Bayocean Spit.
It shows Tillamook Bay at the lowest tide of the year - a minus 1' 4" tide.
Garibaldi is in the foreground.
Hayes Oyster Drive in Bay City, is about nine o'clock
Tillamook Bay's only entrance to the Pacific Ocean is through the bar - shown on the lower right corner.
Netarts Bay and Cape Lookout can be seen south of Tillamook Bay.
The article below is from the 1975-76 OSU Sea Grant Annual Report:
The photo below from the 1975 OSU Seagrant Report, shows Sam Hayes, in Bay City, coming off an oyster dredge he built during WWII. The two oyster dredges were built at a small shipyard at the base of Tillamook Avenue in Bay City.
As a teenager, Sam worked at the Bayocean Natatorium.
In the nineteen twenties, Southern Pacific passengers came from Portland to Bay City to hire boat rides to Bayocean. Bayocean Road was built in 1928.
Along with the commercial ferry boats, local gillnetters also offered shuttle services.
The photo below is on a Bay City dock where Portland arrivals wait to be ferried to Bayocean.
At that time, Southern Pacific had an engine turn-around at Bay City.
The 1922 Bay City Examiner States:
"The new round trip rate that will be established between Portland and the Tillamook County beaches is $5. This rate last season was $6.48. The new rate between Portland and Newport, round trip, will be $8.25, whereas last season it was $10.68."