Rare dune-dwelling plant hits endangered list
Elk offer photo op
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VOL. 46, ISSUE 7
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CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
April 1, 2022
Spring breakers head to Cannon Beach Ashley Tike
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Staff Writer
ith kids in Oregon off from school, and COVID restrictions lifting, families planned hit the road to visit the Oregon coast to spend this year’s spring break vacation. A young couple that recently moved Portland, visited Cannon Beach for the first time said, “It’s been nice to get outside and breath some ocean air, it’s crazy this is only an hour and a half from our new home.” They said hadn’t taken a real vacation since the COVID pandemic hit and they were happy to be tourists again visiting the local shops and trying new restaurants, “We got some fish and chips from the Wayfarer Restaurant, and walked around exploring the town.” The young couple said
they stayed at the beachside Hallmark Resort Hotel and Spa in Cannon Beach. Genelle Mosely, the guest services manager of the hotel said that they weren’t as busy as anyone would have expected this spring break. “Honestly, we’ve been extremely busy throughout this entire pandemic but this week was pretty slow,” she said “I think people have been coming to the coast as a getaway from crowded city life during COVID times and this week we were slightly down in numbers.” Mosely added that she thinks that with COVID restrictions being lifted and case numbers going down, people seem more apt to spread their wings and jump on a plane for spring break this year. Comments: headlightreporter@countrymedia.net
Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. Gazette file photo
Tillamook Rock Lighthouse for sale, listed at $6.5 million
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the beach and Haystack Rock are a popular draws for Spring Breakers. Photo courtesy of Erin McMillen Gustafson
Pilot House Distilling opening tasting room in Cannon Beach P
Staff
ilot House Distilling is spreading its roots and is headed for the beach. The distillery, which has been serving up spirits in its Astoria tasting room, has plans to launch a third tasting room in Cannon Beach in April Larry Cary, co-founder of Pilot House, is looking forward to the expansion and the chance to reach a wider audience on the Oregon coast. “Cannon Beach has always been on my list of places to open a tasting room,” says Larry. “We have spent a lot of time in Cannon beach, and it is a beautiful place. I am glad to have this opportunity to finally showcase “The Spirits of the Coast” in a great coastal location.” Larry and his wife Christina began Pilot House Distilling in 2013. Larry always had an interest in spirits and decided to venture into the world of distilling in 2011. Just two years later, the Carys opened their distillery and tasting room in downtown Astoria. Pilot House offers a wide range of craft spirits including vodkas, gins,
whiskies, agave spirits, and even absinthe. Their Astoria tasting room gives locals and visitors the chance to try favorites like their Painted Lady Gin, Chai Tea Vodka, and A-O Come Hell or High Water, a unique ocean-aged whisky aged on local fishing boats. Pilot House also offers a variety of canned cocktails. In just a couple of short weeks, the same award-winning spirits will be available in Cannon Beach located at 224 N. Hemlock. Until then, guests can visit the Astoria tasting room (at 1270 Duane St.) Monday-Saturday 12 pm-6 p.m. and Sunday Noon-4 p.m. or Portland (at 4214 N. Mississippi) daily from 2 pm – 9 pm. According to Chirstina, who also acts as the distillery’s operations and marketing manager, they plan on hiring three new employees to work in the Cannon Beach location. About Pilot House Distilling Pilot House has recently expanded into Idaho and Nevada, with plans for other states soon. They also offer online shipping to some states. Visit the website for more information.
ODFW prohibits taking of sea stars Hilary Dorsey
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Country Media
he Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) Commission voted Friday, March 18, to change shellfish regulations to prohibit harvest of sea stars and increase the daily bag limit for non-native European green crabs to 35. These changes are now in effect. During the meeting, ODFW’s shellfish program leader Stephen Rumrill presented a package of four proposed changes. Proposed changes to shellfish rules include prohibiting the taking of sea stars, increase the daily catch limit of European green crab, require electronic fish tickets for bay clam fisheries, and establish a landing limit for gaper clam for the dive fishery in Yaquina Bay. “Oregon’s shellfish fisheries are diverse,” Rumrill said. “First with regard to the recreational fisheries, we allow harvest of a diverse group of about 30 different species.” These groups include Dungeness crab, Red Rock crab, clams and more. Sea stars and European green crab are also included in recreational fisheries. Rumrill said multiple species of sea stars have experienced mass mortality along the west coast since 2013 due to Sea Star Wasting Disease. This is coincident with changing ocean conditions. “Some species of sea stars, like the ochre star, have recovered somewhat,” Rumrill said. “Other species of sea stars have not recovered at all.”
There has been a 90 percent coastwide decline of sunflower sea stars after Sea Star Wasting Disease. “NOAA Fisheries is currently considering a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity to place them on an Endangered Species List, pending a decision in 2022,” Rumrill said. Existing ODFW rules allowed the take of 10 sea stars per person per day, Rumrill added. “This is a prudent management action at this time to demonstrate the commitment to conservation,” Rumrill said of the action. European green crabs are a recent aggressive invasive species with the potential to disrupt
communities of native shellfish. The mid-sized shore crab inhabits the mid-region of estuaries. They can be green, brown, yellow, red or blue in color but are easily identified by three prominent bumps between their eyes and five spines along the side of their carapace. “[They were] first observed in Coos Bay in 1997,” Rumrill said. Additional regulations for commercial bay clam fisheries were also approved at the meeting, including the requirement for electronic, rather than paper, fish tickets and designation of a harvest area and annual landing cap for the commercial gaper clam dive fishery in Yaquina Bay.
Staff
he Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, dubbed ‘Terrible Tilly’ by those who worked there off the northwest coast of Oregon, sits a mile from Tillamook Head between Seaside and Cannon Beach is for sale for $6.5 million. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports investors had paid $50,000 in 1980 to buy the deteriorating lighthouse, Oregon’s only offshore light station. The island’s isolation, impossible boat landings and extreme weather as well as the lighthouse crews’ dislike of their months-long stays where they were cold, wet and constantly reminded of their dangerous job, earned the tower the nickname “Terrible Tilly.” The 141-year-old Tillamook Rock Lighthouse is owned by Mimi Morissette. According to OPB reports, she once hoped to turn the lighthouse into a large columbarium, a place to store people’s cremated remains. There was room, she said, for up to 300,000 urns. But Morissette’s plan never took off like she hoped. Forty-two years later, the ashes of only 31 people, including Morissette’s parents, have been laid to rest at the lighthouse. Morissette, who is 77, has concluded it is time for someone else to take over. A little history An intriguing and powerful testament of the will and determination of the human spirit, the story of Tillamook Rock Lighthouse began in 1878 when Congress appropriated $50,000 for a lighthouse to mark this section of the Oregon Coast. Originally, it was hoped that a lighthouse could be built at Tillamook Head, a 1,000-foot-high headland twenty miles south of the Columbia River, however, the top of the headland was often shrouded in fog, and as its sheer face offered no acceptable alternative, Tillamook Rock was considered instead. In June 1879, H.S. Wheeler boated out to the rock to determine if a lighthouse would be feasible there. Heavy seas initially made landing impossible, but after several attempts, Wheeler was able to clamber up the rock. After a careful inspection, he decided the rock could be conquered. The Annual Report of the Lighthouse Board carried the following forecast for the project: “Though the execution of the work will be a task of labor and difficulty, accompanied by great expense, yet the benefit which the commerce seeking the mouth of the Columbia River will derive from a light and fog-signal located there, will warrant all the labor and expense involved.”
The decommissioned Tillamook Rock Lighthouse was photographed before it became a columbarium. Gazette file photo