John Ordway of the Lewis and Clark Expedition mentioned Clatsop peoples coming to trade bears wax with the expedition members. The ships port screw snapped off and forced it onto a sandbar at the entrance to Tillamook Bay. The rocky shores of beaches in Oregon unpredictable Washington beaches, and the remoteness of Canadian western waters have made this an ominous place for seafaring adventures. Tillamook Rock Lighthouse still stands proud on the jagged sea stack and can be seen from the cliffs of the Oregon Coast Trail in Ecola State Park! The wreck was sold for $150,000 to the Pacific Salvage Company, who removed its engine, boilers, and all else. Unfortunately, the flood of 1993, ripped her from her mooring and grounded her a mile downstream. To protect themselves and their ships, people used the Inside Passage from British Columbia to Alaska instead to avoid the bad weather of the open ocean and visit isolated communities along the route. Heceta Head Lighthouse, 1931. One of the worst shipwreck disasters in Canada was the SS Valencia, which killed over 100 people, including all the women and children aboard. The Steamboats of the Oregon Coast followed tons of historic routes in the 19th century until many ships in the fleet retired due to shipwreck, abandonment, and lack of use. Legend has it that Florence takes its name from a shipwreck; as the story goes, the moniker stuck when the nameplate from the Florence, an 1875 offshore wreck, was found and nailed up over the post office. Grounded several times before being sold. 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. After spotting a light nearby and thinking it was the Cape Flattery Lighthouse, the captain of the SS Pacific turned the steamboat west but instead crashed into the host of the lightthe Orpheus, a sailing ship.