Last night, we stumbled across a short program broadcast by Oregon Public Broadcasting which should be required viewing by oceanfront residents around Hawaii (“Bayocean: The lost resort town that Oregon forgot”).
It tells the story of Bayocean, a once-thriving resort town on the Oregon coast, which the original developer, investors, landowners, and visitors eventually learned a very painful lesson. The ocean is a nearly irresistable force.
If you drive to the very edge of Oregon and then get out and walk, you can stand where developers built Bayocean, what they called the “Atlantic City of the West.”
It rose up in the early 1900s on a narrow sand spit that forms the western edge of Tillamook Bay.
Built at a time when the West Coast was clamoring for the refined lifestyle of the Eastern Seaboard, Bayocean had a hotel, a bowling alley, a neighborhood of homes and even a small railroad. But then, in what amounts to a slow-motion disaster, it was swept away.
As property owners along Oahu’s north shore engage in futile attempts to stop further erosion, the story of Bayocean, Oregon, is particularly relevant.
Also see:
“Bayocean: the American city that disappeared because man ignored nature,” The Guardian
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Old Hawaiians said “sand, easy come easy go”
It’s all normal for the coastline. Perhaps build a fishpond to qualm the waters.
Otherwise it’s in the Bible.
Matthew 7:24-27
Build Your House on the Rock
24 (A)“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like (B)a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like (C)a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
Thank you for those prophetic words
Absolutely fascinating.
A lesson from the past that people in the present refuse to heed.
It’s been known for decades that erosion moves beaches, yet some can’t resist the allure of living within a stone’s throw of the water’s edge.
Anyone who insists on betting their fortunes and living on the shoreline should do it at their own risk.
And when nature comes to reclaim what it laid there, they’ll have to accept that fate and move on.