Oswald West State Park
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Oswald West State Park
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 View from Oswald West State Park |
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| location | Tillamook County in Oregon (USA) | |
| surface | 1005 ha | |
| Geographical location | 45 ° 46 ' N , 123 ° 58' W | |
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| administration | Oregon Parks and Recreation Dept. | |
The Oswald West State Park is a state park in the US state of Oregon . Located in both Clatsop and Tillamook Counties , about 14 km south of Cannon Beach , the park preserves a 6 km long pristine stretch of the Pacific coast.
geography
The 1005 hectare park stretches between Arch Cape in the north and the 506 m high Neahkahnie Mountain in the south, directly on the coast, along the Pacific coast. Within the park, the Oregon Coast Range drops steeply to Smuggler's Cove , where Short Sands Beach is around 400 m long . The beach is bordered to the north by the 228 m high Cape Falcon , which extends over 1.5 km into the sea, and to the south by Neahkahnie Mountain. Short Sand Creek and Necarney Creek , both of which flow into the ocean at Smuggler's Cove, flow through the park . At Smuggler's Cove, Blumenthal Falls, a 13 m high waterfall, falls directly onto the beach and flows into the sea. The waterfall was named after Dan Blumenthal , a ranger who was shot in the park in 1999.
history
Archaeologists have unearthed finds at Short Sand Beach that show that Tillamook and Clatsop Indians visited the beach. In the 19th century, the beach served as a resting place for pioneers on their journey along the coast, allegedly smugglers also landed on the beach, who gave the Smuggler's Cove its name. At the beginning of the 20th century, the first excursion guests came to the beach for picnics.
Samuel Boardman , the first superintendent for the state parks in Oregon, pursued the project to establish a state park on the north coast of the state as early as the early 1930s. His choice fell on the beach of Short Sands, where he wanted to create a rest area on the new Highway 101 . From 1931 Boardman convinced several landowners to donate their property in today's park area to the state, until 1976 the park area was expanded to its present size through further donations and purchases. In 1940 and 1941 the Civilian Conservation Corps laid out roads in the park area, and in 1941 the highway along Neahkahnie Mountain was completed. Originally the park was called Short Sands Beach State Park . In 1956, the park was named after Oswald West , who was Governor of Oregon from 1911 to 1915 and who maintained free access to the state's beaches. From the 1970s the park became a popular destination for surfers. Today the park is considered one of Oregon's most popular parks and is visited by a million visitors annually.
Flora and fauna
The park is made up of a primeval forest of Douglas firs , West American hemlocks and giant coarse trees as well as a dense undergrowth of blueberries , raspberries and Shallon pseudo-berries , the ground is covered with mosses, ferns and forest lilies . Cape Falcon is covered with a rainforest of Sitka spruce trees, while the slopes of Neahkahnie Mountain were used as sheep pasture until 1942 and are therefore less forested.
Numerous species of birds live in the park, such as jellyfish , blue jays , hairpeckers , gray-water dippers , black- backed warblers and red-backed tits . At Mount Neahkahnie lives a herd of elk , in the rainforest come banana slugs before. Seals and California sea lions can be seen on the rocks of Cape Falcon .
Tourist facilities
As a highway rest area, use of the park is free of charge. There are picnic areas in the park and several footpaths lead through the forest to the beach, which is popular with surfers and kayakers. A 21 km section of the Oregon Coast Trail runs through the park and leads through the park to Cape Falcon and on to Arch Cape. Highway 101 runs on the ocean side of Neahkahnie Mountain, along the route there are seven viewpoints that are still surrounded by stone walls built by the Civilian Conservation Corps.
Until 2008 the park also had a campsite. That summer, however, a tree over three meters in diameter fell on the square. An examination of other trees revealed that other trees could also topple over. For nature conservation reasons, however, they were not felled and instead the campsite was closed.
literature
Jan Bannan: Oregon State Parks: A complete Recreation Guide. Seattle, Mountaineer Books, 2nd Edition 2002, ISBN 978-0-89886-794-7
Web links
- Oregon State Parks: Oswald West State Park
- Oswald West State Park in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
Individual evidence
- ^ World Waterfall Database: Blumenthal Falls. Retrieved September 9, 2011 .
- ^ Land donations for state parks in Oregon. Retrieved April 2, 2011 .
- ^ Oregon Encyclopedia: Oswald West State Park. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 21, 2011 ; Retrieved September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ OPRD: Oswald West State Park. Retrieved September 9, 2011 .
- ^ Rain Forests of the Pacific Northwest: Oswald West State Park. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on August 10, 2011 ; Retrieved September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Northmest Magazines: Discover Oswald West. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 16, 2011 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Oswald West and Ecola State Parks. (PDF; 925 kB) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 6, 2009 ; Retrieved September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ NaturalOregon.org: Oswald West Vote: Keep The Trees, Lose The Campground. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved September 9, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
