Cape Disappointment and Cape Disappointment Light

Cape Disappointment is a headland of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

, located at the extreme southwestern corner of Washington, United States, on the north side of the Columbia River bar and just west of

Baker Bay Baker Bay is a bay located just inside the mouth of the Columbia River, behind Cape Disappointment on the north side of the river, in Pacific County, Washington and Clatsop County, Oregon. Located on Baker Bay is the city of Ilwaco and the ce ...

. The point of the cape is located on the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

in Washington's

Pacific County Pacific County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,365. Its county seat is South Bend, and its largest city is Raymond. The county was formed by the government of Oregon Territory in Feb ...

, approximately two miles (3.2 km) southwest of the town of Ilwaco. Cape Disappointment sees about 2,552 hours of fog a year—the equivalent of 106 days—making it one of the foggiest places in the U.S. The cape was named on July 6, 1788, by British

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mo ...

r John Meares, who was sailing south from

Nootka Island Nootka Island (french: île Nootka) is an island adjacent to Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It is in area. It is separated from Vancouver Island by Nootka Sound and its side-inlets, and is located within Electoral Area A of the ...

, Canada, in search of trade. He mistook the mouth of the Columbia River for a bay, which the ship could not enter due to a shallow

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body of water to near the surface. It ...

. Just missing the discovery of the river mentioned by

Francisco Antonio Mourelle Francisco Antonio Mourelle de la Rúa (July 17, 1750 – May 24, 1820) was a Spanish naval officer and explorer from Galicia serving the Spanish crown. He was born in 1750 at San Adrián de Corme (Corme Aldea, Ponteceso), near A Coruña, G ...

, he named them Cape Disappointment and Deception Bay.

George Vancouver Post-captain, Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his Vancouver Expedition, 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Un ...

credits John Meares in his account when he saw Cape Disappointment on April 27, 1792.Vancouver, George. ''Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World in the Years 1791–95'', volume 1, pp. 209–210. London, 1798.

Cape Disappointment State Park Cape Disappointment State Park (formerly Fort Canby State Park) is a public recreation area on Cape Disappointment, located southwest of Ilwaco, Washington, on the bottom end of Long Beach Peninsula, the northern headlands where the Columbia Ri ...

is located on the cape, as is the

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse The Cape Disappointment Light is a lighthouse on Cape Disappointment near the mouth of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. History In 1848, a lighthouse was recommended to be located at Cape Disappointment in what was then t ...

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...

Station Cape Disappointment is situated on the river near the state park. The station's crewmembers respond to 300–400 calls for assistance every year.

References

External links

* Landforms of Pacific County, Washington

Disappointment Disappointment is the feeling of dissatisfaction that follows the failure of expectations or hopes to manifest. Similar to regret, it differs in that a person who feels regret focuses primarily on the personal choices that contributed to a ...

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