Clatsop Spit is a giant

sand spit A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due ...

on the

Pacific coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the P ...

along

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal R ...

between Astoria and the north end of

Tillamook Head Tillamook Head is a high promontory on the Pacific coast of northwest Oregon in the United States. It is located in west-central Clatsop County, approximately 5 mi (8 km) southwest of Seaside. The promontory forms a steep rocky bluff ...

in Clatsop County, northwest

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Clatsop Spit was formed by Columbia River

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

brought to the coast by the river flow after the last ice age ended approximately 8500 years ago and the ocean level rose. Here it was worked over and shaped by the wind and the waves until a vast and sandy plain was formed. In regular conversation, referring to Clatsop Spit usually refers to the northern end of the spit: The area that is bound by the Pacific to the west and the Columbia River to the northeast. In the past, the spit was known as ''Clatsop Sands''.

Shipwrecks

The seas around Clatsop Spit were known to be treacherous and there were many

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

s, including the

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...

''General Warren'' in which 42 people died in the surf in 1852 and in 1859, the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoo ...

''Rambler'' washed up on Clatsop Spit. No trace of her crew was ever found. In 1860, the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

''Leonese'' washed up on Clatsop Spit upside down and her crew lost. In 1883 the crew of the luxury schooner ''J.C. Cousins'' operated by the State of Oregon similarly vanished as she washed ashore. Other shipwrecks include the

barquentine A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. Modern barquentine sailing ...

''Makah'' (1888), and the bark ''

Peter Iredale ''Peter Iredale'' was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906, on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. She was abandoned on Clatsop Spit near Fort Stevens in Warrenton about four miles (6 km) ...

'' in 1906. It is estimated that since 1800 more than 2,000 vessels and close to 1,000 lives have been lost at the mouth of the Columbia River and in this context it is referred to as the ''Graveyard of the Pacific''.

Geology

After the sea level along the coast rose to its current level approximately 8,500 years ago at the end of the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

, seasonal

prevailing winds In meteorology, prevailing wind in a region of the Earth's surface is a surface wind that blows predominantly from a particular direction. The dominant winds are the trends in direction of wind with the highest speed over a particular point on ...

drove the Columbia River's sandy sediment to the

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

beaches in the winter and to Oregon's Clatsop Spit during the summer months. Through this process the sandy beaches grew dynamically to their present size, but it is unlikely they will continue this fast growth. Most of the sediment generated by the Columbia River is now trapped by a series of

dams A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

before it reaches the coast. Meanwhile, when the tide is out constantly shifting onshore winds blow sand from the exposed beaches inland on to huge

sand dunes A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...

. However, during the 1930s most of the spectacular dunes were deliberately controlled by the planting of grass and shrubs to prevent the natural movement of the sand. Now the sand is stabilized by the covering of vegetation and are no longer endlessly in motion, dynamically shaped by the wind. Much of the original dune area now forms a region known as

Clatsop Plains The Clatsop Plains are an area of wetlands and sand dunes between the Northern Oregon Coast Range and Pacific Ocean in northwestern Oregon in the United States. They stretch from near the mouth of the Columbia River south to the vicinity of Tilla ...

. Clatsop Spit is now part of

Fort Stevens State Park Fort Stevens was an American military installation that guarded the mouth of the Columbia River in the state of Oregon. Built near the end of the American Civil War, it was named for a slain Civil War general and former Washington Territory gove ...

References

External links

Graveyard of the Pacific: Shipwrecks on the Washington Coast
{{coord, 46, 13, 44, N, 124, 00, 50, W, display=title Oregon Coast Spits of the United States Landforms of Clatsop County, Oregon

Shipwrecks

Geology

See also

References

External links