High Water

We have had 7.6 inches of rain in the last five days, of which 5.4 inches came in the last two days.  So now the marsh has filled up and is coming over Beaver Creek Rd.  The last time the water was over the road was after the storm in February 6-8, 1996.  That time there was 8.3 inches of rain in three days (see Period of Record Daily Summary Stats in link) and there was 2 feet of water on the road.  These storms are associated with large streams of water coming from the tropical Pacific Ocean and are sometimes called "Pineapple Express".  I read an article recently that talked about Atmospheric River Storms (ARkSTORMS).  These are hugh storms coming off the Pacific Ocean that bring large amounts of water to land.  They act like rivers in the atmosphere.  The storms are modeled after storms that came to California in 1861-1862.  Apparently the ARkSTORMS are bigger than the "Pineapple Express" storms.  Are you ready?

Posted by michael

Moment on Beaver Creek

Rest a moment on Beaver Creek.  When your head is filled with thoughts and rushing to conclusions, let wildness be your guide.  Direct experience leads you to a state of natural grace, unencumbered by attachment and aversion.  The creek embodies all of the elemental forces that naturally arise when we open our eyes in the dawning day of activity.  Merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.



Posted by michael

The “Rhoades” To Beaver Creek

Transportation in the early days of Lincoln County was difficult to say the least. There were places of dense shrubbery, marshlands, steep ravines, mud, and wide waterways to cross. Access to many areas was limited until the late 1930’s when the Roosevelt Highway (now Highway 101) was completed, which included bridges spanning the rivers and bays.

In order to get to Beaver Creek before then, one had to cross by boat to the south side of Yaquina Bay, and take a narrow dirt road (by foot or horseback) over a couple of hills to Ona. This road extended a couple miles further to Seal Rock. From there one could take the beach “highway” on to Alsea Bay, and cross by boat to Waldport.

Susie and Henry Rhoades were long-time residents of Beaver Creek (over 50 years). In an interview with Susie and her daughter, Aletha Wolkau, in 1975 when Susie was 92 years old, they describe how the family moved from their first home on Ollala Slough near Toledo to Beaver Creek in 1915. Henry Rhoades had built an inboard motor launch with a house on it. When getting ready to move, he lashed a scow to the side of the houseboat and packed all the household belongings into it.

As his daughter, Aletha, explained:

"...that’s the way we moved to Beaver Creek, coming down the river a little bit to Poole Slough, up Poole Slough, and evidently Daddy had made arrangements to where he could put his boathouse [there] before he came in here [to Beaver Creek]. He had made a trip or two down here to look at the ranch and when we moved down, that’s the way we moved. And it was at nighttime before we came up Poole Slough that night, and I never will forget that, because I was just a little kid in those days. And there was four of the children then--my two older brothers and my sister just younger than I. And my last brother and sister was born after we lived in here. Now my younger sister was born in the fall of 1915."

Susie Rhoades continues the story: "[We started out on] March the 2nd [1915], we left Ollala Slough...Henry stayed on the front end of the scow so we could see there was no logs to strike..."

Aletha added: “...and [brother] Floyd was on the boat stern, and was out there to help him, too.”

Susie again: “Yes, he did. Floyd had his little old pike pole, you know...Yes, that was a twisty little old place, I tell you. But we managed it. We got up there. Got in there on half-tide, so we could get the scow in the little tributaries run out into the main slough, you know.”

Aletha: “...we must have spent the rest of the night there...”

Susie: “We did...I fixed a bed down for you and Alpha and Beatrice.”

Aletha: “And one of Father’s brothers was here, wasn’t he? And he had a team there to meet us, and...started hauling the household stuff over to the house there.”

Interviewer: “And he came down this road that’s still there now?”

Aletha: “The Old Poole Slough Road, yeah. That comes up the hill, and then the feeder branch was there and it would come on down this way.”

Susie: “And this man that owned this place then--I think Uncle Bowery or Mr. Bowery [Bowers] he was called, and he told Henry, he said, ‘You take my barn.’ He had a barn to put his horses in, and had an interesting business, going to town, he used to get groceries and things [for people]. He took his hay over there and put it in the barn, you know, so the milk cows could get in and eat it, and the horses would have their feeding part.”

Aletha: “We stored our stuff in the barn.”

Susie: “Yes, we stored our stuff all in the barn. We just brought one load a week down. Those horses that Henry had offered to him...it took us a whole week to move...”

Interviewer: “This barn, was it at the slough?”

Aletha: “It was on Poole Slough.”

Susie: “Yes, it was a small barn over there. Just big enough for his horses and it had sides on it and all, so you could shut it up, you know.”

Interviewer: When you moved to Beaver Creek, did you move right where you are today?”

Susie: “Well, we [moved] up there, in that little old house over there...”

Interviewer: “Where the orchard is up there on the hill there?”

Susie: “Yes, over there--up over across this side, we lived in that...We built our barn first...”

Interviewer: “And lived in the barn?”

Susie: “No, we didn’t. We lived in an old house that was there.”

Interviewer: “Oh, there was a house there already.”

Susie: “Yeah. It was an old house. The kitchen was a log house, and the front room that they built on was just bunkhouse, it was strip stuff, laths.”

Aletha: It was about 1919 when Dad built the house, and that was the house that burned over there, years later.”

Susie: “And then we got around to moving into the house, we had it pretty good. It was not an elaborate house, but we had plenty of room."

And it stood them in good stead for many years to come.

[Excerpted from Susie Rhoades Oral History, Lincoln County Historical Society Oral History Collection].

Posted by jackie.

Floods In Beaver Creek Marsh

In early February 1996, the Beaver Creek Marsh filled with water and there was two feet of water on N. Beaver Creek Rd. (County Road 602) that passes through the lower marsh.  Flooding in the Beaver Creek Marsh is a relatively common occurrence but water on the road is less common.  

  Trying to go east on Beaver Ck. Rd.  Photo © Steve Card   

                        

Two feet of water on Beaver Creek Rd. (1/2 mile from Hwy 101)

                                                   

Flood flotsam line next to Hwy 101 bridge over Beaver Creek

A normal function of wetlands is to buffer stream flows by absorbing large inputs of water.  These inputs can be associated with rainfall, blockage of the stream mouth, storm waves, and tsunamis.  Notable flood years associated with high rainfall in the Beaver Creek watershed include 1861, 1890, 1909, 1927, 1953, 1955, 1964, 1974, 1982, 1983 and 1996, while floods in 1941, 1948 and 1949 were blamed on high tides and sand deposits that blocked the mouth of the creek (USFS 2001).  In December 2 & 3, 1967, large storm waves struck the coast and washed large logs through Ona Beach State Park, across U.S. Highway 101, and up into Beaver Creek Marsh (DOGAMI, Bulletin 81 1973).  On March 29, 1964, 11 foot tsunami waves passed through Ona Beach State Park, across U.S. Highway 101, and into Beaver Creek Marsh.

Several newspaper articles from local newspapers during the 1940’s and 1950’s that were compiled by Range Bayer describe frequent flooding in the lower Beaver Creek and at the mouth (flooding at Beaver Creek was noted in articles dated February 25, 1926; March 4, 1926; December 25, 1941; November 18, 1948; November 17, 1949; and November 6, 1952). This 1948 article from the Waldport Record describes the conditions at the mouth of the creek: 

During the freak storm of two weeks ago, high waves did so much damage at Beaver Creek that the normal channel became clogged with debris and sand. The creek could not empty into the ocean as usual with the result that its waters backed up inland. The road was soon covered with water and the mill-pond of the C and H Lumber Company over flowed. The mill was forced to shut down and the cars of people living up the Creek had to be towed in and out by the company trucks. Finally road conditions got so bad that not even these could get through. Dynamiting to open the channel was the only solution and this the company proceeded to do. A few hours later, the creek had found its bed nearly 3 feet below the level of the sand deposited by the high water. Everyone in the vicinity is grateful to the lumber company and the State and County workers who spared neither time nor energy in this emergency.

A December 8, 1949 article from the Lincoln County Times reported on a hearing for Beaver Creek flood control. It describes the cause of frequent flooding this way: 

Conditions at the mouth of Beaver Creek have been such that ocean swells and tides have prevented the natural flow of the stream. This has resulted in the annual flooding of many acres of good farm land; as well as the formation of a permanent swamp. Beneath this swamp lies about a thousand acres of peat soil which can be surpassed no where as far as fertility and productiveness is concerned.

In the mid-60‘s, farmers of Beaver Creek valley persuaded the County Road Department to obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge the mouth of Beaver Creek and maintain the mouth sill at the bedrock level.  Maintenance of this level caused the water level in the marsh to fall and expose farmer’s land upstream.  This permit was active until the mid-90’s and has not been renewed.    

Posted by michael

The Beach Was The Highway

In the early days of Lincoln County, there were very few roads connecting the length of the area.  The beach was the main highway and was used to transport mail, passengers, and supplies via horseback, wagon or buggy.  Each creek had to be forded, and larger rivers and bays were crossed by boat.  The winter storms made travel even more treacherous, with winds & high surf, floating logs & debris, and erratic currents & sneaker waves.

The following excerpt is quoted from an oral history of Paul Keady, recorded in the mid-1970’s [from the Oregon Coast History Center Library, Oral History Collections].

“Well, the odd thing about doctors in those days, they not only made house calls, but out here in the boondocks of Lincoln County, they would often take a horse and buggy, and take off to Waldport or Beaver Creek, or up the Alsea or somewhere--hoping to get there in time to assist some homesteader’s wife in the delivery of a child.  

On one of the occasions, when [Dr. Belt] was headed south of the Yaquina Bay, down the beach, when the beach was the highway, in the wintertime and stormy conditions with his one horse and buggy, an unusually large wave came, and caught him and the horse.  He saw it coming, and he turned up into one of the little alcoves that are off the beach...I know exactly which one it was.  He got as far from the wave as he could.  The water filled up in there, and he and the horse and buggy and all floated around for a while.  Then the water receded, without any of the logs breaking the horse’s legs or ruining the wagon, and he was not swept out to sea.  

And I, in my youthful eagerness asked him, ‘what did you do then, Doc?’  Well, he looked at me and said, ‘There was nothing else to do.  I merely straightened the horse around, and went on down the beach.’  And he got to Waldport--I hope in time to help some woman with her delivery...Doctors did those things in those days.”

The “Beach Highway” was used until the completion of the Roosevelt Highway (now Highway 101) in the 1930’s.  Makes me appreciate the bridges and pavement and engineering feats that were required to build that road.  And to be able to travel inside a warm, dry car in the foulest of winter weather!

Posted by jackie.