OFFERINGS
The History Center offers a wide variety of programs aimed at enhancing your understanding and appreciation of our local history: exhibits (both rotating and permanent), historical photos, educational programs and tours, oral histories, historical plaque program, and much, much more! Come and visit the History Center today!
Oral History Collection
The History Center has a broad range of collections ranging from photos and artifacts to audio and video tapes by many people who reflect back in time on their experiences in the early years of Cannon Beach. Members and visitors are encouraged to visit the History Center and listen to these oral histories to learn more about the people and history of the area.
Historical Plaque Program
CBHS has recognized 25 commercial or organizational structures of historical significance within Cannon Beach by marking them with historical plaques. Residential and business owners of historical properties are welcome to apply for a recognition plaque honoring the history of their building. Follow these links for more information on the program:
Permanent Exhibit
Permanent Interpretive Exhibit -- Cannon Beach, A Place by the Sea: The History Center, which opened in March 1999, features the permanent exhibit, " Cannon Beach: A Place by the Sea" based on the book by the same name authored by Terence O'Donnell. The exhibit is rich in visual material, telling the story about what attracted people to Cannon Beach throughout time. Drawing from the archives of CBHC, photos reveal the town's past and the arduous journey it was to get here.
The exhibit's first panel describes the Tillamook Indians who originally occupied the land that is called Cannon Beach, and chronicles the tragic impact foreign diseases had on them prior to white settlement of the area. Next, a huge photo mural greets the visitors from Capt. Clark's perspective on Tillamook Head, where he said in his journal, "From this point I beheld the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed." Early homesteading in Cannon Beach and the building of the Tillamook Rock lighthouse feature next. Another large photo mural describes the role logging played in the area's history.
The second phase of the exhibit focuses on the expansion of tourism and recreation in Cannon Beach. Featured are the Warren Hotel, the Cannon Beach Hotel, and the Wave Crest Hotel. One panel also describes the hard times faced by Cannon Beach residents during the Great Depression and in the days of World War II, when the citizens of Cannon Beach were on alert for possible attack. The exhibit's final large panel chronicles Cannon Beach from the post-war era to the present.
All in all, the view from Tillamook Head, the rising sentinels of Haystack Rock and the Needles, and the seven miles of "singing sands" and sparkling surf are like magnets drawing people back year after year to Cannon Beach, a special "place by the sea."
Spanish Audio Translation of Permanent Exhibit
The permanent exhibit at the Cannon Beach History Center is now available in Spanish. Visitors to the museum can hear the text of the exhibit read in Spanish, on “hear-sets” located at each major display panel around the museum. Financial support for the Cannon Beach History Center’s Audio Spanish Translation Project was provided by the Bloomfield Family Foundation, Oregon Council for the Humanities, and the City of Cannon Beach. Several Cannon Beach volunteers also contributed translation, recording, and installation services.
The Cannons
The Cannon Beach History Center and Museum is home to the original Cannon Beach cannon. This artifact has always been a subject of interest. The cannon story...
