Quilts of the Great Depression (on display until October)

Stop by the History Center to see a collection of vintage quilts from the Great Depression Era. These full-size pieces are a reminder of how important every bit of fabric was for Depression era Coastal residents, where quilting became a family activity, using scrap material from old clothing, blankets, and other items. These quilts remind us all of a time, not so unlike our own, that left Americans with little to spare.

Check out the above quilt, handmade in 1935, along with several other quilts of the 1930s.

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Native American Longhouse

NEW permanent exhibit

The Native American Longhouse iis a hands-on exhibit for visitors of all ages. Children are invited to touch the cedar-bark cape, bowls, and skins furnishing the exhibit, and to use the space to pretend with our toys. The exhibit was designed in cooperation with the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes, and the longhouse is furnished with replica artifacts crafted by Native American artisans around the Northwest.

Native American villages of the Northwest Coast consisted of several of these longhouses, which were built in clearings between forest and tidewater. Each longhouse served as a home, workshop, and ceremonial space and housed an entire extended family, with 20 or more people sometimes living in a single home.

The Cannon Beach History Center’s longhouse exhibit shows a small-scale longhouse’s interior, typical of a small home or a seasonal fishing hut. Today, Natives living on the Oregon Coast live in European style homes, but often still use longhouses for festivals and celebrations of their traditional ways.

Permanent Interpretive Exhibit

The permanent exhibit, Cannon Beach: A Place by the Sea was based on the book of 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 CBHS, photos reveal the town’s past and the arduous journey it was to get here.

The story of the Tillamook Indians, Lewis and Clark, Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, logging, historic hotels and buildings, recreation, the Great Depression, World War II, and Cannon Beach today are all told through this interactive exhibit, which is also translated in Spanish.

The interactive children's exhibit features tide pool life, and children will love learning more about sea stars, coastal forests, and bird life on the Coast!

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

Visitors to the museum can hear the text of the permanent 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 Cannon

The Cannon Beach History Center and Museum is home to the original Cannon Beach cannon. This artifact has always been a subject of interest. Also learn more about recent findings of two more cannons on an Arch Cape beach.