Florence's bridge is among those created under the WPA.(Cannon Beach, Oregon) - The Great Depression hit the Oregon coast like a giant sneaker wave back in the 1930’s. Businesses shut down, families moved across country to find work and displaced workers were offered relief through government programs.Cannon Beach and the North Coast experienced a revitalization during the years following the Depression through President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. The New Deal offered jobs building bridges, creating state parks and even documenting the success of relief programs through photography, art and writing.The Cannon Beach History Center and Museum’s new exhibit will showcase these federal work programs in a six-month display of Depression Era photography and artifacts from August through February. The exhibit will feature photos by Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee and Arthur Rothstein, along with vintage camera equipment and historical documents. The exhibit will also showcase CCC tools and memorabilia, as well as photos from the 1940 Oregon Coast Tour of the WPA.
Overlooks at Neahkahnie, above at Manzanita: also has its roots in the WPA.Numerous Oregon coast landmarks still visible today were the direct result of the WPA, including five of its bridges and much of Highway 101 – the basis of all coastal tourism.Known as the “alphabet administration,” Roosevelt’s team created programs like the Farm Securities Administration (FSA), where photographers like Dorothea Lange gained notoriety for photos of migrant workers in farming camps across the country.“She made over 550 photos in Oregon alone,” said Linda Gordon in an Oregon Historical Quarterly article. “In the summer and fall of 1939 she made two trips into the Northwest. She traveled up and down US 99, following the routes of the migrant farm workers she photographed.”Lange’s photography has become almost synonymous with the Great Depression, and features striking images of down-trodden families across the West. 
The New Deal also created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which built Ecola State Park and hundreds of other campgrounds, roads and recreation areas throughout Oregon.The New Deal’s Federal Writers Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), wrote guidebooks for each state in the union, and Oregon: End of the Trail was created for tourists and Oregonians alike, to promote the natural splendor of our beaches, mountains and rivers. “The Depression is an era not so unlike our own,” History Center Program Director Grace Saad said. “This exhibit will remind people that there is always hope, even in the darkest of economic times.”A dedication will ceremony, as well as a lecture on the Great Depression will also take place soon after the exhibit opens, Saad said. For more information, please contact the History Center at 503-436-9301, cbhs@seasurf.net, or visit www.cbhistory.org or stop by the Center Wednesday through Monday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. 
Depoe Bay and Highway 101More About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging..... More About Cannon Beach Restaurants, Dining..... LATEST OREGON COAST NEWS STORIES
Unusual Travel Articles TravelParanormal.com allows you to submit your own creepy tale or debunk one - or see up-to-the-minute news headlines about travel and the paranormal.News Headlines from All Over Oregon Need to scan Oregon headlines? Constantly updated news from all over Oregon: a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute display of news headlines from a variety of mediaFollow us on
Back to Oregon CoastContact Advertise on BeachConnection.net 
The “Yaquina Bay” steamship went aground on the south jetty of Yaquina Bay in 1888. The story is part of the new exhibit, “Rough Waters: Shipwrecks on Oregon’s Coast,” at the Burrows House Museum(Newport, Oregon) – A little over 100 miles from the big “graveyard of the Pacific,” shipwrecks will come to light in a whole new way.That graveyard is just outside of Astoria, but Newport will receive an expert on the subject on October 2 as noted author Dennis Powers will speak at the Carriage House of the Lincoln County Historical Society on that Saturday at 2 p.m., kicking off a new feature at the museum. Powers will talk for the opening of the exhibit, “Rough Waters: Shipwrecks on Oregon’s Coast.” He will focus on his new book, “Tales of the Seven Seas: The Escapades of Captain Dynamite Johnny O’Brien.” O’Brien was a colorful sea captain who narrowly missed being eaten by cannibals, fought off Chinese pirates with cannon fire, cavorted with the royal family of Hawaii; and shipped with the villainous Robert O’Malley, prototype for Jack London’s “Sea Wolf.”This colorful seafarer also encountered a shipwreck at Coos Bay, on the southern Oregon coast.“The exhibit and our speaker both offer an intriguing look at the dangers of life at sea. The exhibit features incredible photos of shipwrecks and interesting objects,” said Diane Disse, museum educator for the Lincoln County Historical Society.
The exhibit contains a photograph that goes all the way back to 1887, showing the ship “Yaquina City” wrecked on Yaquina Bay. The most recent is that of the “New Carissa” in 1999 and its wild, meandering story of mishaps and misfires, including the attempts to control its path and destroy it. There is also a painting of the “New Carissa” by Mimi Fox as a featured part of the exhibit.Powers graduated with a B.A. from the University of Colorado, a law degree from the University of Denver Law school, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. He went on to work in various investment companies while writing books on legal issues, eventually having his own law firm in Santa Barbara, California. His real passion was in writing and the ocean. Powers penned four commercially successful books about the sea and has just released his fifth, “Tales of the Seven Seas.”Both the exhibit and the Powers lecture are free. Call the Historical Society at 541-265-7509.
The Burrows House in another eraThe Lincoln County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the history of Lincoln County. It includes the Burrows House and Log Cabin museums, located at 545 SW Ninth Street in Newport. The museums are free and open to the public. The Burrows House Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Log Cabin Museum is open Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.Other Events Coming to Newport and NearbySeptember 25. Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup at any one of over 40 beach sites from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to clear the entire Oregon coast of debris. www.SOLV.org
September 25. Summer SunSets Beachside Concert. Siletz Bay. Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-996-2119, 800-452-2151, www.oregoncoast.orgSeptember 25. Mushroom class with Wild Gourmet at Cascade Head on Three Rocks Rd at 9 a.m. Just north of Lincoln City, Oregon. 541-992-3798.October 8. The Rocky Horror Show, performed by Red Octopus Theatre. 7 p.m. Newport Performing Arts Center. 777 W Olive Street. Newport, Oregon. 541-265-2787October 9. Archeology Lecture, by Phyllis Steeves. 7 p.m. Yachats Commons Auditorium, Hwy 101 & W 5th. Yachats, Oregon.
Depoe Bay, near NewportMore About Oregon Coast hotels, lodging.....