The Oregon Coast has some excellent areas for tide pooling, which amazes and attracts visitors of all ages. Tide pooling is going out to rocky shores at low tides to touch and observe critters that live there.
During low tide,organisms that live in zones between the high and low tide are exposed from the water. They can be seen stuck to rocks or swimming and crawling in small tide pools of water.Some cannot withstand being exposed to air for very long.
As tides go out, more delicate organisms will be visible. Therefore, it is important to track low tides and times before planning a tide pooling trip.
Resources
There are many resources foridentifyingwildlife in tide pools and along the beaches, such as ID guides found in bookstores or that can be printed online. In addition, some Oregon State Parks offer interpretive walks and other programs open to the public.
Guides
There are also opportunities to hire guides fortide pooling, such asWavecrestDiscoveries. By going tide pooling with a guide, you get much more out of the experience than just being able to identify different species. You also learn more about the area, hear additional stories about the organisms, and gain more information that you could never learn independently.
Giant Green Anemones and Sea Stars are reveled at lower tides. Photo by Susan Dimock
When tide pooling, it is important to wear proper footwear, as many ofthe rocks arewentand covered with algae andcan be very slippery. The marine layer can also lead to variable weather, so wearing multiple layers will provide the most comfort.
Rocks covered in kelp provide habitats for many species that are fun to look at. Photo by Justin Myers
Some people just live large. Jedediah Smith was one of those people.
He had three ambitions which were to:
Serve his God Provide for his family, and Become a great American Explorer
He succeeded at all three and much more. He lived large. He changed Oregon.
No roads, no path. (Image Royalty free Unsplash.com)
You might wonder how a person, who lived back in the 1800’s, might have impacted our lives today. Let me tell you a short story about Jedediah Smith.
Oregon didn’t achieve Statehood until 1859, and we might not have if it wasn’t for explorers like Jedediah Smith. Smith was one of the first, and maybe the most important, trapper/explorer back in the 1820s.
Hearing the stories
He was born in 1799 and at 13 worked as a clerk on a Lake Erie freighter learning the basics of business. Smith undoubtedly had heard the tall tales the trappers brought back from their trips.
Jedediah most likely did what every normal 13-year-old would do… hang on every word and develop an intense interest in wilderness trade and nature. This interest was kindled even further by friend of the family Dr. Titus G. V. Simons, a pioneer medical doctor.
According to legend, Dr. Simons gave Smith a copy of Lewis and Clark’s journal from their 1804-1806 expedition to the Pacific. Smith carried this journal throughout his travels to the American west.
The Lewis and Clark journal demonstrated what Smith needed to do to be a successful explorer. He needed to report what he saw, draw maps, write letters, and create a journal of his own.
As it turns out, Smith’s journals, maps, and letters were key to kindling interest in the new Oregon Country. A place few Caucasians had ever traveled to, that almost fell into the hands of the British.
Shared occupation
The Treaty of 1818 allowed joint occupation of the Oregon Country between Britain and the United States. The region was dominated by the British’s Hudson Bay Company (HBC) at Ft. Vancouver on the Columbia River.
At this time, the British Chief Factor at HBC was responsible for one-quarter of the North American continent. Smith and company represented the American contingency.
From 1823 to 1828, Smith traveled extensively between South Pass in Wyoming to the Oregon Country, and twice south into Mexican California and back.
There was a lot of unrest on the west coast and conflicts between explorers, British and American, and Native Americans in 1826. Smith noted that beaver were becoming scarce in the region.
The 1828 trip from California to Oregon was fraught with escalating mistrust and violence between the explorers and Native Americans. Coastal tribes closely monitored the arrival of all newcomers to their region and were very wary of visitors. Violence was common.
The Umpqua Massacre
The story goes that Smith and company camped on the Umpqua River. Smith and three others left camp to scout the trail north.
A scuffle began when one of the Natives stole an axe from the Smith camp. Some of Smith’s party treated the Umpqua very harshly to get the axe back.
The violence erupted in the early morning of July 13. Coquille (Na-so-mah) tribesmen murdered the remaining 15 members of Smith’s group, and stole furs, horses, and gear.
Smith learned of the massacre and headed north to the HBC in Fort Vancouver for shelter and respite. In the fall, he mounted a rescue mission and was able to bury the dead, and recover 700 beaver skins, 39 horses, and journals.
In gratitude, Smith presented the HBC with a copy of his master map of the west which he had created over the years. (NOTE: This map was rediscovered in 1953 and subsequently published a year later.)
Smith was well connected and authored many letters describing his travels and observations. In 1830, Smith wrote then Secretary of War John Eaton of his concerns that the British were alienating the indigenous people against the Americans. He also felt that the British were attempting to establish a permanent settlement in the Oregon Country.
The last trip
Smith returned to St. Louis with hopes of drafting detailed maps and going into the mercantile business. That goal was not to be. An associate convinced him to take a load of supplies to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The company did not take adequate water supplies from St. Louis and was not able to find water along the way. Scouts were sent out in search of water each day.
Smith was scouting for water on May 27, 1831 when he was killed by a Comanche hunting party. He was 32 years old.
The story is not over
In 1836, President Andrew Jackson launched a Federally funded expedition. The expeditions goals were to explore the Pacific Northwest and lay claim on the Oregon Country previously explored by Smith.
This is not a story about how a brave explorer survived three massacres and a horrific grizzly bear attack or of how he explored and mapped much of the Rocky Mountains, American Southwest, American West Coast, or discovered the first east-west crossing of the Great Basin Desert. It is about the key role that Smith played in the development of Oregon as a State.
Without his work documenting and mapping Oregon we all might be drinking British tea right now. Would Oregon have become a State without the fur trade and emigration routes? Would there have been an Oregon Trail without Smith’s work describing the South Pass?
Tipping the balance of power
Jedediah Smith almost singularly tipped the balance of power to the United States leading to the permanent settlement of the Pacific Northwest and later to Oregon’s statehood.
His was not an easy life. It was harsh and full of danger, challenges, and wonder. Fortunate for us, it was large.
REFERENCES: –Oregon Encyclopedia (https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/smith_jedediah/#.X06bDO-SmUk) –History (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/commanche-kill-mountain-man-jedediah-smith) –Wikipedia, Jedediah Smith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedediah_Smith)
Without Zane Grey we might not have sport fishing in Oregon. You might remember Grey as an avid pulp western storyteller and writer or as an amazing big game fisher.
Pearl Zane Grey (1872-1939) made his fortune as a prolific writer and produced 89 novels, novelettes, short stories, etc. most of which were focused on westerns. His stories hit it big in 1910 with his third Western “Riders of the Purple Sage” which was wildly popular.
Novels to Film
Grey became one of the best-selling writers in the twentieth century with nearly 50 novels turned into films, and many stories translated into different languages. His many films earned him the title of “Father of the American West.”
In addition to western topics, he also produced eight books on fishing (including “Zane Grey on Fishing”, “Tales of Fishes”, “The Great Trek”, and more). For years, Grey’s total sales fell behind only the Holy Bible and McGuffey Readers.
At his death in 1939, his novels had sold more than 15 million copies in the U.S. alone. Grey used his eventual wealth, generated by his writing, to enjoy sport fishing as many as 300 days a year.
Fishing Books
His many worldwide sport fishing travels were captured in his books (such as “An American Angler in Australia”, “Tales of Florida Fishes”, etc.). This skilled fisher also had some favorite haunts here in Oregon.
Grey visited Oregon in 1919 to fish the Rogue River and Crater Lake. He returned to Oregon throughout the 1920s to fish the Rogue and write about it (“Tales of Fresh Water Fishing”). In freshwater, he enjoyed fishing for bass, trout, steelhead, and salmon.
One of the places he escaped to in Oregon was a rickety log cabin near Winkle Bar in a remote lower Rogue River canyon. He built the cabin in 1926 and used it as a personal getaway for fishing, hunting, and writing.
Visit the Cabin
Today, the cabin is a favorite stopping point for boaters and hikers and is owned/maintained by the USDI Bureau of Land Management. It was included in the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.
By the mid-1930s Grey become ‘less enchanted’ with the Rogue due to increased fishing competition. He turned his rod toward the North Umpqua River. His writings helped give both the Rogue and Umpqua Rivers a national reputation of preeminent steelhead-trout streams.
Big Game Fishing
Grey was also into big game fishing and loved to fish for broadbill swordfish, giant tuna, and marlin. He caught the first 1,000-pound-plus marlin using rod and reel. What a thrill that had to be!
At one time, he held over a dozen records for big game fishing (all have since been broken) which included a 464-pound marlin, 758-pound tuna, a 1036-pound Tiger shark, and more. He also held three records for Pacific sailfish which was named for him (Istiophorus greyi).
Grey was one of the first to explore and document sport fishing in New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Central and South America, Nova Scotia, Galapagos, and the South Pacific. In New Zealand he perfected using ‘teasers’ to lure fish closer to the boat. He also developed a special reel, bass bug, and steelhead fly.
The legend of Zane Grey’s fishing passion lives on through the Zane Grey Invitational fishing tournament and other tournaments/events held worldwide. One recent event (September 2021) in Bethel, New York combined painting and fishing (Zane Grey in Plein Air Workshop and Competition — https://www.zanegreypleinair.com/).
To the Last Man
One has to ask if Oregon would ever have become a sports fishing mecca without Zane Grey’s help and insight. His stories and love for the west inspired many a person to take the fishing challenge.
He sums up his love for the wild west in a forward in his book “To the Last Man”
“I have loved the West for its vastness, its contrasts, its beauty and color and life, for its wildness and violence, and for the fact that I have seen how it developed great men and women who died unknown and unsung. Romance is only another name for idealism; and I contend that life without ideals is not worth living.” Zane Grey
REFERENCES: –BD Outdoors, Inc., Zane Grey (https://www.bdoutdoors.com/zane-grey-fisherman-angler/_ –Zane Grey’s All Tackle Deep-Sea Fishing Records (https://www.zgws.org/zgfishre.php) –USDI National Park Service, Zane Grey (https://www.nps.gov/upde/learn/historyculture/zanegrey.htm) –The Man Who Lived two lives in one (https://vault.si.com/vault/1968/04/29/the-man-who-lived-two-lives-in-one) –Oregon Encyclopedia, Zane Grey (https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/zane_grey_1872_1939_/#.X2zaJj-SmUk)
