Long before recorded history, Native Americans found shelter around Whale Cove and partook of its natural bounty. Archaeological study suggests a more or less continuous occupation stretching back 3,000 years.
Little evidence of this native culture remained when European explorers visited this area in the 1800’s. A smallpox epidemic in 1828 killed most of the members of the resident Siletz Indian tribe. Not long afterward a large forest fire destroyed thousands of acres along this part of the coast. The devastation was so complete that, in 1846, when Theodor Talbot’s exploration party searched around Siletz Bay, they found only one living person. This survivor told Talbot that only a handful of his tribe remained.
Ten years later, the Native population increased dramatically when, in response to the Rogue River Indian Wars, the U.S. government created the Siletz Indian Reservation. Native Americans from 57 tribes around Oregon were relocated to this reservation.
The land around Whale Cove on the central Oregon Coast is now a protected part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge thanks to a partnership between the property owner and federal, state, and nonprofit organizations.
The 13.97-acre property in Lincoln County is located two miles south of Depoe Bay. It surrounds the oldest marine reserve in Oregon, where all marine life is protected. The site will be managed for its natural resource values and to protect Whale Cove’s ecology.
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