Fed by five short rivers draining the steep slopes of the surrounding Coast Range, Tillamook Bay takes its name from the local Salish word meaning “land of many waters.” A three-mile long sandbar protects the southern mouth of the bay near here, where Bayocean, “the town that fell into the sea,” was founded in 1906. Envisioned as the Atlantic City of the West, the resort town boasted a stylish hotel, dance hall, theater, natatorium, four miles of paved streets and a population over 2,000 before it gradually—and literally—slid beneath the waves. The last house fell in1960. Ironically, its demise was self-inflicted, caused by erosion from the North Jetty, which the town helped finance in 1914 in hopes that a smoother entry to the bay would draw more tourists.