| In 1778, when the United States was declaring
its independence, no visitors had recorded contact with what is now the central
Oregon coast. Captain James Cook passed by the southern coast, naming Cape Perpetua,
and then landed at Yaquina Bay. He continued north, naming Cape Foulweather, reflecting
the rough weather he encountered. Through the mid-1800s trappers ventured south
from the Hudson Bay Company, headquartered at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River.
The history of the central coast was changed forever in 1855 when the United
States established a 1.3 million-acre Reservation. More than 4,000 people from
20 different tribes were resettled on this Reservation. Though the government
deemed the area unfit for farming and inaccessible, there were other resources. In
1861, two events again changed the course of history. A sea captain was shown
beds of rare, delicate oysters in Yaquina Bay. Companies from San Francisco came
to harvest the oysters, creating conflicts with payment to Reservation Indians
and depleting the supply within a few years. About the same time, regular
troops on the reservation were needed for the Civil War, and they were replaced
by volunteers soldiers who saw the possibilities of the resources and lobbied
to open up the land. Responding to this pressure, the government opened
the Yaquina Bay area to non-Indian settlement in 1866. Reservation employees,
fur traders, commercial fisherman, and others seeking opportunity and free land
staked their claims. | 
