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Ocean Shores’ "Humble" Beginnings Everyone in America has the traditional story of how their home town was founded; generally they are pretty run of the mill. Ocean Shores’ history starts of with a fairly normal cast of characters and then... well you’ll see. Long before the settlers came to this town it was used heavily by the Native American people - the Chinook used the ocean end of the point as a place to store food they gathered and before them the Chehalis Indians had a camp at the beginning of the point; among other tribes. To this day there are still a large number of Native Americans that reside in this part of the country - approximately 20 miles north of Ocean Shores is Taholah, home to the Confederated Tribes of the Quinault Indian Nation. This nation is the combination of the different tribes that once settled in this area. The first white settler who came to this town was Matthew McGee in the early 1860’s. He sold the southern end of the peninsula to AO Damon in 1878 for a trading supply center; later he took over the entire peninsula from McGee. Damon passed the land down to his grandson, Ralph Minard who used the land as a cattle ranch from 1926 to 1960. This is where things get a little more colorful - In 1960 a group of investors who called themselves The Ocean Shores Investment Corporation bought the land from Ralph for $1,000,000. They renamed themselves The Ocean Shores Development Corporation, parked an old travel trailer in the dunes and began selling lots, sight unseen, starting at $595. It wasn’t until the road construction began that actual lots were numbered and staked. The initial roadway was less than 20 miles long, but the downtown area had the vapor lamps - this classified Ocean Shores as a city in the making. 25 homes were built the first year and from these first homes sprung the charter members of the Ocean Shores Community Club... which is still in existence today. In the first year 25 miles of canals were laid out and a 6-hole golf course was built. By 1963 - 3 restaurants, motels, the marina and airstrip were put in. In 1966 the famous stone pillars at the city entrance were installed. Ocean Shores was quickly becoming the place for the jet set to go, so the SS Catala was brought up from California to be used as a charter fleet office. Two years later a winter storm drove it into the sand. Parts of the shipwreck can still be seen at the end of Damon Point. The SS Catala is still one of the most famous shipwrecks on the Washington coast. Pat Boone became a resident in 1967 as a stockholder in the Ocean Shores Estates Corporation and soon began promoting celebrity golf tournaments. Twelve more holes were added during this time. There were six Pat Boone Celebrity Golf Tournaments between 1966 and 1971. By 1969 Ocean Shores was declared the "Richest Little City" with 900 permanent residents and an assessed value of $35,000,000. Today Ocean Shores welcomes more than 3,000,000 visitors to its’ sandy beaches. Not too bad - from a cattle farm to the most visited seaside location on the Washington Coast. |
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