Ancient Oddities at Arch Cape
Cannon Beach, Oregon Virtual Tour

Periodically, sand levels get so low along the Oregon coast that wild things emerge from beneath the sand. There are numerous odd wonders lurking beneath the sands, especially here at Arch Cape and just a tad north at Hug Point. Winter scours out sand levels and opens these wild objects up to the world, including such oddities as Red Towers, other formations of solidified iron that can resemble something out of Dr. Suess, stumps of trees that are four thousand years old, and even the famed pair of cannon that were found at the northern end of this village, which appear to have belonged to the ancient ship from which Cannon Beach got its name.

In early 2008, sand levels sunk to extraordinarily low levels and revealed such things. The cannon that were found eventually made it to national television shows like “History Detectives.”

For a time, Arch Cape was actually called Cannon Beach because of a cannon found here from an old ship. Eventually, the town north of here got the name. More on Red Towers, and Ghost Forests at Arch Cape. More on the historic cannon from Arch Cape.