Waldport is a community situated on the southern shore of Alsea Bay, an estuary of the Alsea River, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Newport and 8 miles (13 km) north of Yachats, Oregon. Bayshore, a residential area, lies on the bay’s northern shore. The Alsea River drains a watershed of about 298,000 acres (120,700 ha) and flows generally west for 34 miles (55 km) through the Central Oregon Coast Range, originating at the confluence of its North and South Forks near the community of Alsea. The North Fork flows southeast for 16 miles (26 km) from the southwest flank of Marys Peak, while the South Fork runs northwest for 15 miles (24 km). The river’s name derives from “Alse,” the term used by the Coosan and Siuslaw tribes for the people who historically lived along its shores. The Oregon Coast Range formed along a convergent tectonic boundary, where the Juan de Fuca Plate subducts beneath the North America Plate. This Cascadia subduction zone has been active for millions of years. The central Coast Range is underlain by volcanic rocks—pillow basalt, lava flows, tuff-breccia, and sills—that originated from ancient oceanic islands. Most of the Alsea watershed rests on the Tyee Formation, composed of Eocene-age marine graywacke turbidites. Tectonic activity has created numerous faults and folds throughout the range. Unlike much of North America, the Oregon Coast Range was not glaciated during the Pleistocene. Instead, persistent heavy rainfall has driven landslides and erosion, shaping the present-day landscape and forming the relatively flat terrain that supports human settlement.
The people who lived along the Alsea River and estuary called themselves the Wusi, a Yakonan placename for the river. Yakonan-speaking peoples numbered about 6,000 in 1780, but their population declined sharply after contact with Euro-Americans—to just 29 in 1910 and 9 in 1930. The Alsea hunted seals and sea lions and netted salmon. They practiced cranial deformation and placed their dead in canoes on isolated estuarine points. When American trader Captain Robert Gray sailed off the Oregon coast in 1788, the Alsea were reportedly hostile, possibly due to earlier maritime encounters. By the 1820s, they were trading with Hudson’s Bay Company ships. The Alsea River valley was first settled by Euro-Americans in 1855, when ‘Alseya Settlement’ appeared on the Surveyor General’s map. In the late 1870s, settlers from the Willamette Valley floated down the river, filing donation land claims on traditional Alsea lands. In 1859–60, the Alsea were forcibly removed to the southern part of the Coast Reservation, later the Siletz Reservation. In 1865, the reservation was split by the withdrawal of land around Yaquina Bay. Tribes in the southern portion became known as the Alsea Tribes of the Alsea Reservation, later the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Today, many descendants live near Coos Bay. David and Orlena Ruble platted a settlement on the south shore of Alsea Bay in 1879. Waldport was chartered in 1890 and incorporated in 1911. Its name derives from the German ‘wald‘ for forest. A US Army rail line built in 1918 to haul spruce for World War I aircraft was later acquired by the C.D. Johnson Lumber Company, which used it to log an area south of town. The rail line once extended from the port docks to Toledo on Yaquina Bay and was the first reliable crossing of the bay that did not require a boat. The first Alsea Bay Bridge was designed by Conde McCullough and completed in 1936 as part of the Oregon Coast Highway, but the steel reinforcements eventually succumbed to exposure and the bridge was replaced in 1991.
About 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Waldport, Oregon State University is building a facility to test wave energy converters, with the aim of supplying alternative energy to local communities and the regional power grid. Wave power has long been considered one of the most promising renewable energy sources. Wave energy converters are electro-mechanical devices that transform wave motion into electricity. Attempts to harness wave power date back to at least 1890, but high production costs—about 10 times greater than offshore wind as of 2020—have limited widespread adoption. Over the past 30 years, thousands of wave power conversion methods have been patented. Although many designs have undergone modeling and wave tank testing, only a few have progressed to full-scale sea trials. Significant cost reductions, driven by global deployment, are essential for wave power to compete with conventional energy sources. Oregon State University’s open-ocean testing facility is designed to accelerate this progress. It includes two offshore sites connected via power and data cables to an onshore monitoring station. Scheduled to begin operations in 2025, the facility is a partnership between the US Department of Energy, the State of Oregon, Oregon State University, and local stakeholders. The location was selected through public outreach and consultation with local fishermen. The site will offer four pre-permitted test berths, occupying 1,280 acres (518 ha) of ocean floor, linked to shore by a 12-mile (19 km) cable route. It is approved for testing up to 20 wave energy converters with a total capacity of 20 MW—5 MW per berth. All infrastructure, including grid connection and environmental monitoring, will be in place, eliminating the need for individual permitting by users. Read more here and here. Explore more of Waldport and Alsea Bay here: