Photos

A favorite beach of ours is in Oceanside, Oregon. It is a small town nestled against a headland called Maxwell Point, with a tunnel carved into it so you can reach a small secluded beach, and if the tide is low, two beaches.

In the late 1800's John W. Maxwell, a veteran of the Illinois Cavalry, purchased and homesteaded the entire area. At that time the area called Maxwell Point was known as part of Netarts and was accessed by a wooden plank road along the beach. Old pictures of Oceanside show it to have been a tent city at some point, with rickety looking suspension bridges strung around Maxwell Point.

The tunnel through Maxwell Point accesses Tunnel Beach on the other side and was blasted through by the Rosenberg family in 1926, still prominent in Oceanside.

A landslide closed the tunnel in 1979. Although storms would sluice it open from time to time, a big storm flushed it out properly in 1999. With its sharp rocks underfoot, it's still not a passage for anyone without sturdy shoes and strong ankles.

Around the next point at the North end of Tunnel Beach is Agate Beach which can only be reached by going around the point on a minus tide. And yet another secluded beach to the North of the next point, during a minus tide will give access to a natural cave which enters the cliff through one portal and forks into two exits near Short Beach below Radar Road. This cave is called Lost Boy Cave for a good reason and its name provides proper warning to anyone venturing in when the tide turns.