For millennia, the rich plant and animal life around Yaquina Bay sustained Yaqona tribal people. In 1855, President Pierce set aside these homelands among 1.1 million acres along the coast as a reservation for western Oregon tribes. By the 1860s, the abundant native oyster beds caught the attention of San Francisco-based oyster firms and illegal encroachment by settlers increased. The town of Oysterville was established in 1863 and a wagon road from the Willamette Valley in 1864. This political pressure for fishing and trade led President Johnson to sidestep Congress and carve the reservation in two, opening Yaquina Bay and the surrounding 200,000 acres to settlers. Overharvest quickly depleted the oyster beds, and Oysterville disappeared with them. Restoration efforts returned oysters to the bay, assisted by Yaqona descendants in the Confederated Tribes of Siletz.

Location: Yaquina Bay State Park, Newport

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