Dungeness Crab Capitol Of The World

I was born in a sleepy little fishing town on the Oregon coast…well, in 1963 it was a sleepy little fishing town, now it is a bustling tourist hot spot. Newport Oregon is affectionately known as the Dungeness crab capitol of the world, and for good reason. Newport averages around 16 million pounds of tasty Dungeness crab yearly – though during the 2004-05 season they saw a record 33+ million pounds of crab come in on the crab boats. The crabbing industry in Newport is the main source of income for the area, with tourism a very close second. It is such a big deal that there was even a spin-off season of The Deadliest Catch filmed here, titled Dungeon Cove.

While I was born in Newport, I did not actually grow up here, we lived over 50 miles to the north east, 7 miles up a mountain, until I was about 3 years old, then we moved to the “big city” of Beaverton - a suburb south west of Portland. I have family that had lived here my entire life so I was never away for long, but I returned to the coast to live around 2014 and eventually bought a house in Newport in 2017. My house has a view of the Yaquina (pronounced Yaw-Qwin-Ah) Bay bridge and a peek-a-boo view of the bay from the upstairs front of the house, and the Pacific ocean from the upstairs back, with some of the most spectacular sunsets imaginable. The historic bay front is a mere 3/10ths of a mile from my front door – a quick 5 minute walk to the sights, sounds, and smells of a busy fishing industry and tourist mecca.

When I say sounds and smells I am not kidding. If you have never visited a bayfront then it is difficult to understand what it is like. We have numerous fish processing plants within about 150-200 yards (as the crow flies) from my house, so the overwhelmingly pungent smell of fish and salt water is an almost constant assault on the olfactory receptors. Add to that the constant, 24 hours a day, barking of the sealions that make Yaquina Bay their home, and the sound of work being done in the processing plants, and your auditory senses are also being bombarded. The coast guard has a station that is about a mile and a half from my house, so we are in their flight path. It is still an exciting experience to watch their helicopter fly over my house when doing training exercises – not so much so when they are having to go out on a rescue. There have been a few times that I have been awakened by the sound of the helicopter flying over my house late at night and that is very concerning when we have lost several fishing vessels over the years.

Crabbing is not the only thing the fishermen here do. Commercial crabbing season runs from approximately December to August though most years the boats do not get out to drop their traps until sometime in January, and they are pretty much done by May, when halibut season starts. After crabbing season is over halibut, salmon, and tuna seasons begin, and you can buy fresh rock fish pretty much any time of the year. There is nothing quite like walking along the docks and buying fresh fish right off the boats. Several miles up the Yaquina river there is a rundown looking little shack, that is actually an oyster farm, where you can buy freshly harvested oysters. I am not a fan of oysters, but the rest of my family is, so I buy them fresh oysters several times a year. I did kind of overdo it on the seafood after we moved into our new home and my mother said to me one day, “I never thought I would say this but…I’m getting kind of tired of seafood.” I slowed down on purchasing seafood after that. The man who bought the house across the street from mine works for a fishing charter company and last year he was bringing me crab and rockfish about every other day. I still have a good supply of fish in my freezer and, tragically, I found out you can NOT freeze crab, it gets freezer burn and becomes tough, rubbery, and just doesn’t taste good anymore - it was quite painful to throw away almost a pound of crab meat – this year I will be canning it instead.

I constantly hear visitors to the Oregon coast speak admiringly about how beautiful and peaceful it is here. Sometimes I have to stop and consider what they say because after a while you just kind of “get used to it” and forget about what an amazing place this is. Then other times mother nature surprises you with a breathtakingly beautiful sunset to remind you that you truly do live in a paradise. The weather is often the only thing visitors, and locals, will complain about. During the summer we average about 65 degrees for a high temperature, often combined with heavy fog. We usually get one or two days every summer where it will get into the upper 80’s or low 90’s and I have become so acclimated to the cooler temperatures that I can’t wait until it gets back into the 60’s. Working as a bartender I often had people asking me if I could turn up the heat because they were cold. I, on the other hand, was dripping sweat from literally running back and forth from the bar to the kitchen to get their food orders. Very few hotels in Newport have air conditioning because we don’t get hot days, but on the one or two days that we do people will complain about no A/C. I find it fascinating that you can travel just 7 miles east of Newport and it will be 80 degrees, or above, but when you get into town the temperature has dropped by 20 or more degrees. Winter is a similar situation, though reversed. If you go 7 miles to the east you are likely to run into snow or ice, but in Newport we can be as much as 15-20 degrees warmer with just rain.

And speaking of winter and rain, the winter storms on the coast are amazing…if you like storms that is! We have what are called King Tides during the winter. Super high tides, huge crashing waves, wind gusts that can hit upwards of 90 miles per hour in some areas, and rain coming in sideways. Some people are not fans of the winter rain and storms, but others love them. People will travel to the coast especially for the thrill of watching the storms from their hotel room. I will often drive to the beach and sit in my car watching the storm, in all its fury, and I honestly find it relaxing and awe inspiring to see the power of nature. Another bonus of the storms is that they bring a lot of agates to shore and agate hunters will be out in force after storms looking for the prized, fist sized, agates – which are rare but exciting when you find one.

Other than the bayfront we have other attractions in Newport. Just a few blocks from the beach is the Nye Beach area with shops, restaurants, bars, and hotels. There are several access pounts to get to the beach from the Nye Beach area and it is always very busy there. Across the Yaquina Bay bridge, to the south of Newport, is the South Beach area. On that side of the bay is the Oregon Coast Aquarium. In the mid 1990’s the aquarium had received millions of dollars in donations with which they built a special tank for Keiko the killer whale, the star of the movie Free Willy. Sadly, Keiko was there less than 3 years and 2 years after being returned to the wild he died. Also on the south side of the bay is the Mark O. Hatfield Marine Science Center, which is a marine science research and education center. You can always see R/S (research) vessels moored outside the center. The south side of the bay is also the home of the Rogue Nation Brewery, makers of Rogue Ales and Spirits. You can find a few funky little shops near the aquarium and marine science center as well as access to beautiful beaches on the south west side of the bay and the beginning of a scenic drive down coastal highway 101 toward southern Oregon and the California border.

During normal years Newport hosts the Wine and Seafood Festival, which draws thousands of people to the Oregon coast during a time when we normally don’t have a lot of tourists. Local restaurants will showcase items from their menus, wine makers from around the state will bring bottles of their wines for people to try, and even the local breweries (we have more than just Rogue) will also bring their creations for people to try. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has cancelled the festivities for this year. If you care to partake in recreational cannabis then we have that, too…in abundance. There are three dispensaries within walking distance of my house. Oregonians do like their cannabis.

At the north end of Newport is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, which is rumored to be haunted by a construction worker who was helping to build the lighthouse and fell to his death. His body was wedged between the walls of the structure and never retrieved. Another, possible, ghost is that of one of the lighthouse keepers who died of a heart attack in the watch room in 1921. The Yaquina Head lighthouse was actually the second lighthouse built in Newport. In 1871 the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was built at the mouth of the Yaquina River. It was soon realized that the lighthouse in the bay wouldn’t help ships navigating at sea so a new lighthouse was built on a basalt headland that extends a mile into the ocean. The Yaquina Head Lighthouse lit up for the first time on August 20, 1873. The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was decommissioned in 1874 but in 1996 it was restored and added to the list of historic places. It is currently being used as a navigation aid for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and is the only wooden lighthouse structure in Oregon still standing.