Tillamook STATE FOREST Are you ready...... to explore a unique state forest located just 35 miles west of Portland in the lush, northern Oregon Coast Range? The Oregon Department of Forestry invites you to discover the Tillamook State Forest.
Here you will find 364,000 acres of rugged For More Information mountains rising above clear rivers where 1933 Tillamook Fire If you’re looking for more specific information on the salmon and steelhead return to spawn. The smoke plume from the 1933 Tillamook State Forest, pick up additional brochures at Majestic elk roam the forest while busy birds Tillamook Fire rose to 40,000 feet as one of our district offices or click through our web site: and scurrying squirrels dart through shrubs the inferno raged across a 15 mile www.oregon.gov/ODF/TSF/tsf.shtml and treetops. Delicate spring wildflowers flame front. The power of the fire To get travel information in Oregon by phone, dial 511 emerge across the hillsides and valleys only created a hurricane force wind that or 1-800-977-6368 or check Oregon Department of to surrender their colors to yellow-tinted Transportation’s Trip Check web site: www.tripcheck.com broadleaf trees in the fall. uprooted trees and snapped them like matchsticks. Nearby coastal Buckets of rain from late fall through spring Forest Contact Information cities were plunged into darkness at nourish a green world of mosses, ferns and mid-day due to the thick, blinding Tillamook Forest Center trees. The summer and early 45500 Wilson River Highway smoke. Ashes and cinders fell on Tillamook OR 97141 fall are generally warm (866) 930 - 4646 and dry—a time when ships 500 miles at sea. www.tillamookforestcenter.org visitors need to be cautious with fire and comply with fire Tillamook District Office restrictions. 5005 3rd Street, Tillamook, OR 97141 (503) 842 - 2545 Plan Your Visit Forest Grove District Office Whether you’re looking for a 801 Gales Creek Road scenic drive on the way to the Forest Grove OR 97116 (503) 357 - 2191 beach, a place to pitch your Recorded Recreation Hot Line (503) 359-7402 tent, or a trail adventure, you’ll find something special in the Tillamook State Forest. Many visitors also enjoy the forest and its streams for fishing, hunting, kayaking, swimming and wildlife viewing.
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By the 1930s the timber industry owned large areas of prime The Burn Becomes the Managed for a Wide forestland in the northern Coast Range. Burden of the Counties Range of Values Many landowners walked away from their Today, the Oregon Department of Forestry The magnificent early coast range forest included scattered Today History “worthless” lands in the Tillamook Burn. manages the Tillamook State Forest for a openings and young stands created when trees died from insects, Ownership of these lands transferred range of social, environmental and economic disease, wind and fire. Some trees grew to ten feet thick and 300 to the counties, creating a financial and benefits. The health of the forest, from wildlife feet tall! environmental burden. The Forest Acquisition habitat to water quality, is a driving force Act, passed in 1939, encouraged counties behind a forest management plan adopted in Oregon’s Most Infamous Forest Fire to deed the foreclosed lands to the Oregon 2001. The plan calls for a sustainable level of Department of Forestry in exchange for a timber harvesting that is designed to improve On August 14th, 1933 one spark changed the landscape forever. share of future timber harvest revenues, giving the forest’s health and contribute revenue to The day dawned hot and dry in a forest ripe for fire. A logging rise to the state forest system we have today. local schools and counties. company working in Gales Creek canyon planned to shut down Many local and Portland-area The World’s Largest Fun in the Forest schools participated in the early due to the extreme fire danger. As loggers dragged in the last replanting effort in the 1950s Reforestation Project Pack up the family and your camping gear and and 60s. Here, a group of log it was pulled over the top of another, creating enough friction Tillamook schoolchildren The department began a huge reforestation head out to the Tillamook State Forest to one A forester measures the to ignite a fire. diameter of a tree in gather to plant seedlings near project in 1949 that resulted in the planting of eight developed campgrounds that offer a preparation for a timber sale. Muesial Creek. The Tillamook Fire burned a total of 240,000 acres including the of 72 million tree seedlings. Governor Tom range of features. Most day it “blew up” destroying 200,000 acres of forest in 24 hours. McCall dedicated the Tillamook State Forest campgrounds operate from May Gales Creek Campground Additional fires scorched the area again in 1939, 1945, and 1951, in 1973. It remains an amazing living tribute through October and charge a to the resiliency of the land and the dedication small fee. A few campgrounds creating the Tillamook Burn and the legend of the six-year jinx. of a generation of Oregonians. include facilities for horses and All the fires were caused by careless logging and spurred the state off-highway vehicles. to strengthen fire prevention regulations. In the end, the series of four wildfires burned 355,000 acres of forest land—an area four times the size of Portland. The children worked in pairs. Typically, a boy would excavate the soil and then a girl would plant a bare-root seedling.
Selective thinning of crowded tree stands allow the remaining trees to grow larger more quickly. Seaside Seaside Vernonia 14 miles 24 miles
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d a ODF District Headquarters Sand o R e Beach k a Bl ai n e Road Tillamook State Forest l ss Road Fan Creek d Beaver cce McGuire Reservoir Sand Lake n r A a ve S Blaine Ri Clatsop State Forest Nestucca River ca Carlton stuc Ne Paved Road Alder Glen Gravel Road Scale 051 2 3 4 miles McMinnville 3 miles Rocky Bend There are hundreds of miles of maintained forest roads to explore, but drivers should be aware that gravel roads The Tillamook Trail You’ll find a trail for every type of require more caution and slower speeds. Carry a forest Forest Center is use and challenge, with separate areas for a must-see for visitors Adventures map, water, check your spare tire and be alert for log motorized and non-motorized activities. Make looking for a fun place your way on foot, mountain bike or horseback on trucks and other vehicles. Stay to the right and expect a to visit. Experience trails of varying difficulty. The Tillamook State Forest vehicle around every corner. indoor exhibits, outdoor also offers one of the most trails and family popular off-highway vehicle programs covering the trail systems in the Pacific early forest, the fires, Hikers enjoy exploring miles of woodland trails like this A Cool Escape from the Heat Tillamook Forest Center Northwest with several human interactions, and area on the Gales Creek Trail. and Great Fishing Too staging areas available for the forest today. four-wheel-drive, motorcycle and quad riders. With five rivers—Nehalem, Miami, Kilchis, Wilson and Look for viewpoints, waysides, and picnicking opportunities along Highway Trask—draining the west side of the forest, you will find 6 and Highway 26. The Gales Creek Overlook provides a view across the many opportunities for water play and a chance to fish a area that burned in 1933. The Smith Homestead Day Use Area and Jones world-class salmon or steelhead stream. Nehalem Falls was a Creek Day Use Area overlook the Wilson River and provide a great place for Native American fishing site and is a great place to view fall a picnic. The Forest Learning Shelter at the Smith Homestead offers a large Chinook salmon jumping the falls. Coho salmon return to Visitors to the Tillamook State Forest find an rustic shelter that can be rented for private events. spawn in a side channel extensive network of off-highway vehicle trails. of the Wilson River.