Wheeler

Wheeler. . The city of Wheeler with a commanding view of The Nehalem Bay , has some of the most interesting pre-Oregon history beginning with Frances Drake repairing his ship in the summer of 1579 and the wreck of a 1700's Spanish galleon. Some suggest that the area is actually the New Albion referred to in accounts of Drake's voyage. Others suggest that Bruno de Heceta was the first European to approach the Columbia River bar area in 1775, a mere decade before Lewis and Clark. Still others claim that a careful bit of digging in Nehalem Bay will confirm that Chinese mariners arrived here before the Europeans. , The first survey of Wheeler was made by a U.S. Geological Survey team in 1856. The village was founded as a mill town in 1910 by lumberman Coleman H. ("C.H.”) Wheeler, for whom it is named. Wheeler operated a saw mill called the Wheeler Lumber Company which he founded in 1912. , The success of the town was, in part, due to the railroad – mainly freight trains hauling lumber products from mills in Wheeler. By 1981, the Port of Tillamook Bay was operating the line and still does, providing short "fun run" trains from Garibaldi to Wheeler. After storm damage to a portion of the railway in 2007, the Port of Tillamook Bay closed the rail line beyond Wheeler and no longer provides a train connection from the coast to the valley. , Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad currently operates trains over a 30-mile section of the railroad between Garibaldi and Salmonberry. , In 2013, a steering committee Salmonberry Coalition was formed to make recommendations to the Port of Tillamook Bay on re-linking the communities along the rail corridor by converting the no longer functional portions of rail line to a trail. The Salmonberry Trail would connect 8 cities and 2 counties while passing through agrarian fields, the rugged coast range and important fisheries and along the Oregon coastline. Wheeler is proud to be one of the eight cities connected with the Salmonberry trail.