 Tillamook
County, the twelfth county in Oregon to
be organized, was established on December 15, 1853, when the Territorial
Legislature approved an act to create the new county out of an area
previously included in Clatsop, Yamhill and Polk Counties. The county
was named after the Tillamook Indians who occupied the areas around
the Tillamook and Nehalem Bays.
Tillamook
County is located in the northwestern portion of the state and is
bordered by Clatsop County on the north, Washington and Yamhill
Counties on the east, Polk and Lincoln Counties on the south, and
by the Pacific Ocean on the west. Boundary changes were enacted
with Clatsop County (1855, 1870, and 1893), Lincoln County (1893),
Washington County (1893, 1898), and Yamhill County (1887). The area
of Tillamook County is 1,125 square miles. The 2000 population of
24,262 represented an increase of 12.48% since 1990.
During
the first ten years following the organization of the county, the
county court met at the homes of its members. From 1865 to 1875
court sessions were held in various schoolhouses in the district,
the exact place being determined by the incumbent county judge.
In 1866 the town of Lincoln was renamed Tillamook in order to stay
consistent with the post office's name of Tillamook. An election
in 1873 chose Tillamook as the county seat. In 1875 an office in
the general store was rented by the county to house county offices.
In 1889 a courthouse was built but was destroyed by fire in 1903.
Only the county clerk's vault and its stored records were saved.
A new courthouse was built at the same site in 1905 and replaced
again in 1933.
County
government offices that were already in place upon statehood were
the three county commissioners (including the county judge), a probate
judge, sheriff, clerk, treasurer, assessor, school superintendent,
and coroner. Subsequent officers and/or boards were established
as follows: surveyor (1860); stock inspector (1895); school district
boundary board (1899); veterinarian (1910); health officer (1912);
fair board (1913); agricultural agent (1915); dairy herd inspector
(1917); dog control districts (1919); and an engineer (1925).
Tillamook
County belongs to the Clatsop-Tillamook Intergovernmental Council.
The
major physical features of Tillamook County consist of the rocky
and irregular coastline that forms the county's western boundary,
stretches of coastal lowlands, and heavily timbered interior parts,
which comprise the main span and several spurs of the Coast Range.
Principal industries are agriculture, lumber, fishing, and recreation.
Dairy farms dominate the county's fertile valleys providing milk
for the well-known Tillamook cheese. Logging and lumbering are becoming
a significant economic force due to the reforestation of most of
the "Tillamook Burn" area. With seventy-five miles of
coastline, four bays, and nine rivers, recreational and tourist
facilities are numerous. The Tillamook airbase for blimps was commissioned
on December 1, 1942, with the name U.S. Naval Air Station. It was
closed after World War II.
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 Huge
forest fires known as the "Tillamook Burn"
destroyed 240,000 acres of timber in 1933. Subsequent
fires brought the total to 355,000 acres and over 13
billion board feet of timber. The total economic loss
was estimated to be in excess of $600 million. Countless
steep hillsides, formerly blanketed in ancient Douglas
firs, cedars, and hemlocks, stood barren and covered
in ash.
The
devastation challenged the local communities and the
state to respond. What followed was remarkable as groups
of school children from Tillamook County, Portland,
and elsewhere gathered among the charred snags to replant
seedlings. Over time, more than 72 million trees were
planted. Now, the forest is managed for a variety of
resources including wildlife habitat, timber, and recreation.
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