The West Shelter sits at the 800-foot level on the west edge of Cape Perpetua and was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The cape was originally named Halaqaik by the Alsea people who inhabited the area for thousands of years, and later renamed by Captain James Cook after he saw the cape on Saint Perpetua’s day in 1778.
The 2,700 acre Cape Perpetua area is now managed by the Siuslaw National Forest.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was part of the economic stimulus of the Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression. At Cape Perpetua, young men in the corps built their camp near the current site of the U.S. Forest Service’s Cape Perpetua Visitors Center. They carved out a series of trails, the public campground that’s still used today and then the West Shelter overlooking the Pacific.
Because of its vantage point, the shelter was used as a lookout spot during World War II with rotating shifts watching for enemy boats or aircraft. Now, it is popular with tourists looking for a high vantage point over the Pacific Ocean.
In September 2019 volunteers and staff for Colorado-based HistoriCorps spent two weeks on a $50,000 Forest Service restoration project to replace wood beams and cedar shakes on the shelter. It was the fourth time the structure needed major restoration work because of exposure to the elements.
- Historical photos and some text provided by the Lincoln County Historical Society in a partnership with YachatsNews. To learn more about the society and local history, visit its website here. A sampling of historic images from the LCHS collection can be seen at OregonDigital.org
