6000 Years on the Edge: History and Prehistory of the Oregon Coast Trail
Join us at the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum as we welcome author Bonnie Henderson on Thursday, March 17, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Henderson is the author of four books, including the newly released second edition of Day Hiking: Oregon Coast, which includes a comprehensive guide to the Oregon Coast Trail. The OCT is unique in the nation: a border-to-border shoreline trail incorporating more than 200 miles of sandy beach linked by footpaths over headlands and boat shuttles across bay mouths. It was first conceived in the late 1950s and was declared “hikeable” by Oregon State Parks in 1988. But that’s just the history; what about the prehistory? Obviously humans have been walking on the Oregon Coast Trail – or something like it – much longer than that. How long? And for how long has the Oregon Coast been where it is today? It turns out that scientific consensus on both questions has evolved radically in just the past few years, thanks to ground-breaking research in archaeology and paleogeology, much of it by Oregon scientists.
Henderson is author of the critically acclaimed The Next Tsunami: Living on a Restless Coast (Oregon State University Press: 2014). Her 2008 book, Strand: An Odyssey of Pacific Ocean Debris (OSU Press) was listed as a Best Book of 2008 by the Seattle Times and was a finalist for the 2009 Oregon Book Awards. She is also the author of two popular hiking guidebooks from Moutaineer Books: Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon, now in its third edition, and Day Hiking: Oregon Coast.
Her varied journalism career has included newspaper and magazine writing and editing. Today, she is primarily focused on exploring the intersection of the natural world and the human experience close to home. She lives in Eugene, Oregon.
The presentation starts at 7:00 p.m. and is free and open to the public.