Covering more than 350,000 acres of mountainous terrain, the Tillamook State Forest is a remarkable achievement. It is a man-made forest planted after a series of disastrous fires between 1933 and 1951 destroyed nearly every tree on those mountains.

In the years after the fires, foresters, professional tree planters and volunteers worked painstakingly to reestablish the forest and its many resources. Oregon voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1948 authorizing $12 million in bonds to rehabilitate the land. The long reforestation project, the largest ever undertaken, began in 1949. In total, 72 million seedlings were planted.

The new Tillamook State Forest is a place of hope. Decades of investment and hard work are beginning to pay off. Harvests of some timber are providing revenue and jobs. Healthy fish and wildlife populations have returned, and the forest is enjoyed by campers, hikers, anglers, off-highway vehicle enthusiasts and horseback riders.

Rivers

Tillamook County is known as the Land of Many Waters because of its many rivers, estuaries and lakes. In the Rockaway Beach area, there are a number of small streams flowing across the sand to the ocean. Rivers in northern and central Tillamook County include the Nehalem, Miami, Kilchis, Wilson, Trask and Tillamook.

Closest to Rockaway Beach to the north is the Nehalem River.

The Nehalem River is approximately 119 miles long. It drains part of the Northern Oregon Coast Range, originating on the east side of the mountains and flowing in a loop around the north near the mouth of the Columbia River. Its watershed covers 855 square miles.

The Nehalem River rises in the northeast corner of Tillamook County in the Tillamook State Forest. It initially flows northeast, across the northwest corner of Washington County and into western Columbia County, past Vernonia and Pittsburg. It then flows to the northwest and west into Clatsop County, then southwest back into northern Tillamook County. It receives the Salmonberry River from the east in northern Tillamook County, and the North Fork Nehalem River, 25 miles from the north about 2 miles northwest of Nehalem, just before entering Nehalem Bay. Nehalem Bay is picturesque and relatively unspoiled. It is popular for boating, kayaking and fishing.

The Tillamook County Pioneer Museum has a huge collection of information on the area, its history and its people. The three-story museum is a piece of local history, too. It was built in 1905 and served as the county courthouse for 30 years. Among its most popular attractions are a replica of a blacksmith shop and a forest fire lookout station. The research library has many shelves full of historical information, with more than 3,000 volumes. The museum is located in the heart of downtown Tillamook at 2106 2nd Street

The Tillamook County Creamery Association plant visitor center just north of Tillamook attracts upwards of 1 million people a year. Visitors can observe cheese packaging operations from an observation platform and take a self-guided tour of cheese making. At the end of the tour, visitors can taste free samples of cheese.

See one of America's finest collections of over 30 War Birds including a P-38 Lightning, F4U-Corsair, P51-Mustang, PBY Catalina and SBD Dauntless dive bomber. Climb into a jet simulator. Have lunch at a '40s-'50s café. Enjoy the aviation gift shop. It is all housed in a rare World War II Blimp Hangar. The Tillamook Air Museum is located just south of Tillamook off U.S. Highway 101.