1912 Train
Tour Stop #2
103 S 1st Street
The first passenger train arrived in Rockaway in 1912, departing Portland at 9 AM and arriving in Rockaway around 2:30. Steam engines played an important role in establishing the coastal communities. To travel by car was a dusty, all-day trip over gravel and plank roads. The train remained the main mode of transportation through the 1920's.
Friday afternoons were quite the occasion; fathers joined their families for the weekend, thus earning the name of “Daddy Train”. The Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center occupies the red caboose to honor this heritage.
Residents established businesses serving the new tourist economy, and Rockaway thrived.
Lodging included modest tent parks and boarding houses, cottages sharing a central kitchen & commode, and “The Outlook Inn,” a luxurious hotel and dining room at Lake Lytle.
Nearly every house had a few cabins or tent floors, and most of the stores had rooms upstairs to rent.
"Our family came down to Rockaway on the train in 1914 with bags, trunk and tent.
Eleanor wore the first Jantzen knit bathing suit. ... Before that, we wore suits with skirts and tops like a blouse and wore stockings when we went in the water.
At train time, we would all go to the depot to see who came on the train. ... Our fathers came down every weekend, first by train, and later by car."
- Sue Grapp (pictured below)
