Cape Meares Lighthouse · Photo: Gordon Banks · CC BY-SA 3.0

–Not graded

History · Cape Meares

Cape Meares’ post office opened in 1953, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Cape Meares Lighthouse. Below: maps from 1942 on.

1953first post office

1on the National Register

12%homes built before 1940

Add an old photo Share a memory

Quick answers

How Cape Meares began

When was Cape Meares founded?

1953

The Cape Meares post office opened in 1953, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Bayocean (1909), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 13573 years

Founding year: the first Cape Meares post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Cape Meares’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Cape Meares are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cape Meares’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cape Meares’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

The story so far

Cape Meares, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cape Meares yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Cape Meares is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census, Cape Meares had a population of 135. The community is named after the natural feature of the same name, which in turn was named after John Meares, a British explorer. The Bayocean post office was briefly renamed "Cape Meares" in 1953 but closed the next year.

Its first post office opened in 1953. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 99 to 135 (+36%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Cape Meares, 1909 to 1954

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

20th century
1909Post officeThe Bayocean post office opens
1942On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1953Post officeThe Bayocean post office closes
1953Post officeThe Cape Meares post office opens
1954Post officeThe Cape Meares post office closes

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.

Add from your album

On the map

Cape Meares on the map, 1942 to 1986

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cape Meares. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1942Tillamook sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cape Meares.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Cape Meares

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1993

Cape Meares Lighthouse

Buildings

Cape Meares LighthouseBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Cape Meares

Nobody well known was born in Cape Meares itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →

Bridget MarquardtAmerican TV personality · b. 1973

Maurine NeubergerUS Senator from Oregon · b. 1907

Ken CarpenterAmerican football player · b. 1926

Betsy EbyAmerican artist · b. 1967

Brian BoquistRepublican politician from Oregon · b. 1958

Dorothy JohansenAmerican historian · b. 1904

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

Cape Meares had its own post office from 1953 to 1954. Another post office, Bayocean, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Bayocean

1909–1953

Cape Meares

1953–1954

19001960today

Hamlets and corners on the map

Bayocean

Gone or out of use

Bayocean Post Officepost officeCape Meares Post Officepost office

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Cape Meares’ history

What year was Cape Meares founded?

The Cape Meares post office opened in 1953, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Cape Meares?

One place: the Cape Meares Lighthouse (listed 1993).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

Post to Cape Meares

Check your email