Moclips and North Beach History

First Peoples

The original residents were members of the Quinault Tribe along the coast north of Grays Harbor and the Chehalis of the lower Chehalis River drainage. Other tribes in the area included the Queets, Humptulips, Satsop, Wynoochee, and Copalis. By Quinault tradition, the Great Spirit called all the animals together and described how he would place humans on the earth. These he called Quinault. The Chehalis, Quinault, and Hoh tribes spoke the Coast Salish language closely related to other Salishan language groups in the Northwest, but unlike the Chinooks to the south or the Hoh and Makah to the north. All the tribes also used a trade jargon called Chinook.
The area tribes lived in permanent villages along rivers and lakes. Water defined their economic and cultural lives. They harvested salmon as the anadromous species swam upstream to spawn, as well as whales and seals along the coast. In the summers, hunters ranged inland and into the Olympic Mountains for game and to trade with other tribal groups. The Indians developed a high degree of skill with canoes carved from cedar trees in a variety of specialized designs adapted to swift-flowing rivers, broad estuaries, and the sea.

The Quinault's first contact with Europeans in 1775 near Grenville Point ended in the deaths of seven Spaniards and as many as seven Indians. The Indians had traded peacefully with the explorers, but turned on them after the Spaniards landed, erected a cross, and claimed the land for the Spanish king. The reason for the sudden attack remains unexplained, but tribal historians have offered the possibility that the Europeans had violated a women's safe haven.
Spaniards and several explorers prior failed to actually discover Grays Harbor. In 1792, Captain Robert Gray of Boston not only discovered Grays Harbor but also the mighty Columbia River.

In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson formed an expedition with William Clark and Meriweather Lewis at the helm to explore the vast wilderness from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean. This event opened the floodgates for settlement.

Contact with Europeans and the frequent interaction between tribes accelerated the several epidemics that swept the region beginning with smallpox in the 1770s and continuing with what was likely malaria in 1829, cholera in 1836, and smallpox again in 1853. The native population dropped from thousands to a few dozen. So many Chinooks died around Willapa Bay in the 1850s that the Chehalis moved in to take their place.

In 1855, the Olympia Treaty was signed by Chief Taholah of the Quinault Nation. This created the Quinault Indian Reservation that forms a triangle-shaped boundary with the Pacific Ocean and Lake Quinault.

The first white settlers came to the North Beach in the mid-1800's. Many homesteaded with 160 acres of fine timber. Life was harsh but rewarding. Around 1900, the signs of "civilization" began to emerge from the forests.

Although first settled earlier, Moclips was not established until 1905 with the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad and the first Moclips Beach Hotel - nearly one hundred years ago, a man named Dr. Edward Lycan found this place and dreamed of a bustling city by the sea. He did his part, and contributed a grand hotel. It was a two story, 150 room beach-side resort. It burned down just months after it was completed in 1905; but, Dr. Lycan would not be deterred. His next vision was even grander than the first.

Built in the same location on the beach; but, at three stories high, and a block long, it loomed from the dunes like no other structure. This Moclips Beach Hotel was completed in 1907; and advertised as having 270 “outside” rooms, with 2000 ft. of 10 ft. covered verandah, and a perfect view of the Pacific Ocean, reported to be just 12 feet from the hotel grounds. This close proximity to the ocean, however, would prove its undoing

Back then Moclips was publicized as a healthy get away from the toil and trouble of city life. It was a health resort. The moist salt air and bathing in the surf was touted as very medicinal. A promotional pamphlet of the time purports Moclips’ climate to be “simply perfect”. Dr. Lycan believed that Moclips was the Mecca for health and pleasure of the Northwest.

Moclips became a real town with restaurants, hotels, candy store, theater, canneries and the M.R. Smith Lumber and Shingle Mill. Many hotels, schools, canneries and shingle mills sprang up overnight. Four schools once taught children from Taholah to Ocean Shores. Class schedules for the local schools were based on the clamming tides. Two of these buildings exist today.

By 1911 Moclips’ perfect climate changed; and, a series of fatal storms hit the beach, eventually washing much of the town away. Moclips Beach Hotel stood in pieces. By the end of 1913, there was no more left of the Moclips Beach Hotel. Many fires as well destroyed much of the Moclips along the beach. The latest was in 1948 at the top of the hill where a welding accident destroyed many homes and businesses.

The U.S. Navy and Air Force made Pacific Beach - Moclips neighbour town their home during World War II. The Navy still occupies property along the bluff in Pacific Beach - now a recreational use center for the military.

In 1960, a second wave of tourism began with the inception of Ocean Shores Estates. According to yearly polls by Evening Magazine, this resort town is consistently near the top of places to visit being number two behind Seattle.

In 2004, a new seaside village will rise from the forest floor just south of Pacific Beach. Seabrook will be the newest and most thoughtfully designed coastal community on the entire coast.

The history of the North Beach is amazing, sometimes downright incredible. We encourage you to explore this website and visit the Museum of the North Beach to learn what others have already known - this is Washington's Best Kept Secret.