Cannon Beach City Councilor Gary Hayes signs Oregon Coast History book deal

Cannon Beach resident and City Councilor Gary Hayes has signed a publishing agreement with the History Press division of Arcadia Publishing for a book on the history of the Oregon Coast. The book is scheduled for release by the summer of 2025.

“The publisher was familiar with my writing about the Oregon Coast and reached out to me more than a year ago with an interest in adding a title on Oregon Coast history to their collection,” said Hayes. Arcadia Publishing is the largest publisher of local and regional history books in the United States.

“The book will only cover the last 15 million years or so,” Hayes adds tongue-in-cheek. Starting with the geologic forces that created the Oregon Coast we know today, the book will also tell the story of the indigenous people pre-contact, early exploration, settlement and the colorful eras of fur trading, logging and fishing; right through to 1960s efforts that made all of Oregon’s beaches public.

“I’m excited to tell these stories of American history through the context of the Oregon Coast,” said Hayes. “Some of the stories are well known, like that of Lewis and Clark, but this book is also an opportunity to share some of the lesser-known regional stories including the plight of the Native People of the Oregon Coast. Their way of life is one that essentially was the victim of cultural genocide.”

As a Cannon Beach City Councilor, Hayes has also been an advocate for the effort to turn the now shuttered Cannon Beach Elementary School into a cultural and environmental interpretive center. The school site was once the village of Ne’Cus, home of the native Clatsop-Nehalem People who were visited by the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1806. “It’s truly a special historic site and an opportunity to tell the story of this nearly lost culture,” adds Hayes.

Hayes has been an active leader in the tourism industry for the past 20-plus years as owner of Explorer Media Group and publisher of Coast Explorer Magazine. He was selected as Travel Oregon’s regional expert on the Oregon Coast and served for nearly a decade on the Oregon Coast Visitors Association.

Financing for the proposed Ne’Cus cultural and nature center will appear as an advisory measure on the November ballot for Cannon Beach residents. As proposed, it will wholly fund the Ne’Cus center using only the portion of lodging taxes that by state law must be reinvested into tourism marketing or tourism facilities. “This is an opportunity for our community to use these restricted tourism dollars to tell the story of the Native People and the remarkable environment we all cherish,” Hayes says. “It’s an opportunity to use tourism marketing dollars to promote stewardship toward a goal of sustainable tourism, not just promote more tourism,” he adds.