Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/435

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OREGON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES
369

much broken and eroded, projecting about one-half mile from the general trend of the coast. Behind the cape are bright sand dunes, and it is probable that these rather than the sand on the cape itself suggested the name Sand Cape.

Cape Lookout, Tillamook County. Cape Lookout is one of the most prominent head lands on the Oregon Coast. It projects into the ocean one and one-half miles and has a narrow rocky promontory over 400 feet high on its seaward extremity. East of the cape the mountains rise to an elevation of over 2000 feet.

Cape Lookout bears its present name in error which will doubtless never be corrected. The name was originally applied by John Meares to what is now known as Cape Meares, which he described fully and accurately, and his description was subsequently corroborated by Vancouver. The name was probably changed to the new position on the Coast Survey charts of 1850 and 1853.

Cape Lookout is about 10 miles south of Cape Meares and is somewhat more prominent which is doubtless the reason for change. Having once become attached to the new feature it was deemed inadvisable to attempt to restore the name to the old location and as a result George Davidson applied it to the feature that Meares called Cape Lookout. For further information on this point, see the entry on Cape Meares and also refer to the United States Coast Pilot for 1869.

Cape Meares, Tillamook County. Cape Meares is just south of Tillamook Bay, and bears the name of the most interesting of all the early explorers of the north Pacific Coast. Meares is well described in the following words by Professor Edmond S. Meany in his History of Washington, page 25:

"John Meares, a retired lieutenant of the British Navy, was the most unconventional and interesting personality of all those figuring in these early marine annals.