Photograph of Whale Watching Center — Photograph by EncMstr, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Depoe Bay Ocean Wayside

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

From the record

“The Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center, also known as the Depoe Bay Ocean Wayside, is an Oregon State Parks-staffed visitor center in Depoe Bay, Oregon, U.S. to help visitors observe whale migration and provide information about whales and other marine mammals, including history, economics, and their environmental and ecological influences. The wayside provides a sheltered platform from which to view the ocean.”
Wikipedia article Depoe Bay Whale Watching Center, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 19 National Register listings published here for Lincoln County · listed in 2012 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 119 SW US 101, Depoe Bay, 97341
When was it listed? March 2012
Category. building
Census division. Depoe Bay
National Register reference number. 12000082 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

19 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 19 fires within 5 miles of Depoe Bay Ocean Wayside between 1994 and 2020, burning about 298 acres in total. 1 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	6
Debris and open burning	4
Smoking	3
Equipment and vehicle use	2
Fireworks	2
Natural	1
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
12 September 1999	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Toledo Unit	10.5 MILE FIRE
7 August 2005	Fireworks	under an acre	Toledo Unit	SEAGROVE
30 August 2000	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Toledo Unit	FOULWEATHER
3 August 2009	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Toledo Unit	SILETZ AIRPORT
22 August 2016	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	202 acres	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	2500 RD. FIRE
2 August 2012	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Oregon Department of Forestry Salem Headquarters	BEVERLY FIRE
6 July 2004	Fireworks	under an acre	Toledo Unit	FOGARTY CREEK
5 July 2003	Smoking	under an acre	Toledo Unit	ROCKY CREEK

Every fire recorded in Lincoln County

Mines and quarries near this property

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Depoe Bay Ocean Wayside: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Stone, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Otter Crest Quarry	Stone	Past Producer
Otter Crest Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Schoolhouse Creek Sand Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Schoolhousec Reek Sand Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Lincoln County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

4 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Depoe Bay Bridge No. 01388	0.2 miles	2005
TRADEWINDS KINGFISHER (Cruiser)	0.2 miles
Rocky Creek Bridge No. 01089	2.3 miles	2005
Look-Out on Cape Foulweather, The	3.6 miles	2015

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 12000082 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Lincoln County	All 19 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.