The Newport Performing Arts Center is the largest on the coast, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium attracts almost a million visitors a year. Open the windows in the morning and a salt breeze greets you. She is 27, with movie-star looks and no great interest in the literature of the sea. For all its newfound culture, a raffish character betrays Newport's past as it does in most of the coast towns. From Astoria in the north to Brookings in the south, the coastal towns embrace their individuality, much like Oregon itself.
Every local peculiarity is advertised as defining character.
But it is still the ocean that shaped these communities in their separate ways, holding them hostage to unpredictable weather while providing economic sustenance and a way of life. A spiraling frieze mural on the column depicts the history of the Pacific Northwest, from before the arrival of Europeans to the coming of the railroad. The mural is impressive enough, but it is the view from the top that takes your breath away. It was here that Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, in December 1805, laid eyes on the great ocean after 4,000 miles of arduous overland travel. Once here, they were socked in for three weeks by wind and weather.