This community is located in Clatsop County south of Astoria, between Seaside and Manzanita along Highway 101, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
In September 1846 the U.S. survey schooner Shark sank at the mouth of the Columbia River. Part of the wreckage, with three small cannons attached, floated southward and washed up here. Finally, in 1922, local residents named their town "Cannon Beach."
The coastline includes one of the world's larger monoliths, Haystack Rock. A mile west, Tillamook Head holds one of the most historic Lighthouses on the coast. The community has retained a small town aura despite being a magnet for crowds from Portland and farther.