Join the Cannon Beach History Center & Museum to welcome author Bonnie Henderson and listen to her talk about the history and prehistory of the Oregon Coast Trail. Henderson is the author of four books, including the newly released second edition of Day Hiking: Oregon Coast, which includes a comprehensive guide to the Oregon Coast Trail. The OCT is unique in the nation: a border-to-border shoreline trail incorporating more than 200 miles of sandy beach linked by footpaths over headlands and boat shuttles across bay mouths. It was first conceived in the late 1950s and was declared “hikeable” by Oregon State Parks in 1988. But that’s just the history; what about the prehistory? Obviously humans have been walking on the Oregon Coast Trail – or something like it – much longer than that. How long? And for how long has the Oregon Coast been where it is today? It turns out that scientific consensus on both questions has evolved radically in just the past few years, thanks to ground-breaking research in archaeology and paleogeology, much of it by Oregon scientists.

This event is free and open to the public.