In 1910, Jesse S. Hayes (1880-1957) found an oyster shell in the Army Corps of Engineer's dredge spoils along the main channel in the bay. Seeing that lone oyster shell made him think that oysters might grow here. At that time there was no history or other signs of oysters in Tillamook Bay. Hayes planted Oregon's first oysters in Tillamook Bay. Over the next sixty years, Tillamook Bay produced twice as many oysters as the rest of the State combined.

In 1928, word came from Canadian salmon fishermen that a 'new' oyster was being shipped into Canada from Japan. At that time only the tiny native oyster (Olympia Oysters) existed on the west coast. Grandfather went to Canada, brought seed back and planted it to see if it would grow. It not only grew, it thrived. In the late 1930's his commercial salmon, clam and crab business was already beginning to show signs of decline. As those business' declined, oystering became more important and soon became the family's only business.

Jesse Hayes' grandson wrote, "In 1931, he went to the legislature and asked the State to set aside land in Tillamook Bay for the purpose of raising oysters (The Oregon Oyster Act of 1931)," says Hayes. "And they did." That Act allowed citizens to lease land from the state for oyster culture. The photo at right, taken in 1930, shows the family's first commercial planting. Three of Jesse's six sons are on the barges. Barges loaded with oyster seed. Oyster seed from Japan waiting to be towed to the beds for planting. Jesse is on the dock, which is now the intersection of Highway 101 and Hayes Oyster Drive, Bay City, Oregon.

'A Report on the Oregon State University Sea Grant Program, 1975'
Sam Hayes: Oysterman

In 1910 a man named Jesse Hayes is hunting on Bayocean spit. The channel in Tillamook Bay to Bayocean is being dredged to prepare for a new resort. At the dredge tailings, Hayes sees something which catches his eye. It's half an oyster shell. Being curious, he wonders where the other half is, he looks and looks, but never finds it.

"He couldn't find any evidence of oysters anywhere," says Sam Hayes, Jesse's son. "People told him if there weren't any natural oysters in the bay, then oysters wouldn't grow here," says Hayes. He didn't believe it, and, that half shell was the incentive for the family to get into the oyster business. In 1928, Jesse Hayes heard Japanese oysters were being brought into and successfully raised in Canada. He drove to Canada, bought some of the Japanese seed and brought it back to Tillamook Bay.

"My father went to a little island in the southwest corner of the bay between two channels and planted them there." says Hayes. "Everything about them improved." Jesse Hayes knew then that he could raise oysters. The next problem was securing land to raise oysters on. "We went to the legislature in 1931 and asked the State to set aside land in Tillamook Bay for the purpose of raising oysters (Oregon Oyster Act of 1931)," says Hayes. "And they did."

That allowed the Hayes family and other local families to acquire oyster land in the bay. But, there was another problem that no one had considered - because land was available and oysters could be raised didn't mean that people would buy them (until after WWII., there was little national appetite for seafood, especially oysters). "There was no market, no one knew how to handle them or how to eat them.," says Hayes. The people who had acquired oyster land became discouraged when no one would buy their oysters. The hope they had of raising oysters to get-rich-quick quickly vanished. Eventually, they sold their land to the Hayes'.

The family realized that selling oysters would be tough at first, but, even they got discouraged. They couldn't give oysters away. "We offered restaurants a gallon of oysters, free, if they would try to sell them, but even at that price they didn't want them." Fortunately, the oyster business was enjoying more success in Washington. An oyster company in Willapa Bay was expanding their market to Portland and San Francisco. They had been very successful in growing oysters from the Japanese seed. Sam and Verne Hayes, Jesse's sons, became involved in that operation and eventually went to San Francisco to work at the Old Consolidated Oyster Company. Sam thought if any city would be interested in oysters, it would be San Francisco. But he was wrong. He seldom worked a full week.

He stayed in San Francisco less than a year. When he returned to Tillamook, he tried to sell oysters; again, no one was interested. Instead of giving up, the family invested in building a modern oyster dredge in Bay City where they lived. It was the first modern oyster dredge on the west coast. They were proud of their dredge and named it the 'Jesse S.' after Sam's father and four-year-old son. They also built a second, identical dredge named 'The Florence J.' (after Jesse's wife.) As soon as the dredges were operational, a new crisis occurred: World War II. broke out. At that time west coast oyster farmers relied heavily on Japanese oyster seed. The war ended any hope of getting more seed. There they were: a new dredge, no seed in the foreseeable future and few oysters on the ground. "I was offered the opportunity to move our equipment to Willapa Bay where there was an abundance of wild Pacific oysters due to one of the largest natural sets ever seen on Willapa Bay, Greys Harbor and Hood Canal," says Hayes. He stayed three and one-half years and helped form Coast Oyster Company with the people from Willapa Bay. (Sam navigated the 'Jesse S.' and the 'Florence J.' up the coast from Tillamook Bay to Willapa Bay where they harvested oysters for the duration of WWII. After the war, Sam brought the 'Jesse S.' back to Tillamook Bay where it harvested millions of bushels of oysters over the next half-century. The 'Florence J.' remained with Coast Oyster Co. in South Bend, Washington.) After the war, Hayes returned to Tillamook Bay and began planting heavily. For the next 60 years, Hayes Oyster Co. produced more oysters than the rest of the state combined.

The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, September 13, 1986
Suddenly, the Oyster Outlook Is Bright in Pacific Northwest
By Ken Slocum, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Big things are happening to little oysters in the Pacific Northwest. An industry that was stuck in the mud not long ago has been resurrected, the result of breakthroughs in mass-producing oyster larvae. If this sounds ho-hum, you're not an oyster grower - or oyster eater.

"It will revolutionize the industry; it's the biggest thing to happen in the history of the oyster," says Verne Hayes of the breakthrough developed in the last couple of years at the University of Washington. Mr. Hayes is president of Hilton Seafood's Co., the parent of Coast Oyster Co., the giant among some 100 West Coast growers. What's giving the Northwest oyster industry new momentum was the discovery that oysters, like fish, can be bred in hatcheries and then put into local waters to grow and mature.

The West Coast's native oysters all but disappeared in the 1950's, victims of over harvesting and pollution. Until the Pacific Northwest developed oyster hatcheries in the late 70's, most West Coast oysters could be stamped "Made in Japan", because, oyster seed was shipped, from Japan, in crates, then deposited in West Coast oyster beds to mature. The process was unpredictable and expensive.

The hatchery system has turned the industry on its head. "The oyster seed I ship in a little Styrofoam cooler will eventually fill several dump trucks," says Lee Hanson, owner of Whiskey Creek Oyster Farm, one of two main Northwest oyster hatcheries. Hatchery seed wasn't particularly popular when Whiskey Creek offered it in 1978. But growers saw the light. Last year (1985), Coast Oyster produced 16.5 billion larvae - about 70% of West Coast hatchery output. These days, about 80% of West Coast oyster production comes from hatchery-raised larvae.

In 1978, when West Coast oyster farmers were dependant on Japanese seed, the Amoco Cadiz oil tanker broke in half and spilled 1.6 million barrels of crude oil into the English Channel near the coast of France. Rough seas and a strong NW wind blew the oil onto the French coast (SOURCE).

That tragic accident killed nearly all the French oysters. The result was the Japanese made a deal with the French and sold the seed allotted to the NW oyster growers to the French, and, as a result, we did lose that years seed supply. It turned out to be a good thing, because, it fired-up the Pacific NW oyster growers, with the aid from federal-state Sea Grant funds, and the University of Washington scientists under Prof. Kenneth Chew, to develop our own independent seed supply, and we did. The Japanese were soon buying seed from Pacific Northwest oyster hatcheries.

The above Wall Street Journal article reflects the result of that successful effort.