Sea Lion Caves News
A Story of sea lions and stubborn men
posted on 1976-12-12 00:08:00High on a rocky, windswept bluff 11 miles north of Florence stands a small white building. It perches on the edge of the slope, which drops off abruptly to the Pacific Ocean below. A large sign across the top of the building tells motorists coming from north and south along U.S. 101 that this is "Sea Lions Cave."
This year, about 200,000 people are expected to visit the cave, where the sea lions take refuge for nine or ten months of the year. Adults will pay $2 each to visit the cave 300 feet below. Their children between six and twelve years of age will pay $1. And those under six will be admitted for free. When it's all added up, it amounts to quite a sum. Sea lions have become big business.
But there would be no sea lions if the cave didn't exist. It is a gift from Mother Nature, who carved it out in ageless action millions of years ago. She was the designer and architect of this huge domed cavern where the sea comes booming in to froth among the rocks where the sea lions idle away their days.
The experts say the cave was there long before there were mammals. Geologists say that the rugged Oregon coastline was formed by vast eruptions of molten lava that poured into the Pacific Ocean eons ago. And those early internal upheavals created the massive slopes and steep rocky shoulders of igneous rock and basalt that hold back the Pacific Ocean along Oregon's coast. But they were not impervious, not in all places. As they cooled, fissures developed. Some of them filled with softer rock. For millions of years, the Pacific lapped at them. In time the rocks crumbled, and were ground to sand by the persistent sea.
As they gave way, cavities appeared. One of those cavities became Sea Lions Cave, a natural haven scoured out long before any of the big mammals were around to enjoy it. Just when they appeared on the prehistoric horizon cannot be accurately determined. But they have certainly been around longer than the people who now come to stare at them from behind a tight wire fence. It may not be historically correct, but a local sea captain by the name of William Cox is given credit for discovering the cave in 1880, less than 100 years ago.
He is said to have discovered the cave on a calm day when he paddled a small boat into the cave's western entrance. Legend has is that returned a number of times to examine it more closely. On one occasion, according to local historians, he was trapped by a storm and had to remain there for several days. Since there was no food available, he shot a young sea lion and feasted upon the meat of its flippers.
This particular piece of real estate apparently fascinated the captain, because he bought the land containing the caves from the state of Oregon in 1887. From them until 1926, he or his heirs owned the land, but none of them made any effort to develop the cave. Commercially, the land returned nothing but wool and mutton produced by the sheep that grazed upon the steep and rocky headlands.
Then came a visionary. R.E. Clanton was his name. In 1927, he bought the land, which included the Sea Lions Cave, for the sole purpose of developing it into a tourist attraction. It was considered a foolhardy venture. His friends told him so. U.S. 101 wouldn't be built for several more years, and the only access to the cave was a gravel road. But the retired state fish warden from Portland was determined. In his mind, the vision burned bright.
Others also became interested. Two men decided to pool their resources and in 1930 they formed a partnership with Clanton. One was Gilbert ?Gib? Houghton, a Florence dairyman. The other was John "Johnny" Jacobson, a former railroad agent.
Development of Sea Lions Cave into a business that will probably gross $250,000 or more this year is a story of hope, determination, sacrifice and luck in the form of the unwillingness of anyone to buy it at a time when the owners were ready to call it quits. It was a struggle that appeared to be without end during those years when the owners were trying to develop the cave into a tourist attraction that no one seemed interested in.
The first effort of the three partners - Houghton, Clanton and Jacobson - was wiped out almost before it was completed. To proved access to the cave, they spanned a small waterfall with a bridge, then built a series of ladders that reached down to the north entrance of the cave. The first storm took out the bridge, and there was no way to reach the ladders. They decided not to try that again.
So they borrowed money, and carved a 1,500-foot trail along the face of the steep slope that breaks off sharply and rushes almost straight down to the ocean below. At the same time a 200-foot stairway was built, which the owners enclosed to protect visitors against the weather.
Those were trying times. Sometimes the owners despaired of ever making the ave a success. There were times when they would have sold cheap. A couple of times, they tried to sell it back to the state, but the state wasn?t interested. It had owned the cave once, and once was enough.
Finally, Sea Lions Cave opened for business in 1932. But the public was oblivious to the attraction the men had prepared for them. Only a few people showed up. Business was not good, and strife began developing among the partners. Houghton and Jacobson were younger than Clanton, and they didn't approve of his old-age ways. In 1935, they decided to dissolve their partnership and sell the Sea Lion Caves at auction.
It brought $30,050. The buyers were two of those who had helped develop it - Houghton and Jacobson - plus Ray Saubert of Florence , who sold his interest in a fish processing plant at Cushman to raise his share of the purchase price. Since that time, the cave has remained the property of the Houghton, Jacobson and Saubert families.
A change in ownership didn?t however mean an increase in business. U.S. 101 was still a graveled road, and traffic was light. Most tourist had never heard of the Sea Lions Cave. Those who had, didn't rush in with admission in their hands. The middle of 1930's were hard years, and people were not throwing their money around. It cost 25 cents to visit the cave then, but there weren?t many stray quarters around.
The partners tried just about every trick in the book to attract visitors. They even flagged traffic down on U.S. 101 and tried to cajole travelers into visiting the cave. It was nip and tuck all the way. On a typical day in 1936, even after highway traffic had picked up, total receipts amounted to only $23.47. And that included sales of tickets, gasoline, oil and candy bars.
But things were getting better, and it looked as if the gamble was going to pay off after all. A slight glimmer of success was beginning to shine upon Sea Lions Cave, which had been under development for more than ten years.
Then, in 1939, the partnership suffered a loss.
In January, the seas were running wild and the owners were afraid the waves had damaged the base upon which the stairway rested. Ray Saubert and Gib Houghton decided to go down and investigate. Only Houghton made it back. A giant wave came roaring down upon them while they were checking the foundation of the stairway, and both men were washed out to sea. Houghton was lucky - the next wave washed him back upon the rocky ledge where they had been standing. But Sauberts body was never found.
At the time of Saubert's death, things were looking rosier than they ever had at Sea Lions Cave. Business was picking up, and it appeared as though the lean years were in the past. Then came World War II. With is came gas rationing, and traffic along U.S. 101 all but vanished. Some days the cave had only one or two customers. Some days it had none. But the Sea Lions Cave remained open. Clifton Saubert, the son of Ray, remembers that his mother kept the business open one summer by herself. When a customer came along, she would walk him down the trail, then lead the way down the 288 steps of the stairs to the cavern where the sea lions lounge around.
Things were different in the cave then. During those early years, the fence that separates visitors from the sea lions had not been built. Before visitors were admitted to the cave, one of the partners went ahead and drove the sea lions back with the bristly end of a broom. Sea lions will fight if something is swung at them, says Saubert, but there is something about a broom they don't like.
When the war ended, it looked as if a new era was beginning at the Sea Lions Cave. Customers were beginning to wheel into the parking lot out in front of the building as word of the cave spread. Then in 1946, a fire destroyed the original building. When it went up in flames, a gas station and small restaurant went with it. But that caused only a temporary shutdown. Tickets were soon being sold out of a shack that had been thrown up, and visitors beat a trail through the ashes of the old building on their way to the cave.
The next spring, the building that stands there today was completed. From that time on, business improved. By then management of Sea Lions Cave had passed to the sons and daughters of the original owners. And in 1958, they decided that the old stairway should be replaced by an elevator, which would make it easier for visitors to get to and from the caves. For years they had dreamed of installing an elevator. As it turned out, the elevator almost became a pipe dream.
Money lenders were not interested. The big banks wouldn't touch it. Steve Saubert, the son of Clifton Saubert, now manages the business. And he remembers the reluctance to put up money for the elevator. What worried the big banks was the noise that would be created by blasting out a 70-foot drift tunnel, which would connect with a 215-foot vertical shaft that also had to be blasted out of solid rock.
"If the noise drives off the sea lions, what good is a mountain with a hole in it?" they asked.
For two smaller banks, Saubert has high praise. They are the Ump qua Bank at Reedsport and the Lincoln Bank at Lincoln city. There were the only ones that finally came through with the money needed to drive the shaft into the mountain and install the elevator after excavation was completed.
To keep from disturbing the sea lions, the blasting was done during the spring months of 1958 and '59, while the lions were making their home in what Saubert calls the "rookery." There, on the ledge of a big bluff that juts out into the Pacific just north of the cave?s western entrance, they breed and give birth to their young. Saubert refers to it as their summer home. That is where they were while the minors were blowing the 215-foot hole straight up through the bluff.
That was a costly undertaking. By the time Otis Elevator Co. had installed the new elevator, the cost had ballooned to $200,000. Saubert, the 33-year old manager, says it would probably cost a "million dollars today." It has taken a lot of visitors to pay for it, but he believes it was one of the wisest investments Sea Lions Cave ever made. It will accommodate 400 people an hour.
When the elevator comes to a cushiony stop at the bottom of the shaft, the visitor steps out into the tunnel that was blasted out of the sold rock to connect it with the elevator shaft. The tunnel leads down at a slight angel to a white, wooden enclosure, where the mummy of a sea lion has been lying for several hundred years. The skin is still visible on the carcass. Saubert says it has been preserved by a combination of climatic conditions that prevail in the cave where the temperature averages 56 degrees year around.
Beyond it is the fence. And beyond the fence is the huge cavern, where the tide comes surging in. Except for about three months in the spring, this is the home of the sea lions. It is called the "hauling area" because it is here that they literally haul themselves upon the rocks with their flippers. At this time of year the population consists mainly of females. The bulls have disappeared, as they do each year after mating season. According to Saubert, no one knows where they go.
The steller sea lions, which is the one native to Sea Lions Cave, makes a low, growling sound. That is in contrast to the California seal, which barks. The steller sea lion makes its home along the coast of North America from the California coast to the Bering Sea, then southward into the northern Japanese waters.
At one time, they made their homes along the mainland, but now most of them live on the offshore islands and rocks of British Columbia and Alaska, said Saubert. Between 5,000 and 6,000 live along the California Coast. Approximately 1,000 call the waters along the Oregon coast home.
They are warm blooded mammals. They give birth to their young, and suckle just as the other mammals do. To live, they must breathe of the air. If they remain submerged for long, they will drown.
But sea lions have no commercial value, says Saubert. Instead of fur, they are covered with coarse hair, which finds no favor with furriers. If the hide is tanned, it fails to stand up. And the meat of the sea lion is not considered a delicacy. By depriving them of the things that man finds desirable, nature blessed the sea lions.
The only natural enemy they have are killer whales. But since they are faster swimmers, sea lions can usually escape the pursuit of their lumbering foes. Saubert says the average weight of a female is 800 pounds, although some reach 1,000 pounds or more. The breeding bulls, who collect a harem during the breeding season, will often weigh about a ton.
The gestation period for sea lions is nine months. But, says Saubert, females have a delayed reaction pregnancy. They will not bare young until May or June, even thought they have been bred for 12 months. He considers it a natural, built-in control to ensure that the young are born at a time of year when weather conditions are most favorable.
Those in the business today are proud of what their ancestors have done. Clifton Saubert, the father of Steve and son of Ray Saubert who drowned, is retired. So is Donovan Houghton, whose father Gilbert Houghton, helped carve the business out of the steep bluff where the cave is buried. Jack "Jack" Jacobson, whose father was also one of the original owners, died in 1947. His widow, Ada "Jo" Jacobson, and Houghton and Saubert now run the business.
Except for the elevator, the business remains much as it was when Steve Saubert's grandfather and father - and their partners - were struggling to put Sea Lions Cave on the map. But the staff has grown, and so has the gift shop, which is located in the clean, white building which has been headquarters for the enterprise since 1946. At the peak of the season, more than 30 employees are kept busy.
Like those before him, Steve is a conservationist. "Nothing," he says, "and I mean nothing, is done to disturb the ecology of the cave, or the 100 surrounding acres owned by the Sea Lion Corp."
He is quick to defend what the developers of the cave have done. Occasionally, some of what he calls the "hip generation" criticize the business. They claim that the public shouldn?t be charge to visit a natural resource. It belongs to the public, they say, and should be free.
Saubert is quick to ask them how they got there. If they say they traveled by car, he reminds them they paid for the gasoline, which is also a natural resource.
It irks him, their criticism. Wherever man has been given visitation rights without regard to the well-being of the sea lions, the sea lions have left, he says. They don't like man. And he's willing to bet that the sea lions wouldn't be in the cave today if it hadn?' been developed privately, as a profit-making business.
The cave 11 miles north of Florence is their cathedral. As long as Saubert has anything to say about it, it will resound to the throaty growl of the sea lion and the rushing roar of the sea. And it will remain open to the public from sunrise to sunset 365 days a year, just as it has in the past.
by Jerry Easterling
