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Cape Blanco (Oregon)
Encyclopedia
Headlands and bays
Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...
on the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
coast of southwestern Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, forming the westernmost point in the state. It contests with Cape Alava
Cape Alava
Cape Alava, in Clallam County, Washington, U.S.A., is the westernmost point in the contiguous 48 states, with a longitude of . The westernmost point is located in Olympic National Park and the Ozette Indian Reservation...
in Washington for the title of westernmost point in the contiguous United States. This contention is due to land shifts and measurement anomalies as well as whether to measure at high or low tide.
It is located in northern Curry County
Curry County, Oregon
Curry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 2010, its population was 22,364. The county is named for George Law Curry, a governor of the Oregon Territory. The seat of the county is Gold Beach.-Economy:...
, approximately 5 mi (8 km) north of Port Orford
Port Orford, Oregon
Port Orford is a city in Curry County, Oregon, United States. It is on the southern Oregon Coast, at the northern end of what coastal Oregonians call the Banana Belt, because the weather from Port Orford south is noticeably warmer than the weather north of nearby Cape Blanco...
, along a mountainous and isolated stretch of the coast bounded to the east by the Coast Range
Southern Oregon Coast Range
The Southern Oregon Coast Range is the southernmost section of the Oregon Coast Range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges, located in the southwest portion of the state of Oregon, United States roughly between the Umpqua River and the middle fork of the Coquille River, beyond which are the Klamath...
. The cape is part of Cape Blanco State Park. The cape is the location of the Cape Blanco Light
Cape Blanco Light
Cape Blanco Light is a lighthouse located on Cape Blanco, Oregon, United States.-Construction of the light:In a deed recorded in 1867, John D. and Mary West sold the United States a tract of land...
, first lit in 1870.
In Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
's early science fiction book The Begum's Millions
The Begum's Millions
The Begum's Fortune , also published as The Begum's Millions, is an 1879 novel by Jules Verne, with some elements which could be described as utopian and others which seem clearly dystopian. It is remarkable as the first published book in which Verne was cautionary and to some degree pessimistic...
, a Utopian community named Ville-France is established in 1872 on the South Oregon beach. Verne gives the location of this fictitious community as "eighty kilometres north of Cape Blanco".
At Cape Blanco, geologists have found that the land is rising at a rate of several millimeters each year.