Editing Tillamook County, Oregon (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2009}}
The Tillamook were the southernmost branch of the Coast Salish. They were separated from their more northern kinsmen by tribes speaking the Chinookian languages. The name Tillamook is of Chinook origin (a trade pidgin, which had developed along the lower Columbia.) According to Frank Boas,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boas |first=Frank |date=Jan–Mar 1898 |title=Traditions of the Tillamook Indians |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=11 |issue=40 |pages=23–38 |doi=10.2307/533608 |jstor=533608}}</ref> "It [Tillamook] means the people of Nekelim. The latter name means the place of Elim, or in the Cathlamet dialect, the place of Kelim. The initial t of Tillamook is the plural article, the terminal ook the Chinook plural ending —uks."  Since there was one village in the area of Nehalem bay; the area was referred to as Nekelim (Ne Elim=singular). There were at least four villages on the south Tillamook bay according to Lewis and Clark; the south bay was called "T-Elim-ook" (the plural of Elim), meaning many villages of Elim. The Chinook word for water was "chuck" and the Salish word for wetland is "naslex". The popular translation of Tillamook as meaning "land of many waters" seems to be 20th-century fabrication used in the tourist industry.

Tillamook County, the 12th county in Oregon to be organized, was established on December 15, 1853, when the Territorial Legislature approved an act to create the new county out of an area previously included in [[Clatsop County, Oregon|Clatsop]], [[Yamhill County, Oregon|Yamhill]] and [[Polk County, Oregon|Polk]] counties.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oregon Secretary of State |url=https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/records/county/Pages/tillamook-history.aspx#:~:text=Tillamook%20County%2C%20the%2012th%20county,Clatsop%2C%20Yamhill%20and%20Polk%20Counties. |access-date=March 3, 2023 |website=sos.oregon.gov |language=en}}</ref> Boundary changes were enacted with Clatsop County (1855, 1870, and 1893), [[Lincoln County, Oregon|Lincoln County]] in 1893, [[Washington County, Oregon|Washington County]] (1893, 1898), and Yamhill County (1887).

The [[Oregon Coast Range|Coast Range]] behind Tillamook was the scene of a repeated series of [[forest fire]]s called the [[Tillamook Burn]] between 1933 and 1951. In 1948, a state ballot approved the sale of bonds to buy the burned-over areas and have the state rehabilitate the lands. The state lands were renamed the [[Tillamook State Forest]] by governor [[Tom McCall]] on July 18, 1973. By the end of the 20th century, the replanted growth was considered mature enough to be commercially harvested.

===Naval Air Station Tillamook===
The Tillamook airbase for [[non-rigid airship|blimps]] was commissioned on December 1, 1942, as U.S. [[Naval Air Station Tillamook]]. The two wooden hangars used to house these airships were decommissioned after [[World War II]] and deeded to Tillamook County. One of the hangars (Hangar B) is a national historic landmark and the location of the [[Tillamook Air Museum]]. The other hangar, (Hangar A) burned down in 1992.

The U.S. [[Mount Hebo Air Force Station]] was a [[Cold War]] air defense installation from 1956 to 1980. Located south of Tillamook, at the top of {{convert|3154|ft|m|adj=on}} high [[Mount Hebo]], Air Force radars operated by the [[689th Radar Squadron]] and the [[14th Missile Warning Squadron]] were essential parts of the nation's integrated air defenses. The large [[radome]]s protecting the radars from adverse weather effects could be seen silhouetted against the sky from most of Tillamook County.

Development along [[U.S. Route 101]] to the north of Tillamook during the last part of the 20th century has blocked part of the [[flood plain]] of the [[Wilson River (Oregon)|Wilson River]], contributing to repeated winter flooding in the city. Until the late 1950s there was a dredge used by the city to keep the slough's deeper.