Biohazard Cleanup Near North Nehalem Nehalem, OR

Nehalem is a city in Tillamook County, Oregon, incorporated in 1889, lying along the Nehalem River and Nehalem Bay near the Pacific Ocean and bisected by U.S. Route 101.

The 2020 census counted 270 residents and 119 households in Nehalem; the figure 355 that appears in the lead sentence of the city's article is stale, and the article's own infobox and decennial census table agree on 270.

Nehalem was named for the Nehalem tribe of Native Americans, also known as the Tillamook People, who traditionally inhabited the area, and in the native Salishan languages Nehalem means 'place where people live.'

The city covers about 0.24 square miles, all of it land, at an elevation of about 10 feet, and it uses ZIP code 97131.

Nehalem's post office was established in August 1870 in the home of Samuel Corwin, and in February 1884 it was briefly renamed Onion Peak when the postmaster moved it to his home north of town, before residents petitioned successfully for a new Nehalem post office in May 1884.

Joseph C. Smith became Nehalem's first mayor in June 1913; before that the town was governed by elected trustees.

Nehalem thrived early on logging, fishing, and shipping, and as the Northwestern logging industry slowed in the twentieth century the city's economy cooled with it.

For many decades state highway officials planned to move Highway 101 onto the Nehalem Spit, but community backlash from Wheeler and Nehalem in the late 1960s was so intense that officials left the highway in its existing layout.

Lying so close to sea level, Nehalem suffers intermittent floods; a 1996 storm damaged local dairy farms, and heavy rains in November 2006 caused flooding that resulted in 1 million dollars in damage.

Nehalem's business district runs one block along Highway 101, parallel with the Nehalem River, many of its buildings are raised to avoid flooding, and the city has one traffic signal.