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Dr. Hawk

 

Dr. Hawk was in Tombstone the day of the gunfight at the OK Corral, wich may have given him the idea to move west.  He and his family settled in Jefferson, neear Salem, Oregon.  In 1905, he traveled to Tillamook County, and purchased property in Bay City.  In 1907, he and his family moved, traveling 120 miles in six days to reach Tillamook.  Then he went on to Bay City, where he started his medical practice.

 

In 1908, Dr. Hawk began contruction of a hospital.  It took great ambition and a strong back to build an 80-room, multi-story hospital in an age of hand tools.  It was an impressive structure.  In 1918, during the flu pandemic, he cared for 1500 flu patients--and none died!

 

In 1910. he became a member of the first board of commissioners for the port of Bay City.  Later, he and a partner bought an old homestead five miles north of Geribaldi, subdivided it into 50 by 70 foot lots, and called it Rockaway Beach.

 

In 1922, Dr. Hawk and his wife were killed in an auto acciden t by a drunk driver while traveling through Hebo, Oregon.  With no Dr. Hawk, the hospital closed.  The hospital was used as a sanitarium and a hotel for awhile, but its ultimate demise has been obscured by the fog of time.

 

[Information from articles by John R. Sollman.]

 

Bay City

 

Brothers John O. and Scott Bozorth published a promotional brochure in 1914, which gave some outlandish descriptions of the glories of Bay City and the surrounding area.  Bozorth describes the water system, which he owned, as having "a capacity to supply 6,000 people. . .The water is of excellent purity, and is equal to Bull Run water.  The Bay City Land Company has acquitted Sugar Loaf Mountain, just east of the city, on which it intends to have a stand pipe.  This will give immense pressure in case of fire.  Sugar Loaaf Mountain is about 400 feet high and contains about forty acres.  Its symmetrical beauty is enhanced by the more distant mountains as a background.  The company owns water rights on the Wilson River.  This capacity will be sufficient to supply 150,000 people.  Thus BAY CITY is assured of absolutely pure water."

 

Most of downtown Bay City burned to the ground, chiefly because the first department couldn't get enough water pressure to get water onto the fire.  So much for honest in advertising.