Sailing ships entering the narrow channel at the mouth of the Columbia River faced constant danger, often waiting days or weeks for the right weather to cross the bar, and even then rapidly changing conditions could leave a vessel stranded against the current and surrounded by sand. In 1853, four ships and at least four lives were lost within ten miles of this location. During one week in January, the Vandalia disappeared near the mouth of the Columbia, the I. Merrithew was driven onto the sands of Clatsop Spit with everyone rescued by the pilot schooner before 8 AM, and the Mindora struck the Middle Sands at low tide, after which its crew rowed to Astoria. The remains of the I. Merrithew were later found near the rocks at the base of North Head, the remains of the Mindora were found near the entrance to Willapa Bay thirty miles north of here, and the remains of the Vandalia were found in the cove below this overlook, where four bodies washed up on the beach, including Captain Edward Beard, for whom Beard's Hollow is named. The need for a lighthouse at the mouth of the Columbia was already clear by 1853, and Cape Disappointment was chosen as one of the priority West Coast sites. In September 1853, the Oriole arrived carrying materials to build a lighthouse here and three others in California, but after crossing the bar on a flood tide with a favorable breeze, the wind died, the ship struck a sand spit, and within hours both the vessel and all the lighthouse materials sank in view of the place where the lighthouse would be built.