This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.com and is used with permission.
A man fell into Thor’s Well and drowned Monday, the third such victim since 2017 at the popular but dangerous attraction near the base of Cape Perpetua just south of Yachats.
Police and fire agencies were called about 3:40 p.m. to a report of a man who had been swept inside the well during an incoming tide.
The man was dead by the time first responders could reach the 20-30 foot deep hole in the basalt at the edge of the Pacific Ocean 100 yards below and west of U.S. Highway 101.
The victim’s body was eventually pulled from inside the well by a U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer dangling on a long cable from a helicopter dispatched from the Coast Guard’s station in North Bend. The helicopter arrived 30 minutes after the first report of the man in the water.
Firefighters and paramedics from fire departments in Yachats, Waldport and Seal Rock along with Oregon State Police personnel responded, as did Lincoln County’s chief medical examiner.
In a Facebook post Monday evening, the Yachats fire department said that the first arriving units “were met with conflicting reports from bystanders” about whether the man was in the water. It said responders “were quickly able to determine that the subject was in the water in Thor’s Well. Due to wave conditions and the nature of the well, personnel on the ground were unable to perform any recovery efforts.”
Police did not release the man’s identity Monday evening, but said he was alone. A car with Colorado license plates and full of camping gear and personal belongings was later towed from the parking lot along Highway 101.
Within an hour of the drowning and the parking lot still full of police and fire vehicles people were standing at the edge of Thor’s Well trying to peer inside.