The name "Adams" was given to this southern Columbia River point by Caption Robert Gray on May 18, 1792, in honor of John Adams, former President of the United States.

From Heceta's journal:

"... On the evening of this day [August 17, 1775] I [Heceta] discovered a large bay, to which I gave the name Assumption Bay ... Its latitude and longitude are determined according to the most exact means afforded by theory and practice. The latitudes of the two most prominent capes of this bay are calculated from the observations of this day. ... Having arrived opposite this bay at six in the evening, and placed the ship nearly midway between the two capes ...

The two capes which I name in my plan, Cape San Roque and Cape Frondoso, lie in the angle of 10 degrees of the third quadrant. They are both faced with red earth and are of little elevation.

On the 18th I observed Cape Frondoso, with another cape, to which I gave the name of Cape Falcon, situated in the latitude of 45 degrees 43 minutes, and they lay at an angle of 22 degrees of the third quadrant, and from the last mentioned cape I traced the coast running in the angle of 5 degrees of the second quadrant. This land is mountainous, but not very high ... ..." [W.D. Lyman, 1909, The Columbia River, repeating paragraphs from Heceta's writings.]

From the 1889 U.S. Coast Survey in a description of Point Adams:

"... On August 17, 1775, he [Heceta] was off the mouth of the river, which he supposed to be a great bay, but he was so far distant that he noted only the Cape, on the north, and Tillamook Head on the south. ..."

"... Captain Gray gave this river the name of Columbia's River, and the north side of the entrance Cape Hancock, the south, Adam's Point. [Gray, May 19, 1792]

"... Capt. Grays named this river Columbia's, and the North entrance Cape Hancock, and the South Point Adams. [John Boit, May 18, 1792] ..."

Later in 1792 Captain George Vancouver called it "Point Adams".

"... The next day, being the 22d of October, the wind blew strong from the eastward, and there was little probability from the appearance of the weather of soon being able, with any degree of safety, to remove the vessel further up the inlet. That intention being laid aside, Mr. Broughton proceeded with the cutter and launch to examine the shores of its southern side. He first landed at the deserted village, on the northern shore, and on the eastern side of Village point; which he found a good leading mark for clearing the shoals that lie between it and cape Disappointment, carrying regular soundings of four fathoms. From this point he passed over to point Adams, the starboard of S.E. point of entrance into this inlet; and in his way crossed a shoal bank, supposed to be a continuation of that on which the Chatham had grounded. The least water found upon it was two and a half fathoms, and the sea was observed to break at intervals in several places. Point Adams is a low, narrow, sandy, spit of land, projecting northerly into the ocean, and lies from cape Disappointment, S. 44 E. about four miles distant. From this point, the coast takes a sudden turn to the south, and the shores within the inlet take a direction S. 74 E. four miles to another point, which obtained the name of Point George. From point Adams the breakers stretched into the ocean, first N. 68 W. about a league, then S. 83 W. about four miles, from whence they took ____ course to the southward, extending along the coast at the distance of two leagues and upwards. ..." [Vancouver, October 22, 1792]

"... Point Adams, on the south side of the river, is distant from Cape Disappointment nearly 5 miles. It is low and sandy, and has, at its extremity, an Indian village, named Clatsop, which merely consists of a few rough lodges, constucted of boards, or rather hewn planks, of large size; the interior resembled a miserably constructed ship's cabin, with bunks, &c., the only light being admitted from above, near the ridge and gable end. Around the whole is a plaisade, made of thick planks and joists, about 15 feet in length, set with one end in the ground, to protect the inhabitatns from attack. ... From each point of the entrance of the river a sand-spit runs off nearly 4 miles; that from Point Adams projecting to seaward of the other, begin nearly at right angles to it; the distance between them is nearly one mile. Thesse sand-spits have been formed by the deposits of the sands brought down by the river, or washed by the abrasion of the sea from their respective capes. ..."

The 1858 "Coast Pilot" describes Point Adams as being low and sandy and "covered with bushes and trees to the line of sand beach and low dunes; and although it is reported to have washed away over half a mile since 1841, we find comparatively small changes since the survey of Broughton in 1792."

From the 1862 U.S. Coast Pilot:

"... Point Adams is low and sandy, covered with bushes and trees to the line of sand beach and low dunes; and although it is reported to have washed away over half a mile since 1841, we find comparatively small changes since the survey of Broughton in 1792.

The geographical position of the triangulation station of the Coast Survey on the point is: Latitude 46 12 30.4 north, Longitude 123 56 55.8 west. ... This station is on the inside of the point, and almost half a mile from it.

No light-house exists here, but the necessity for one has been so repeatedly urged that we cannot refrain from calling attention to a few facts bearing upon the question ... This point was called Cape Frondoso by Heceta, who discovered, but did not enter this river in August, 1775; and named Adams' Point by Captain Gray, in 1792. The Indian name of the point is Klaát-sop. It is now called Point Adams.

The beach around Point adams and to the southward some distance is usually called Clatsop beach. ..."

From the 1889 U.S. Coast Pilot:

"... The southern Point of the Entrance to the Columbia River is Point Adams. It is a low, sandy point, covered with fir and undergrowth to the edge of the sand beach and low dunes. The forest is dense and the trees high so that the point has an appeareance of height and is somewhat readily made out, especially if the atmosphere is hazy inside.

The point remained with very little change from Broughton's survey, of 1792, to 1867, as it indicated by a comparison of shore-lines, and also by the existence of trees of large growth out to the edge of the point. Since the latter date the point was cut away by the river very rapidly for a few years, and the great trees were undermined and fell into the water. This line of destruction changed some of the details of character of the point; but the cutting stopped, and accretion has been going on to a considerable extent, leaving, however, the extremity of the point denuded. ...

Stretching out from Point Adams is the great shoal known as the Clatsop Spit, whose normal direction points towards Cape Disappointment. It frequently stretches more than half way across the mouth of the river, and is then usually marked by the breakers around its whole extent, except in exceedingly smooth weather and at high water. But there have been periods when its northern edge stretched straight out to sea, and then swept in far to the southward of Point Adams.

The shortest distance from Point Adams to Cape Disappointment is a little over five miles, and the bearing northwest by west (NW. by W.). The distance from Point Adams Light-house to Cape Disappoingment Light-house is five and seven-eighths miles, and the bearing north fifty-five degrees west (N.55° W.).

On the inner side of Point Adams is an earth fortification known as Fort Stevens. In 1877 the river had cut away much of the old shore outside of it, but subsequent changes of the channel led to redeposits; and now a small stone jetty is being carried out to give protection against further encroachment, to aid deposits, and to direct the course of the river under the south shore. There is a stake white light placed at the end of this jetty which is now (1877) surrounded by sand. ...

[The light-house on Point Adams is] a primary Sea-coast Light. The Light-house is not on the northern extremity of the point, but on the outer one of the low sand ridges which run parallel with the ocean shore-line. It is almost one mile south of the point and two hundred and eighty-five yards inside the high-water mark. ...

This point was not named by Heceta. On August 17, 1775, he was off the mouth of the river, which he supposed to be a great bay, but he was so far distant that he noted only the Cape, on the north, and Tillamook Head on the south. It was not distinguished by Cook or by Meares. It was called "Adams' Point" by Gray in 1792; and later in the same year Vancouver named it Point Adams. Lewis and Clarke, 1805-'6, speak of it in their narrative as Point Adams, but on the chart of the entrance to the river it is called Point Round, and on their general chart P. Ronde, the name applied to it by La Pérouse. The name Point Adams was retained by the United States Exploring Expedition in 1841, and it is never known by any other. De Mofras calls it C. Frondoso ou Pte. Adams. The Indian name of the point is Klaát-sop.

The beach around Point Adams and to the southward for some indefinite distance is locally known as the Clatsop Beach. ..."

From the 1903 and the 1909 U.S. Coast Pilots:

"... The old light-tower on Point Adams, on the south point at the entrance, shows fairly well from seaward. The trestle work of the jetty extending seaward from Point Adams is prominent from southward; it shows well when entering by the main channel. ..."

From the 1917 U.S. Coast Pilot:

"... Point Adams, the south point at the entrance, is a low sandy point covered with fir and undergrowth to the edge of the sand beach and low dunes. The point usually shows well from seaward, particularly if it is hazy inside. ..."

The Point Adams Lighthouse was built in 1875, discontinued in 1899, and destroyed in 1912 with the building of the South Jetty. The 1889 U.S. Coast Pilot gives a nice description.

"... This is a primary Sea-coast Light. The Light-house is not on the northern extremity of the point, but on the outher one of the low sand ridges which run parallel with the ocean shore-line. It is almost one mile south of the point and two hundred and eighty-five yards inside the high-water mark. The structure is a low, square tower rising from the keeper's dwelling. The buildings are painted white, the lantern and dome black. The buildings show against the dark back-ground of the high fir forest, which is about three hundred yards inside.

The Light is of the fourth order of the system of fresnel; it was first exhibited in 1875, and shows from sunset to sunrise a fixed red light:

The present characteristic of the light was given to it on January 21, 1881, when the Tillamook Rock Light was first exhibited. Previous to that date it was a flashing red light. The light shows round the entire horizon, but the compass range useful to mariners is from southeast by south (SE. by S.), through the south and west to north by west half west (N. by W. 1/2 W.), where it is cut off by the trees nearer the extremity of the point.

The base of the tower is fifty feet above the mean level of the sea; and the focal plane is ninety-feet above the sea, so that in favorable conditions of the atmosphere the light should be visible from a height of fifteen feet at a distance of about eleven or twelve miles.

In summer, during the early part of the evening, dense fogs, which are formed over the waters and low beaches of Gray's Harbor and Shoalwater Bay, are brought southeastward by the summer winds and roll over Cape Disappointment, which they completely shut in before reaching across the river, so that a vessel may make the Light-house on Point Adams when the Cape is invisible. ..."

A steam powered fog-whistle existed at Point Adams until February 1, 1881, when it was discontinued "because the sound could not be heard far enough seaward in bad weather on account of the terrific noise of the great breakers" (U.S. Coast Survey, 1889). In the late 1800s and early 1900s a fixed red lantern light at "Fort Stevens Wharf Post Light" existed, at 14 feet above mean high water, located on a small dark-brown wooden house.

"... Point Adams Station was so badly affected by erosion in 1913-1914 that it was necessary to move the boathouse to another location. Sometime between 1905 and 1923 another boathouse was also added to the station. This one was built on piles in the Columbia River. The next major modification came during Franklin Roosevelt's tenure as the nation's chief executive. During his second term in office, the main station house was replaced by a Roosevelt-type building as a PWA project beginning in October of 1938 and was in use the following year. A new boathouse was also constructed during this time. At some point in the 1930s, all stations were renumber "for aviation purposes" and Point Adams was designated as Coast Guard Station No. 326. A wooden sign was laid out flush to the ground with "326" painted in large numerals facing skyward. ... [U.S. Coast Guard Website, 2006]

In the 1960s the U.S. Coast Guard decided to close the Point Adams Station. The Search and Rescue operations were taken over by the Station at Cape Disappointment. The buildings at Port Adams Station were then used by the Clatsop Community College, and finally the National Marine Fisheries Service bought the station and surrounding land from the Coast Guard.