A small red and white sign bolted to a metal post warns: “Danger. Do not jump from rocks.”
Above it, a larger brown sign tells people not to camp or park overnight.
The signs are posted in the gravel parking lot for the popular Youngs River Falls recreational site outside of Astoria and they are among the first things a visitor sees upon arriving. The falls themselves, thundering loudly in the distance, are hidden from view behind trees and brush.
But in the days after a man died here, some in the community say there needs to be more and better signage to make the dangers of the falls real to people.
On July 28, 41-year-old Kevin McCarty of Tualatin attempted to jump from the falls into the pool below. According to a report by the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office, his girlfriend was below, planning to record the plunge. She did not witness him jump, but when he didn’t surface someone called 911. McCarty’s body was retrieved from the water hours later by a dive team.
Katie Camberg of St. Helens attempted a similar jump as a teenager in 2007. She suffered numerous serious injuries, included a shattered pelvis and jaw, but survived. Now she is leading a campaign to have the city of Astoria change the warning signage at Youngs River Falls.
“Youngs River Falls is undeniably a beautiful place that draws visitors from all around,” she wrote in a petition she circulated online days after McCarty’s death. It had gained nearly 700 signatures as of Tuesday.
“Yet, the danger it poses is equally undeniable,” Camberg added. “Despite existing safety signs, accidents continue to occur. They either go unnoticed, get damaged, or simply fail to convey the real peril of these waters.”
On Monday, she made her case to the Astoria City Council for something that goes beyond a warning: a memorial.
“A memorial that states the lives lost so people don’t just see it as a statistic,” she said. “When I jumped, they told me, ‘Katie, people die off here,’ and I brushed it off as a 15-year-old, but it’s not just teenagers jumping. There are grown adults that are jumping from that location. Seeing those names and having blank spaces beneath—spaces that say that if you risk jumping off of here, we could add you to this—I think that would really impact the gravity of the situation, of how dangerous it is.”
Camberg’s father, Rodney, of Seaside, made a similar plea. He said he has mostly avoided the falls since his daughter’s accident, but felt the need to return after McCarty’s death.
“There were people there playing, it was a beautiful day,” he said. “And I talked to these people: Nobody knew what happened there the day before.”
It struck him powerfully.
He asked the City Council to consider putting up more warning signs, at the parking lot and down by the waterfall itself.
The current warning sign—along with two informational signs at the trailhead to the falls that provide historical information about the site—has existed at the falls for a while, and in better shape than Jonah Dart-McLean, director of the Astoria Parks and Recreation Department, would have expected.
He said he is in conversation with the city insurer and risk assessment to determine what could be done and what the city can put on a sign to make sure it isn’t misleading anyone about what is or isn’t available or what could be safe.
Youngs River Falls is located roughly 10 miles outside of Astoria, a small pocket of city-owned land overseen by the parks department. The falls thunder in the winter and early spring and the water stays relatively cold year-round. The pool below the falls is not very deep. Because of the distance from Astoria, it is not a site parks staff visit regularly.
When accidents do happen at the falls, it is often the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office that responds, as they did last week.
Sheriff Matt Phillips said signage is good and important and may help. Still, he knows from experience with speeders on county roads that signs don’t guarantee people will listen
“Do we want to enforce it? Make it illegal to jump off the falls?” he said. “I think that would be really difficult for us to enforce.”
Dart-McLean said last week’s tragic accident is a good time to review what the city has there and get feedback from the community.
City Councilors are also pushing for that review.
Councilor Elisabeth Adams had asked for the issue to be added to the City Council’s agenda at the start of Monday’s meeting, saying there is a need to expand on the basic warning sign already in place.
“I think if we make it very clear that death and serious injury will occur if someone chooses to jump from the falls, that that would be a much better type of warning for individuals to see when they approach,” she said, “whether it be in the parking lot or down at the bottom of the falls or wherever location is most important.”
Katie Camberg pushed for any sign changes to happen quickly. She noted that there are still weeks of warm summer weather left, when the water is at its shallowest but also its most tempting.
“We have visitors from all over the world, not just from Astoria and Clatsop County,” she said. “So we would like to help keep those visitors safe in our community—as well as our community. So moving on this quickly would mean a lot to all of us and potentially save lives.”