Wheeler lies at the edge of the Pacific on Nehalem Bay roughly 85 miles west of Portland and 45 miles south of Astoria. The line was conceived by the Southern Pacific and built by the Pacific Railway & Navigation Company with the intent to stop any ambitions by then rival, Great Northern, which was rumored to be interested in building its own line along the coast, possibly as far south as San Francisco. Construction began in 1906 and after a delay caused by the Depression of 1907, the railway opened in 1911, offering daily passenger service from Portland to the coast. Its main use, however, was hauling logs from Coast Range old-growth forests. By 1981, the Port of Tillamook Bay was operating the line from Tillamook to Wheeler. The Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad came along in 2003 and today operates tourist trains over part of the line through a lease with the Port of Tillamook Bay.