British fur trader John Meares is said to have named it in 1788 because he was unable to locate his destination: the mouth of the Columbia River. Apparently, he was quite close because the cape is actually at the confluence of the Columbia River and Pacific Ocean. The area is part of what is known as the Graveyard of the Pacific due to more than 2,000 shipwrecks and 700 lives lost along the Columbia Bar at the river’s mouth. This is why there are two lighthouses on the cape.