DEPOE BAY — An ancient anchor dating back to the colorful age of sail snags the attention of countless visitors to the state Whale Watch Center, leaving most to wonder: how did it get here, and who found it?

A bronze plaque at its base in the name of Richard Taunton is dedicated “To the Sons and Daughters of Depoe Bay” but leaves out details of the anchor’s mysterious origin.

The story of the 800-lb. relic begins with the late Richard Taunton, a mythic figure in the tight-knit Depoe Bay fishing community. In 1986 he was working aboard the 160-ft. trawler America No. 1 on the Bering Sea when it snagged two anchors in its nets north of Unimak Island on the Alaska Peninsula. His mother, Betty Taunton, recounted the incident to this reporter before she passed on, too.

“The crew took turns claiming things they dragged-up in the nets, and it was Richard’s turn,” Betty stated. “He claimed the first anchor, and the ship’s engineer got the second.”

After the vessel returned to Seattle, Taunton trucked his prize to Depoe Bay where it was installed as a historical curiosity at the legendary Spouting Horn Restaurant operated by the Taunton family from 1951 to 2014 (and since purchased and transformed into The Horn Public House & Brewery). After Richard Taunton’s untimely death in 2006, the anchor was donated to the City of Depoe Bay and installed next to the Whale Watch Center, the No. 1-visited state park in Oregon.

A year before his death, Richard Taunton learned the second anchor was lying in a maze of blackberry bushes following his Seattle shipmate’s divorce. Taunton arranged to bring the anchor to Depoe Bay, where he planted it on his lawn at Little Whale Cove. The rusted artifact triggered a storm at the posh gated community, however, as offended neighbors claimed the seven-foot-tall anchor violated landscaping standards. Repeatedly called on the carpet, Richard shrugged off the HOA’s threats with a smile.

“Richard had a great sense of humor,” said Betty, renowned for her Spouting Horn pies. “He just parried their complaints and it stayed in the yard until he died.”

The family then gave the second anchor to the city, which built a concrete base at the entrance to Depoe Bay Harbor — an apt resting place for a piece of maritime history some experts consider priceless. Specialists at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria who studied both anchors claimed they were likely manufactured around 1860, probably in England. They were the same kind used by U.S. Navy frigates in a bygone era of true masters and commanders.

Another Taunton brother contacted by The Beacon corroborated the story of the twin anchors and recalled how Richard netted another astounding trophy while fishing in the Bering Sea — affirming it as the true “boneyard” of the Pacific Ocean.

“He brought up a mastodon tusk embedded in an old crab pot,” said Neil Taunton, the Alaska halibut fisherman and big-boat operator now retired to his Toledo tree farm. “He gave it to Portland State University — probably still sitting there. They speculated it was carried to sea on a chunk of glacier where it fell to the bottom, got tangled up with a crab pot, drug up and ended in Richard’s hands.”