The city is named for the Tillamook people, a Native American tribe speaking a Salishan language who lived in this area until the early 19th century.

Anthropologist Franz Boas identifies the Tillamook Native Americans as the southernmost branch of the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest.

This group was separated geographically from the northern branch by tribes of Chinookan peoples who occupied territory between them.

The name Tillamook, he says, is of Chinook origin, and refers to the people of a locality known as Elim or Kelim.

[5] Captain Robert Gray first anchored in Tillamook Bay in 1788, marking the first recorded European landing on the Oregon coast.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.7 square miles (4.40 km2), all of it land.

The city has a mild and wet climate with very little seasonal temperature variation due to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean.

Between April and October, the precipitation in Tillamook is comparatively lighter than other coastal cities, but still remains much wetter than the population centers in the Willamette Valley.

Approximately one million people visit the cheese factory (located north of Tillamook on Highway 101) each year.

[11] The lumber industry also is experiencing a comeback from the replanting that followed the Tillamook Burn forest fires of the mid-20th century.

The Tillamook Air Museum, which features over 15 aircraft, an Exhibit Hall with rare wartime and aviation-themed artifacts, is located just south of the city.

It is housed in a wooden WWII blimp hangar that was once a part of Naval Air Station Tillamook.

In 1991, illusionist David Copperfield filmed a train car disappearance illusion for a TV special in Hangar B.

The Tillamook Cheese Factory also serves as a Visitor Center and hosts over 1 million tourists each year.

[13] Tours inside the actual cheese-processing area of the plant were discontinued in 1967 due to health and safety regulations.

The most notable was nationally syndicated conservative talk host Lars Larson, who received his first job at the age of 16 on the station.