<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:#c00000;">This is the continuation of the article "on the Umpqua" that I shared a couple of days ago. I hope people enjoy it as much as the last one. Thank you all for your kind comments and interesting connections to this area.<font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="5"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="2"><span lang="en-US"><br><font style="font-style: italic;" size="4"><br>Pacific
Rural Press, Volume 18, Number 20, 15 November 1879 </font></span></font></font></font></font><h2 class="western" style="page-break-before: always;">
</h2>
<h1 class="western"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="5"><span lang="en-US">Coos
Bay.</span></font></font></h1><h1 style="font-weight: normal;" class="western"><font size="4">[Written for the Rural Press by Mrs. F. F. Victor. ]
</font></h1>
<p>Coos Bay is an inlet with a mouth like that of a river, and
ramifies in many directions, forming narrow sloughs, or bayous, up
which tide-water forces itself, making navigation very much dependent
upon it. The bar is troublesome and dangerous in the stormy season,
needing to be "improved" by the expenditure of money enough
to build jetties that would confine the channel between fixed limits,
compelling the water to keep the entrance clear. The resources of the
country about the bay are sufficient to warrant the appropriation by
Government of such a sum, and undoubtedly the day will soon arrive
when this work will be commenced. There is a marked similarity
between Coos Bay and the general features of Puget Bound, the
difference being chiefly in the dimensions. As the Umpqua river is a
smaller copy of the Columbia, so Coos Bay is a diminished Puget
sound, the wooded shores, the numerous arms and the milling of lumber
appearing to reproduce the same effects. So heavily timbered is the
country adjacent to its waters that cultivation of the earth is but
little carried on, even vegetables and fruits being scarce, while the
climate and the soil are favorable enough for their production. This
negligence on the part of the settlers sometimes conspires with rough
weather on the bar to produce a stringency in the provision market.
Last winter, for instance, there were 72 consecutive days when
vessels could not come in or go out, and during this period many
persons were forced to live on very simple rations, if not on short
allowance. It is at such a time as this that railroad projects are
discussed with greatest earnestness, and when the people desire
something more than a political relation with Oregon. <br></p><p><br></p>
<p>Coming in from the sea, Empire City is the first town arrived at,
and is about three miles inside the bar. It is built on a bench of
land, with an incline towards the water's edge below it, and with
timbered bluffs extending along the bay above and below it, or, as
the bay lies, north and south of it. Opposite to it is a long line of
sand hills, forming a barrier against the sea, which from the
"lookout" on the bluff is plainly visible. Empire City was
founded about the same time with Gardiner and Scottsburg ; indeed,
all the towns in this region appear to have been started about the
same period, from 1850 to 1854. It is a port of entry; is the county
seat of Coos; has a shipyard, a large steam lumbering mill, a
considerable trade in general merchandise, a large court-house, a
fine schoolhouse, one church building, and many pleasant and
comfortable private dwellings, besides good hotels, at one of
which—Mrs. Lockhart's—l tarried, very happily, for several days.
Its population is not more than 300 or 400, and not increasing
rapidly since the falling off in business that followed the
depression of stocks, and the two years of drouth in California. But
a very good class of steamers make regular and frequent trips between
San Francisco and Coos Bay, carrying out the idea advanced before,
that this is a province of California.
</p>
<p>It would affords me pleasure to record here many of my personal
adventures and encounters with agreeable people, were this the proper
place to introduce personal incidents. Suffice it to say, that though
the Coos country is isolated and hardly regrets its distance from and
independence of the rest of Oregon, it is, socially, a very pleasant
spot of earth to fall upon, and one to which we wish a happy and
prosperous future. From Empire, one of several small swift steamers
conveys us up the bay to North Bend, a distance of two or three
miles. This place is entirely a lumbering and shipbuilding point, and
is owned by the Simpson brothers. It has a pretty site, is neatly
built, has neither hotel nor saloon, but contains within itself all
the essentials for the comfort of its people, employers and employed.
The mill has a capacity of 28,000 feet per diem. At this shipyard was
built the beautiful, full-rigged ship, <i>Western Shore.</i> The fine
vessel, the <i>Tam O'Shanter,</i> was also built at this place. The
elegant finishing of these vessels is due in part to the beauty of
the cabinet woods of this region, especially of the myrtle, which for
color and fineness of grain is not surpassed in beauty by any wood in
the world. North Bend has rendered itself famous, and done Oregon
good service in sending forth vessels of this class to advertise her
resources to the world, as well as the talent and enterprise of her
shipbuilders. <br></p><p><br></p>
<p>A short distance above North Bend, at the head of the bay proper,
is <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">Marshfield</span></span>,
the principal town on these waters. It reminds one of Astoria, being
situated on a hillside, and having a considerable portion of its
business houses built upon piling or "made ground." What
its population is it would be difficult to guess — probably about
600. It has good hotels, several stores of general merchandise, and
the usual supply of special shops, that make a considerable show of
trade; extensive wharves and warehouses, and a general appearance of
prosperity. Lumbering is the chief business carried on here, which
together with shipbuilding employs in ordinary seasons a large number
of men. The present season, however, is less active than any former
one for a long time, though the mill of Dean, Wilcox & Merchant<span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">
is running on fall time, its capacity being 40,000 feet per day. </span>
</p>
<p><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">The prodigality with which
nature has adorned the</span> hillsides at<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;">
Marshfield w</span></span>ith the elegant rhododendrons and other
beautiful shrubs was a constant joy to me while I remained there.
With so favorable a climate the wilderness in this region ought to be
made blossom like the rose. There is the mildness and the moisture in
the air that fosters floral beauty, and should I think be equally
favorable to fruit. I learned that the experiment of drying fruit for
market by the Alden process has been begun by Mr. A. B. Culliver
[sic; Collver], who shipped last year $3,000 worth of fruit, mostly
apples, to San Francisco. His apples brought 16 cents per pound. But
with this exception I could not learn of a business of this kind
being carried on.
</p>
<p>All about Coos Bay on Coos river and the several sloughs are
so-called towns; but really they are only small clusters of tenements
erected at different points where some enterprise has been
undertaken, generally where a coal bank has been discovered and
prospected. Where these enterprises have been prosperous, the usual
local improvements have been made, and there are schools and stores.
But excepting at Newport and Eastport there is almost nothing being
done at present in the coal interest. The mines at Henryville, where
a large amount of money has been invested, have proven a failure, and
the costly works are abandoned. Some coal is being taken out at the
Isthmus coal mine, and vessels go to Utter City to load; but the
business has so declined that Utter City is almost wholly deserted,
and its cottages are empty, while its ample hotel is almost without a
guest.
</p>
<p>This condition of affairs at Coos Bay is greatly the result of the
transient habit of the people on this coast, which affects business
everywhere. If there is a rumor that something is doing or may be
done at a certain point, everybody rushes to that point. Often they
are disappointed and fly with just as little reason to some other
point. The people do not adopt the country and determine to make the
best of it, but endeavor to drain it as rapidly as possible and get
away from it. Business, which has been depressed everywhere alike,
will revive by and by, and all the sooner if people instead of
floating about the country will stay where they are and do the best
they can under the circumstances until the tide turns. At least that
is the way it looks to a casual observer like myself. <br></p><p><br></p>
<p>Coquille City, though on the Coquille river, belongs to the Coos
Bay country, and is a promising new town, in a pretty valley, with a
navigable river of its own. The inhabitants with commendable
enterprise are endeavoring to build jetties at the mouth of the river
to keep open the channel and insure navigation. This is done by
private subscription and with money raised by entertainments,
including a grand Fourth of July celebration, and will I hope prove a
permanent good to the country. Efforts of this kind that show the
people have come to stay and "mean business," are the
results that in time will win the recognition and success that will
repay those investing in the work. <br></p><p><br></p>
<p>This is but a brief account of a rather superficial survey of what
was to me an entirely new country. It was easy to see that its
development had hardly begun, and that when it should be developed it
would be a country of no ordinary resources. What it greatly needs is
easy communication with the interior and a population of a settled
character. From some notes I made I copy these few figures: Value of
real and personal property in Coos county, $ 1,315,562; indebtedness
and exemptions, $392,282; taxable property, $921,280; number of
persons subject to poll tax, 1,000. The number of horses given in was
22,552, and of cattle 96,310; while of sheep there were only 3,820,
and of swine 3,572—which shows the country to be a stock country to
a considerable extent, yet not pre-eminently so. In the future, when
the forest has given way to the woodman's ax, stock and dairying will
become the leading business after the mining interests.
</p>
<p><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://cdnc.ucr.edu/newsucr">http://cdnc.ucr.edu/newsucr</a></span></p>
<br><div> </div><span style="color: black;"><div>Robyn<br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://rgreenlund61@yahoo.com">rgreenlund61@yahoo.com</a><br><br><font color="#bf005f" face="bookman old style, new york, times, serif" size="2">Interested in Oregon History? Check out my webpages at<br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://coquillevalley.org">coquillevalley.org</a> or <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://genealogytrails.com/ore/coos">genealogytrails.com</a> (Coos & Curry Counties)</font><div style="padding: 5px 0pt; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px;"><span style="color: gray;"></span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/rgreenlund" style="padding: 0pt 2px; color: blue; font-size: 10pt;"><img src="http://www.images.wisestamp.com/linkedin.png" alt="Linkedin" style="vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 5px;" border="0" height="16" width="16"></a><a rel="nofollow"
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