Agate Beach, the sea beach about three miles north of Newport, just below Yaquina Head, has long been noted for the very fine agates found there, and was named to call attention to one of the principal attractions of beachcombing in the area. Beachcombing is at its best during the winter, when winter waves, high seas and runoff carry sand off the beaches, uncovering treasures. Also, storms carry in objects lost at sea. Among the possibilities are trash from ships, packing crates, floats, driftwood, shells, fossils— and agates. The Central Oregon Coast is prime agate-hunting territory. Agates are beautiful, translucent rocks. Before the Ice Ages, silicates, oxides and metals were squeezed into existing earth forms to create these quartzes, also known as chalcedony. More oxides and minerals create the red, amber and blue tones, sometimes forming a banded or mottled pattern. Some agates contain fossilized clams, snails and shark’s teeth. Agate Beach lives up to its name as the area with the greatest concentration of these rocks. Dealers in Newport make a specialty of cutting and polishing these stones. The beach north of Seal Rock and mouths of freshwater streams and rivers are also good places. Some of the best are Cummins Creek, Bob Creek, Nye Beach, Ona Beach, Smelt Sands and Squaw Creek. In 1883, John Fitzpatrick, an Ireland-born man who, by all accounts, was an easy-going gentleman with a flair for investing in profitable pieces of land, purchased an 18-acre woodland lot near Agate Beach. During the beginning of what would become the 19th century’s worst economic depression, Fitzpatrick built the Monterey Hotel on his 18-acre parcel of land, which was surrounded by more than 100 acres of forest. Popular with bathers and tourists from Salem, the hotel enjoyed extreme prosperity during its first year in business. Then, for reasons “far more intriguing than simple economics,” the hotel’s business dropped and the tragedies began. Less than two years after the Monterey’s construction, Fitzpatrick was dead from pneumonia and, shortly thereafter, his 25-year-old daughter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, was found shot to death in one of the hotel’s grand rooms. Today, the 18 acres is owned by the state and acts as a picnic and beach-access park for Agate Beach’s visitors. In 1912, Colonel Hofer built Madinore, the first house at Agate Beach. Other people from Salem followed and built homes, the Pattons, the Livesleys, Thielsens, the Bushes, and Florence Bynon’s brother Mac built a house to the south of Madinore. Agate Beach post office was established Apr. 18, 1912 with John G. Mackey serving as first postmaster. The office closed to Newport on Aug. 20, 1971. Swiss-born composer Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) spent the last years of his life in the Newport area. Bloch had a long and illustrious career, both in Europe and the US. From 1911 to 1915, Bloch taught at the Geneva Conservatory. He migrated to the US in 1916, and founded the Cleveland Institute of Music in 1920. Bloch was naturalized in 1924, and served as the director of the Cleveland Institute until 1925. He was director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1925 to 1930. Bloch’s compositions included works on Jewish themes, such as Trois Poémes Juifs (1913); Israel (1916); Schelomo (1916); Baal Shem (1923); and Avodath Hakodesh (1933). He built a beautiful home on the shore at Agate Beach, a picturesque spot on the Oregon Coast which helped to inspire some of his last works including his Symphony In E Flat, Proclamation For Trumpet and Orchestra and his fifth (and final) String Quartet. Bloch’s other works included Hiver-Printemps (1905); Macbeth (1910); Suite for Viola and Piano (1919); Quintet for Piano and Strings (1923); America (1926); Suite Symphonique (1944); and Scherzo Fantasque (1948). Today his memory is carried on through the Ernest Bloch Music Festival which is held annually in July.
     Angora post office, established Dec. 5, 1898, was located on the Alsea River a few miles downstream from Alsea. It was in the southeast part of T13S, R9W, on or near Fall Creek at a point not far above the mouth of the stream. Oscar Tom (or Otto Dickoff) was first postmaster of the Angora office, was named for the goats raised in the vicinity. The office was rescinded Jan. 20, 1899 and re-established Mar. 5, 1900. The Angora office closed to Alsea on Jun. 29, 1907. There was another Angora post office in Coos County was formerly known as Enchanted. That office was located on a small prairie near Middle Fork Coquille River, about four miles east of Bridge. Rollin S. Belknap was first postmaster of the Angora office, which closed to Oak on May 5, 1894.
     Axtell post office, located on Yachats River about six miles east of Yachats, was established May 6, 1891, with John D. Axtell first postmaster. The office closed to Waldport Sep. 15, 1903. While nothing was left to mark the locality in 1968, the USFS had constructed a small fish ladder near the mouth of Axtell Creek to improve spawning access.
     Barber post office, located on Elk Creek about three miles northwest of Harlan, was established Mar. 30, 1911, with Clarinda Barber, first postmaster. The office, named for the Barber family, closed to Elk City Jan. 31, 1912.
     Beaver Creek: In 1976, Hester Hill Coovert Rogers wrote: “My grandfather was Cabell Adair Breckenridge Patterson. He was called “Cab” for short. He married my grandmother, Arseneon P. Tureman. Their oldest son died six months before my mother, Harriet E. Patterson Hill (1847-1931), was born. Cab Patterson’s mother was a Quaker, Lovely Truitt. The family moved to Kentucky from nearby Philadelphia where they first settled. Grandpa was one of a family of six children. He was a descendent of the 13 Patterson brothers who migrated to America during the time of American colonist Wm. Penn (1644-1718). The Pattersons were calvinists. In my family, the oldest son is always named “Wm.” Grandpa was named Cab because he wasn’t the oldest son. There was a Wm. Patterson at the battle of Valley Forge (1777-1778) who fought for gen. Geo. Washington (1732-1799). He was a continental who was enlisted for the duration of the American Revolution. Lovely Patterson sent Wm. II, who was 12 years old, to Valley Forge to deliver socks, food and other provisions to the Washington’s soldiers. Cab’s son, Wm., moved to Kentucky, and was a private in the war of 1812. Grandma was an abolitionist. She begged her spouse to free their slaves, and told them to get out of slave territory, as she saw trouble was coming. One of the slaves became a good blacksmith. He earned enough money to purchase his wife and son and fled to Cincinnati, OH. The family moved to Illinois to escape slavery in the South. Mother’s family, the Truemans were Germans who migrated to America when John Q. Adams (1735-1826) was president. The large family settled in Illinois. My father was Saml. Hill. He was born in Kentucky, and was the son of Nancy Watters and Philip Hill. His parents died when he was 12 years old, while the family was living in California. An uncle-in-law took all the property he could quickly sell and left my orphaned family alone. Neighbors found some wild cattle to sell, and gave dad the money. He started for Oregon with his pony, but ran into three cousins when he stopped to camp along the trail. They took him back to California. Later on, the applied for a donation land claim in Oregon, but did not prove up on his claim. He joined the confederacy, and the last letter from him was sent out secretly from Vicksburg (1863). That battle, a union victory, was the turning point of the Civil War. Before settling at Beaver Creek, near Seal Rock, he was hired by a woman to ferry her cattle across the river in Salem. He took land on the South Beaver side of the hill next to Harriet Patterson’s claim. They were married after mother’s brother, Corlis “Ike” Patterson, was killed at South Beach while working for the government on the jetties. This particular Corlis was buried on the old homestead; the others are buried at Fernridge Cemetery, Seal Rock.” In 1966, Florence Payne Howell wrote: “The Payne family moved to Beaver Creek in May, 1921. They owned the original patent of Sam Warfield. It was spoken of as “Mrs. Hulse’s Place” from May 1921 until the final papers were turned over to Chas. Zeek and his wife in 1955 or 1956. Dances were frequent in the downstairs of the house. It wasn’t long before the building was becoming unsound for the activity of a room full of dancing. After some worry, they decided to use heavy iron rods across the downstairs ceiling which took out the sway. Horrey Woods and Geo. Ryan played the violin, as did many others. Herman Webber played piano, and Neta Phelps was very good to play long hours on the piano. Frank Gatens called many of the square dances. Guy Twombly could call a dance when things were dull. The most fascinating dancer to me was an old lady who really danced with glee! I thought the dances were a bit noisy, but after I learned all of them I really loved them.” Bay post office was established May 16, 1948 as a contract station of Newport. The office was discontinued Dec. 31, 1949.
     Bayview is located on the northeast part of Alsea Bay. The post office was established Aug. 8,1901, and the name was chosen by Danl. M. Oakland (1890-1929), the first postmaster, because of the view of Alsea Bay that could be had from where the office then stood. The office closed to Toledo Dec. 31, 1941. Oakland is buried at Tidewater Cemetery, as is E. E. Dyer (1861-1925), who also served as Bayview postmaster at a later date.
     Bellamy post office, established May 24, 1898, was located four or five miles north of Toledo on the road to Siletz. Ola A. Tveitmoe first postmaster of this office, and the postal facilities were intended for a small colony of Scandinavians living in the vicinity. The Bellamy office closed to Toledo on Jun. 15, 1899.
    Beverly Beach is a small community north of Yaquina Head and Beverly Beach State Park adjoins it on the north. In 1981, Florence May Christy wrote: “During the early 1930s my husband, Curtis E. Christy, and I owned the property which is now known as Beverly Beach, Lincoln County, Oregon. Our goal was to establish a small seaside community on this property. In choosing a name for this site my daughter, Florence Daneene Christy Pearson, who at that time was a small child, was asked what she would like to call the community. Her favorite doll at that time was Beverly, and her choice of that name established the location as Beverly Beach, which it has remained to this day.” In 1920, Lester Martin and C. B. Ryckman organized the Ocean Park Campground and Trout Farm and declared their intention to sell a limited amount of stock. Their plans also called for at least 50 cabins and a playground. The development of Ocean Park, which was located about where Beverly Beach State Park is now, coincided with construction of the Roosevelt Military Highway (US-101). At that time, the highway snaked its way through the nearby foothills east of its present location. The site chosen for Ocean Park was convenient for travelers, as the highway ran right through the grounds. Five years later, the partners announced the completion of a new dam that created a lake that, when filled, would cover 34 acres with six feet of water. The partners claimed the new lake, along with their other lakes, held enough water to sustain 10,000,000 trout. In Jan. 1925, 1.8 million trout were hatched at their facility, which by this time had become a mecca for authorities on fish and hatcheries. By 1925, the trout farm and campground had been supplemented with a bathhouse, store, restaurant and cottages with access to the beach. Picture postcards from about 1930 document that ocean Park also kept a bear mascot chained up on the grounds. It is not known exactly when the trout farm and resort came to an end, but relocation of the highway may have been a deadly blow for this privately owned attraction. The state acquired lands for what would become Beverly Beach State Park campground in 1942 and 1943. This was shortly after construction began on the present-day route of US-101. In Oct. 1952, the state awarded a $23,817 contract for construction of an overnight camping area at Spencer Creek, which flows into the Pacific Ocean at Ocean Park about a mile south of Otter Rock. This creek was named for Doke Spencer, an Indian who lived near its mouth. Spencer and his family were allotted land in this locality. According to a 1957 newspaper article, Beverly Beach State park opened as a park in 1953. At that time it was just 17 acres with 32 campsites, 12 trailer spaces and a separate parking area. The park has since grown to more than 103 acres. This 129-acre site camp and day use area now attracts in excess of 300,000 visitors annually. While the simple pleasure of trout fishing in a convenient artificial pond has been long lost, the present-day park at Spencer Creek continues to be a popular attraction for coastal visitors.
     Boyer is located in the extreme northeast section of Lincoln County, on OR-18, about eight miles east of Rose Lodge and one mile from the county line. The post office, named for pioneer settlers Julia and John Boyer, was established Aug. 18, 1910, with Mervin O. Boyer first postmaster. The office closed to Rose Lodge Mar. 31, 1915. In 1908, Julia and John Boyer settled near here. Phil Sheridan Road was probably built in 1856 while Sheridan was on police patrol duty at Ft. Yamhill. It facilitated necessary travel via the Old Elk Trail, ocean beaches, and Siletz River to the Siletz Indian Agency, and an attempt was made to make the Old Elk Trail a toll road as early as 1860. Other desultory attempts followed and in 1908, John Boyer improved the route, over which people had used to crossed the Coast Range since antiquity, and established the Salmon River Toll Road. which he and Julia Boyer operated for 12 years. In winter the road was almost impassable. In 1930, Boyer was honored at a public ceremony as “Father of the Salmon River Road.”
     Burnt Woods post office is in the eastern part of Lincoln County, near Tumtum River, where the remains of forest fires are still much in evidence. The office was established in 1919, and a list of suggested names was sent to the Post Office Department. On the list was Burnt Woods, proposed by H. G. Downing, and this was the name chosen by authorities. Early Tumtum (Burnt Woods) School stood in back of the present store on the road to Harlan. The teacher in 1910 was Ida Hurley. Students were Clara Downing, Grant Downing, Mae Downing, who married Rbt. Richardson, Emily Harris, who married Archie McFarland, Ada McDowell, who married Morty Lake of Peak, Lavern McDowell, Lester McDowell, Albert Roscoe, and Willard Roscoe.11 In 1885, railroad baron Wallis Nash said Tumtum Precinct beings at the divide between Little Elk and Yaquina rivers on the north and extends to the dividing ridge between the waters of Big Elk Creek and Alsea River on the south, and from the mouth of the Little Elk to a point a little west of Blodgett’s Valley, being in the vicinity of 12 miles from east to west and ten from north to south. It is actually bounded on the north by Summit precinct, and on the south by Alsea Precinct, on the west by Elk City Precinct on the east by Kings Valley and Philomath precincts. Little Elk Creek near the central portion of the precinct, passing out at its northeast corner; while Big Elk Creek has its source in the southeast corner o the west and southwest slopes of Marys Peak, and flowing westerly enters Elk City Precinct. Rising on the northwest gradient of Marys Peak is that fork of Mary Peak called Shot Pouch which, after flowing in a northerly direction for some distance, turns aborted to the southeast; while, at the most northerly point of the precinct the Tumtum comes in from the westward. Bordering the stream last named is a beautiful mountain glen, lying at a high altitude and extending as far as the Summit towards Little Elk Creek, whose valley is much lower and comprises wide lands long ago brought into cultivation. Big Elk Creek has larger bottom lands on its banks than any other stream in the region; while on much of the smaller water courses, such as Deer and Wolf creeks, and the several brooks on the north and south, considerable fertile lands are seen, clothed with the richest pasture for livestock of all kinds. Many excellent farms have been made along the courses of Big Elk Creek and its tributaries, yet there is room for more; but this valley is, so far, isolated, there being only a single thoroughfare that connects it with the upper end; still there is no reason why one should not be constructed to Elk City. The Shot Pouch, which is afterwards known as one of the forks of Mary's River, rejoins in much valuable land along its route, nor for most part covered with a growth of the wild cherry. Still there are portions of it in cultivation, but owing to its high position it is subject to keen frosts. Marys Peak, which marks the northeastern corner of Alsea precinct, is situated in the southeast angle of Tumtum. It attains an altitude of 4000 feet and is often snow-capped until the month of Aug. Its summit is bald, devoid of timber but covered with a growth of indigenous grass better than which for pasturage is not to be found anywhere. In form the apex is crescent-shaped, comprises between 300 and 400 acres, owned by the veteran pioneer, Wm. Wyatt, who uses it during the summer months as a range for horses. Like in other portions of the district the timber has succumbed to the devouring element, but there are sufficient remains to show that there once existed a magnificent cedar forest. The early settlers in this precinct first supplied their household wants from what the country then offered. Until there lands could be brought into subjection they usually depended upon shingle making as a source of revenue, or barter for groceries, while their tables were laden with venison, then more plentiful amid the hills than now. Little grain is produced in Tumtum Precinct, the chief industry being livestock raising, which is year by year growing into greater importance, their ranches being extended as their flocks and herds increase. Pasturage is extended by the sowing of tame grasses, the seed for which is the product of their own labor, while the grangers here have for some time past supplied the Corvallis market with beef and mutton bred upon their lands. The capabilities of this precinct are second to none in the county, while the opportunities for taking up granges is as good as in any other portion of the state. The population is about 250, chiefly composed of agriculturists, who are greatly in want of postal facilities, their nearest distributing point being at Philomath, some 20 to 30 miles away. The precinct includes three schoolhouses in Big Elk, Shot Pouch, and the vicinity of Little Elk valleys, while religious services are irregularly held in these buildings or in the private residences of squatters. There is no store within the precinct, supplies being drawn from either Corvallis or Philomath. Among the first settlers in this precinct were Alfred Flickinger, Jas. C. (1849-? MO) and J. H. Yantis (1831-? MO) and Solomon Mulkey (1823-? MO).
     Caledonia, so called after the name given to Scotland by the Gauls, was first located Jan. 1, 1885, and is situated at the junction of the Caledonia (Olalla) River with the Yaquina. It was laid out in 1885 by Henry Wilkinson Vincent (1827-1922) on the claim of Wm. Stevens, while so favorable is the side considered that town lots have found a ready sale. During the spring a hotel and store was started as well as the Chas. Logsden Sawmill. Caledonia was beautifully located and placed upon the county road. Vincent was born in Watertown, NY, Apr. 1, 1832. In 1851, he moved to Ripon, WI, and married Judith D. Stevens (1835-1903), a native of Gouldsborough, ME. The couple had three children: Frank, Fred and Georgia. On Jul. 3, 1874, the Vincents arrived in Benton County, and first located in Corvallis. Another early settler, Geo. S. Briggs, who owned a large fruit orchard in Caledonia, was originally from Medina County, OH. He was born Oct. 27, 1834. His parents moved to Racine County, WI, when he was two years old. The family remained there until 1850 when the moved to Fayette County, IA. Briggs enlisted in Company F, 9th Vet. of Iowa, Feb. 28, 1864 and served until Jun. 1865. He returned to his home in Iowa and migrated to Portland, OR in 1870. In 1876, he moved to Yaquina Bay and purchased his 390-acre farm, on which he had an orchard of over 6000 trees, 4000 of which were Italian Prunes. Jos. Thompson, a printer, also settled at Caledonia. Thompson was born in Huntington County, (Blair County) PA, in 1832, where he resided until 1852. In the spring of that year, Thompson joined the Morrison Train at Dubuque, IA, and crossed the plains to Oregon. When the party reached Tule (Modoc) Lake in Southern Oregon, they were surprised by 150 Modoc, and after a desperate fight, which resulted in the loss of three lives and injuries to Thompson, they were finally rescued by a party from Yreka. Upon his arrival at Yreka, Thompson began mining. He then went to Sacramento and San Francisco where he worked as a printer, and at one time published a paper at Nevada City. While living in Nevada City, Thompson married Mary V. Herbert. The Thompsons were the parents of five children: Morris, Daisy, Jos. II, Lillie and Harriet. In 1869, he and his family migrated to Yaquina Bay, and homesteaded 160 acres adjoining the new town of Caledonia. However, he spent most of his time in Portland working on daily papers.13 Located near Toledo, Caledonia was probably named for the Caledonian Canal dividing the Grampian Mountains from the West Highlands in Scotland. The canal connects the North Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. The Caledonia Hills between Portage and Baraboo, WI, are part of the circular Baraboo Range around which the Wisconsin River flows. Briggsville is about eight miles northwest of Portage, and may be named for the Briggs family that migrated to Yaquina Bay. Caledonia, WI, an unincorporated village about six miles northwest of Racine on Root River and about eight miles south or Milwaukee, is an agricultural region. Famous Portage historian Frederick J. Turner noted “the large number of Scots at Caledonia.” Apple Holler in Sturtevant, WI, features over 50 acres of 16 different varieties of apples. This farm hosts tours of its orchard and cider mill. Caledonia is the Latin word for Scotland, and there are numerous Scottish settlements throughout north America that bear that name. Euro-Americans in the new country followed the land, and the formation of the land. They settled on the kind of land where they thought they would find happiness and prosperity. In the hills, the hill people of Norway, Switzerland, Wales, Germany, Scotland and other far countries tended to settle, and they called the places New Glarus, Wales, Berlin, Vienna, New Holstein and Caledonia. Caledonia, Columbia County, WI, was named by Scottish settlers. It was probably named by the McDonald brothers who settled there in 1836. Caledonia, Tremplealeau County, WI, was named by Alexander and Donald McGilvray and other Scottish settlers, Caledonia, Racine County, WI, was named for Scottish settlers. This area also had Welsh, Irish, Bohemian, and German settlements.15 Other Caledonia settlements in the New World include Caledonia, Ontario, Canada (pop. 3,183); Caledonia, MN (population 2,619); Caledonia, NY (pop. 2,327); Caledonia, OH (pop. 792); and Caledonia County, VT (pop. 22,789).
     Chitwood was a station on the Southern Pacific line along the Yaquina River, about six miles southeast of Toledo. Chitwood post office was established Jul. 12, 1887, with Jas. B. Chitwood first postmaster. Geo. T. Smith, postmaster at Chitwood, wrote in 1925 that the station and post office were named for Josh. Chitwood, who lived near the present site of the community when the railroad was built down to the Yaquina between 1881 and 1885. On Jun. 30, 1945, Chitwood closed to Toledo.
     Collins post office, located about three miles north of Waldport, was established Jan. 31, 1875, with Matt. Brand first postmaster. Numerous name changes mark the history of this post office as it moved about Alsea Bay. This office, formerly known as Drift Wood, was named in honor of Geo. W. Collins, the first settler in the Lower Alsea. Collins came in 1860 as Indian agent for the subagency of the Alsea Reservation. Formerly part of the Coast Reservation, which by treaty with the Indians extended for 90 miles along the coast and about 20 miles inland, Alsea Subagency near Yachats was established in 1856. David D. Fagan’s History of Benton County records: “When whites began to settle in the Alsea district they found there the remnants of three tribes: the ‘Alseas’ by the bay and on the coast, a people of fishers; the ‘Klickitats’ who hunted in the woods and over the mountains to the south; and the ‘Drift Creek Indians’ whose homes were scattered through the heavy timber round Table Mountain and on the streams leading thereabouts, to the east and northeast of Alsea. Though generally at enmity with each other yet there were times when, feuds laid aside, the hunting tribes visited their neighbors by the ocean in peace, bringing with them the spoils of the chase to exchange for the sea fish and shell fish of the Alseas. Then fires were lighted and feasting and jollity went on day after day together.” The agency was closed in 1875 and Indians were forced to remove to Siletz so non-indians could settle here. Collins post office was discontinued Jun. 17, 1881. The name of the office was changed to Waldport on Feb. 23, 1882. It was changed again to Lutgens on May 17, 1890.
     Cutler City, just south of Taft and on the east shore of Siletz Bay, has had a remarkable development as a resort town. This is a beautiful area full of huckleberries, rhododendrons and pine trees. There was one deserted house which everyone referred to as Gibbs Point. It was often a picnic spot, reached only by crossing Schooner Creek by horse and wagon or by boat, or wading at low tide. Due to the high rock point, the pioneers were unable to cut a road through. The town was named for Geo. Cutler, who acquired the property from Charley DePoe, a Siletz Indian, and developed the resort with several other nearby communities to form Lincoln City. The post office was established Apr. 14, 1930, with Jacob H. Boomer serving as first postmaster. The Cutlers formerly lived near Dallas. Cutler died in 1913, and his wife in 1939. On Dec. 8, 1964, Cutler City voted to become part of a new community called Lincoln City, and the post office was discontinued on Sep. 24, 1965.
    Delake post office, named for Devils Lake, near which it was located, was established Jan. 11, 1924. Henry A. Hostetler, a civic leader, bought Indian allotment land in the Delake area as early as 1910 but it was 1925 before growth began. Arthur C. Deuel, the first postmaster, said that Delake was the name agreed upon by himself and judge Frank L. Mann (1863-1956), a Lincoln County resident, because it was the way many of the Finnish people, who settled in the area as fishermen, pronounced Devils Lake. When the name of the original post office was changed to Oceanlake on Mar. 15, 1927, the site was moved a bit over a mile south. The original community then applied for and received a new post office, which was established the same date that the name change took place. The Delake post office was discontinued Sep. 24, 1965, and on Dec. 8, 1964, Delake voted to become part of a new community to be called Lincoln City. Development of all areas began with the opening of the highway and continues to this day. In 1837, Methodist missionaries Jason Lee and Cyrus Sheppard, with their brides of one month, and guide Jos. Gervias, came over the Old Elk Trail and camped at the site of what is now Delake for a week. The honeymooners “cured themselves of malaria and evangelized the Salmon River Indians.” So far as is known, they were the first vacationers on the Oregon Coast.20
     Denzer post office, located on Lobster Creek, about five miles southeast of Tidewater, was established Apr. 10, 1909, with Frederick C. Denzer first postmaster. The post office closed to Alsea Aug. 31, 1933.
     Depoe Bay is an appealing village that has grown up around a tiny rock-bound harbor that claims to be the world’s smallest. Wm. Least Heat Moon in Blue Highways wrote that “Depoe Bay used to be a picturesque fishing village; now it was just picturesque. The fish houses, but for one seasonal company, were gone, the fleet gone, and in their stead had come sport fishing boast and souvenir ashtray and T-shirt shops.” To be fair, tourists have always come here since the establishment of the town. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the town didn’t really exist until the completion of the Roosevelt Highway in 1927, which opened the area up to car travelers. Prior to that time, the area had been mainly occupied by a few members of the Siletz Reservation. All told, this picturesque little fishing village has an interesting history. In 1878, Fred W. Vincent of Pendleton and his grandfather cruised up the Oregon Coast north from Newport and observed a break in the shoreline. Lowering the sails of this 40-foot boat, they finally rowed it into the little harbor. “We found there the anchor chains of a sea-going craft, two headlights and the letters US, so we named the little spot Wreckers Cove,” said Vincent. In 1894, lands about Depoe Bay just north of Cape Foulweather were allotted by the US government to Charley Depot, a Siletz Indian whose name derived from the fact that as a young man he had been employed at a US Army depot. In Jun. 1927, the then owners, Sunset Investment Company of Portland, platted a modern townsite and named it in honor of Old Charley, whose family name had evolved from plain “depot” to the more fancy “DePoe.” Rumor had it, however, that his was a bit too fancy for Uncle Sam who decreed that the post office established there Oct. 26, 1928, should be plain Depoe Bay, and so it remains. Evidence of an ancient culture, Indian shell mounds and kitchen middens can still be seen in and around the city. The name became Depoe Bay when the post office was established Aug. 26, 1928. Esther M. Baird was first postmaster of this office, , located on the north side of the bay, about 13 miles north of Newport. The narrow inlet of Depoe Bay is the world’s smallest navigable harbor, with just six square acres of water. Because of its proximity to the ocean, fishermen or whale watchers can be from dockside to viewing or fishing in a matter of minutes. The town has the distinction of being the only town of the entire coast with this amenity. Waves run the beneath lava beds and build pressure to spout water as high as 60 feet into the air. These are known as “spouting horns” and are visible during turbulent seas and stormy weather. Depoe Bay is also the Whale Watching Capital of the Oregon Coast with its resident pod of grey whales which makes its home there ten months out of the year. Each spring the town hosts the “Celebration of the Whales.” Fleet of Flowers celebration is held on Memorial Day. Local boats venture out of the harbor to place floral wreaths on the Pacific as a tribute to friends and loved ones. Over 20,000 people come to witness a blanket of blossoms cast upon high waters. The Depoe Bay Salmon Bake takes place on the third Sat. of Sep. at Depoe Bay City Park, located just south and east of the bridge flanking the rear of the boat basin. Approximately 3000 pounds of fresh ocean fish are caught cooked over open fires of alder and cedar just as Indians like Matilda and Wm. Depoe did years ago. In her Apr. 4, 199 letter to M. Constance Guardino III, Julie Hendricks of Tiller wrote: “While working at PCH, I met and came to love Chief Wm. Depoe while he was alive. I hope his biography is published one day. He was quite a dear fellow, with many stories to tell. He lived a very full and rewarding life. He was in one Elvis movie, and he was on the Lawrence Welk show. Through his 80-plus years he remained very active with cultural activities, and he maintained a superb sense of humor. He declined rapidly after his wife passed on.”
     Devils Lake is near the Pacific Ocean in the southwest part of Lincoln County. Devils Lake post office, located near the north end of the lake, was established Jan. 9, 1913, with Cecil Cosper first postmaster. The office closed to Otis Jul. 15, 1918. Native American mythology persists with fables of fearsome megafauna—a giant fish or marine monster—dwelling in Devils Lake, and occasionally came to the surface to attack some hapless person. Yearly religious rites and sacrifices were probably practiced to appease the awesome creature. There are several versions of the story but this one is sufficient to indicate the origin of the name.
     Drift Creek was the first post office to be established in the Alsea Bay area. Located three miles north of Waldport, the Drift Creek office was established Aug. 6, 1874, with Matthew Brand postmaster, and was named for the accumulation of driftwood on the banks of the stream which enters the eastern end of the Bay. The name of the office was changed to Collins on Jan. 31, 1876, in honor of George W. Collins who was born in Spencer, KY, Apr. 22, 1832. In 1846 Collins moved to Adams County, IL. The family migrated to California in 1850, where Collins was a miner until 1853, when he moved to Jackson County and took part in the Rogue River Indian Wars. Collins first settled in the Lower Alsea area. In 1857, he moved to the Siletz area, worked in the early 1860s as an employee on the Coast Reservation. From 1864 through 1869 he was Indian subagent in charge of the Alsea Agency until he was relieved by lt. Beatty. In 1871, Collins located on a farm near Seal Rock. Collins’ report for 1864 shows 580 Indians at the Alsea Agency. “The Coos and Umpqua tribes of Indians have at this place comfortable houses to live in; they have two barns and also two potato houses. The Syouslaus (Siuslaws) have, mostly, frame houses, weather-boarded with clapboards. The Alsea Indians have a few frame houses, but most of them are Indian style, built under ground, or very nearly so.” When David Ruble became postmaster of Collins, the site moved from the north to south shore of Alsea Bay. The name of this office was changed to Waldport on Jun. 17, 1881, and back to Collins on Feb. 23, 1882. Ruble lost the position of postmaster during this transition. This post office in Waldport may have been on the north side of Alsea Bay, not on the south side. Collins was changed to Lutgens (or Lutjens) on May 1890, and Lutgens was changed to Stanford Jul. 29, 1883. W. C. Shepard was first postmaster while the office was so named, but the reason for the Stanford name has been obscured. The post office retained that name until Jun. 21, 1897, when it became Lutgens again. Albert H. Lutgens was postmaster of this office, located four miles south of Seal Rock on the north shore of Alsea Bay. On Apr. 24, 1917, the name of the office was changed to Nice, in honor of Harry Nice, a prominent Alsea Bay resident during the last part of the 19th century. Nora L. Strake was first postmaster of this final office, which closed to Waldport on Nov. 15, 1919. This post office had eight names during its 45 years of service, possibly a record. No other Oregon office appears to have approached this mark. It is obvious that the office was moved a number of times. However, the offices mentioned above were all in the general vicinity of Alsea Bay.
     Eddyville post office, established Mar. 13, 1888, was located about a mile west of the original Little Elk site on Yaquina River, and about eight miles east of Toledo. The office was named for Israel F. Eddy, who served as the postmaster of Little Elk for nine years prior to the name change. The Eddyville office seems to have had more than the usual number of moves. It was first called Little Elk, because it was near the mouth of Little Elk Creek. About 1888 Israel Fiske Eddy, the postmaster, moved the office about a mile west and had the name changed to Eddyville. Some four years later the office was brought back to its original location and the name changed to Little Elk. About 1893 it was moved again to Eddy’s place and was continued under the name Eddyville. According to Bea Eddy-Wilcox, who is a member of the Lincoln County Historical Society and the DAR, Israel Fisk Eddy (1824-1911), the legendary early settler of Eddyville, was a man of generous size. He stood six feet, seven inches tall, and was said to be very powerful. He probably weighed well over 250 pounds, and had to stoop and enter an ordinary doorway sideways. Most of the legends about Israel Eddy had to do with his tremendous strength. One old timer said he saw Israel take the axle of the wheel of a loaded hay wagon and lift it out of the mud so the horses could pull it out of a mud hole. He said he was a tiny boy at the time, and was overwhelmed by Eddy’s strength. Another tale says that Israel could put a heavy steel spike—similar to the ones used in making bridges—between his fingers, slam down on it, and the spike would bend to their shape. Israel settled in what is now the town of Eddyville, in 1870. He was 46 years old. At the time, the area was known as Little Elk. His first wife, P. D. Eddy, who he married back in Vermont, died after he had reared a family, so he remarried. The Eddys had a son named Perry and a daughter named Eva May (1862-1875) who was 13 years old when they came West to Lincoln County. She died Dec. 27, 1875, at the age of 13 years and seven months. Israel left his land and everything dear to him in Minnesota and came out West to join his father, Ezekiel Eddy (1800-1890) who was already here with his wife, Lucy Fisk (1805-1878). Ezekiel had crossed the plains at least twice in his lifetime. He was a considerably old man to be making such a move, and he brought his grown children with him. The old man was a true son of the American Revolution (1775-1783), because his father, Jas. Eddy, fought in the war. Israel bought land in Little Elk from a young bride and groom. Legend has it that he and his father rode to Corvallis and came back with a mule or two loaded down with silver money to pay for the land. They built a sawmill and a gristmill on this land, and used a small dam on the Yaquina to supply the power. The heavy stones used to grind the grain were shipped from England, and were carried from Siletz Bay to the Eddy gristmill on the back of a Indian woman! Israel’s reason for putting a gristmill in the middle of tall timber was a puzzle to some people, but he was convinced that the railroad was coming through to connect Central Oregon—which people then believed would become the grain capital of the world—with the Central Oregon Coast. The prediction was that Newport would become an enormous seaport, and the grain from Eastern and Central Oregon would be shipped to foreign ports from there. These plans never materialized, however, and Israel ended up grinding flour for local use instead of foreign trade. The railroad, it is thought, could have been instrumental in changing Little Elk to Eddyville. Israel owned a lot of land in the Little Elk area when col. T. Egenton Hogg was putting in the Corvallis & Eastern Railway through to the coast. When Israel gave the railroad right-of-way privileges through his land, it was under the consideration that they would name the area Eddyville. But there were other more powerful interests, primarily in Portland, that didn’t want to see Newport become an enormous port with all the grain from Eastern and Central Oregon being shipped through it. Although it is “unofficial,” some people still speculate that there was sabotage beyond belief on this railroad. Tunnels were set on fire, bridges were undercut or burned, and every underhanded deed was done to try and keep the railroad from succeeding. It went bankrupt time and time again. Wallis Nash (1837-1926) poured millions of dollars into it. But Portland interests bought up a great deal of land around Yaquina Bay, so that docks couldn’t be built. Considerable land in Lincoln County is still owned by some of these old estates. There were people who were determined that Portland alone was going to be the big port; they didn’t want Newport developed at any cost. Another story states that in 1888, Israel Eddy, who was then postmaster of Little Elk, moved the post office a mile west onto his own property and changed the name to Eddyville. He also established the cemetery on his farm. This location was approximately where Eddy Creek and the Yaquina meet. The office was moved east to McBride’s store in 1892 with the name changed back to Little Elk. Upon petition, the office was moved back to Eddy’s and the name was changed to Eddyville. Eddy sold to Conroy and the post office went with it. The next change was to Flam Young who kept it until 1897 when it moved back to McBride’s store. The Post Office Department however declined to change the name, giving as the reason, they did not like the double name. The office was sold to Stringer, and in about 1938 to Frances Mauch. Ms. Sparks and Ms. Boynton took it when it came under civil service. Israel was fond of trees and had a fine orchard in Eddyville. People from around Siletz and Kernville would come over and help out with the apple harvest. This was something they looked forward to in the autumn because they always had a good time, particularly the children. In the evenings they would build campfires and Israel would entertain them with an organ grinder, at which he was reputed to be quite talented. That was a big treat for everyone—especially the children—in days of limited entertainment. Besides the other enterprises, Israel owned a grocery store. Above the store was a big room he divided off with curtains into a sleeping room for people traveling through. The room was also used for dances he threw on Saturday nights. Dances in those days were very important sources of entertainment. People would come from miles around on horseback or in wagons. They would bring along their children and put them to bed in the back of their wagons and prepared to spend the night. The dancers and their families would have breakfast the following morning. Liquor was brought to the dances. Inevitably there would be a fight, and Israel took it upon himself to break them up. He would take the offenders by the back of their necks and pull them apart. Then he would escort them outside and dump them in a watering trough. In 1908 at the wedding of a local young lady, he appeared with a coonskin cap and ear trumpet and regaled the assembly with the story of how he recovered from the flue by drinking a swig of piano polish mistaken for his medicine. Israel Eddy loved to travel. From one trip he took on horseback to California, he brought hack several redwood trees. One redwood stands today on former Eddy land. It is located on the north edge of Highway 20 on the straight stretch in the road just west of Eddyville. The redwoods around Chitwood might possibly have been planted there by him. Israel’s son, Perry, married Mary Amanda Franz. She was the daughter of a Civil War captain, Saml. Franz, and his wife, Mary. They came across the plains 1850 and bought Ft. Hoskins directly from the government. Perry and Mary Amanda had a family of five children. They were all born in Kings Valley or Hoskins, at the junction of the Kings Valley and Hoskins roads. Eddy died in 1911 at the age of 87 years.
     Elk City, a point of departure for hunting and fishing parties, is located at the mouth of Elk Creek on Yaquina River, about four miles east of Toledo. Marys Peak is the most prominent mountain in the Coast Range as it crosses Benton County. Down its western slope flows a clear, sparking stream typical of those in coastal Oregon. Near its banks, in 1856, was camped a party of explorers in search of grazing land. Food supplies were low and supper was expected to be beans as usual. Then one man saw a fine bull elk standing on a hill, an easy mark for his gun. In memory of this provident event the stream became Elk Creek. The first settlement at Elk City was made by the Corvallis and Yaquina Bay Wagon Road Company, who erected a warehouse here in 1866. Here was the overland terminus of the stage and mail route, the rest of the distance to the bay being by water. The settlement was named Newton for the man who laid out the plat in 1868, Albitha Newton, and placed it as far up the Yaquina as boats could go. During normal low water periods the stream was quite narrow, branches hanging low and sometimes brushing the heads of boat passengers. Water-soaked snags lurked on the bottom of the none too deep waterway to scrape bottoms or rip holes in them. At times of high water the menace of low trees and branches became worse but the influence of ocean tides became noticeable. As Newton grew more and more travel came up the river from Toledo. At Yaquina City and Newport below on the bay, efforts were made to clear the waterway by removing snags and cutting branches. A small dock was prefabricated at Toledo, brought up on a barge and installed on the bank. Then it was possible for small steamboats to tie up at the town and regular service was instituted. A flat-bottomed stern wheeler was the first to make regular runs, down the bay one day and back the next. The railroad was also completed through Newton and on to bay points. Two saloons, a hotel, store, and Odd Fellows Lodge which was shared by other fraternal orders, many cabins and houses—all grew up on the site, giving the place the appearance of a real town. During the major active period of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, Elk City flourished as an important point on the route but as the railroad declined so did the town. The first post office had been established in 1868 with Edwin A. “Kit” Abbey the postmaster. Marshall W. Simpson held the job next, was out of the office for a while and then returned Nov. 23, 1888. He came full of ideas about advancing the status of the little town and one of the first efforts he made was getting the name changed from Newton to Elk City to conform to the name of the post office. The town flourished until automobiles took away the need for river traffic. And as logging in the area declined so did Elk City. Another blow was the abandonment of the rock quarries which had provided a live industry with workers living and buying supplies in the town. The old grocery which for years housed the post office is the only business still going in the town by the Yaquina. The Scovilles now operate it and a gas pump (1964). They tell of frequent floods when the only traffic through the main street was by boat. “All these coastal rivers are short,” says W. S. Scoville. “Our heavy winter rains of sometimes two and three inches a day quickly swell them to flood heights. In early days there was a sawmill and hotel here. One time when the river was exceptionally high the water took a lot of lumber piled in the sawmill yard and slammed it against the hotel turning it on its side so it had to be torn down. It was never rebuilt and neither was the wrecked sawmill. That seems to be the way of the old town went, little by little.” Elk City still has at least one resource, says Scoville. “We have extra good fishing here, especially in the middle of summer when steelhead salmon and blueback are running. Then fishermen bring their families over from the Willamette Valley and stay a while. We keep those little cabins there rented all the time.” On Dec. 31, 1958, the Elk City post office closed to Toledo.
     Euclid post office was established May 25, 1904, with Martin G. Lyon postmaster, and closed Apr. 30, 1909. In 1949, F. W. Furst, superintendent of the Siuslaw National Forest, wrote that Euclid post office was at or near the site of an earlier office called Axtell had been discontinued in the summer of 1903. The Euclid post office was just to the east of the mouth of North Fork Yachats River in T145, R11W. It is reported that the name was given by Allen Beamer, a nearby resident who had a reputation for being a scholarly individual. Just why the name of the Greek geometrician (300 BCE) was selected has not been explained. In the spring of 1908, Lyon gave up the office and the establishment was moved some distance upstream on the north side of Grass Creek.
      Fisher post office was named for the fisher, Mustela pennanti. Well-known outdoor writer, Tom McAllister, described this rare animal: “This cat sized hunter of squirrels and other small animals is a member of the family Mustellidae which includes minks, martens, weasels, badgers, otters and skunks. Before its near disappearance in Oregon, it lived in undisturbed virgin forest at low to intermediate elevations and often followed stream courses on its solitary rounds. The fisher vanished in the Coast Range with loss of habitat, trapping and the use of poison baits to control coyotes and wolves, but in the 1980s it was reported again in the Cascade Range. Oldtime trappers prized the fisher for the beauty and high value of the pelts.” Fisher post office was established Mar. 19, 1892, but was not always in one location. The post office was discontinued Jan. 31, 1911, and re-established Jul. 8, 1912. The office closed to Alsea Sep. 30, 1942. Formerly known as Vernon, it is reported that Bennett Olsen suggested the name for the Fisher office. Vernon post office, located three miles due north of Fisher, was established May 1, 1905, with Martin L. Earnest first postmaster. Martin Johanson was the first postmaster, and J. W. Mink later held the office. Remarkable nomenclature. In fact, aptness of description, sometimes with a jest, is evident in the names applied to other pioneer Oregon localities. Some of this nomenclature persists, but much of it has been discarded by a more polite but less poetic era. Fair Play was so called from the fairness of its horse races. Lick Skillet and Scanty Grease have an obvious origin. Row River was named for neighborhood feuds; Soap Creek for bachelors who had no soap; and Ah Doon Hill for a Chinese who was shanghaied there. Hells’ Canyon on Snake River, the deepest chasm in America, is as descriptive of wild grandeur as God’s Valley in the Nehalem country is of peace.
     Fredericksburg: John A. Olsson was born in Gutenberg, Sweden, Mar. 20, 1838. At the age of 14 he went to sea. In 1864, he traveled from San Francisco with capt. Winant to Yaquina Bay, to work in the oyster business. In Jan. 1866, he homesteaded 112 acres (Olssonville) on the north side of the Bay. In 1882, he had his estate divided, with part going to an addition to the City of Newport and the balance going to the town of Fredericksburg which he named and started started.30
 Glen post office was in the west part of T12S, R9W, a few miles south of Salado. It was on Upper Drift Creek or one of its tributaries. The office was established Jan. 17, 1894, with Simeon J. Wilhoit first of three postmasters. The office was closed to Elk City on Jun. 30, 1912. The name Glen is said to have been applied by Jerry Banks in honor of some town where he had lived previously, but the compiler has been unable to identify the place.
     Gleneden Beach post office, located one mile south of the south end of Siletz Bay, established Nov. 1, 1927, with Wm. F. Cary (or Craig) first postmaster. On Jun. 23, 1961, Gleneden Beach was designated a rural station of Taft. On Sep. 24, 1965, it was designated a rural station of Lincoln City, but a postmark was used for a short time which read “Gleneden Beach.” Gleneden Beach is a type of descriptive name frequently found in seashore areas where there are high hopes of real estate sales. The place is about a mile south of the south end of Siletz Bay. In 1949 a Japanese horned mine drifted ashore at Gleneden Beach. A bomb disposal expert was called. He tunneled through the sand under the mine to remove its base plate and to disable the booster charge and sensitive horn connections. The deactivated shell is on exhibit at the museum. Accounts exist that at least six other mines washed up on Oregon’s coast during the late 1940s. In Jan. 2000, just days after moving, cars filled the parking lot and customers hustled and bustled through the bright, clean lobby of the new Gleneden Beach post office. Postmaster Louise Cremeen looked at the activity with pride and said, “It’s the ‘Cheers’ of Gleneden Beach. It’s where everyone knows your name.” And it didn’t take postal patrons long to find their way a few blocks down the street to the post office’s new location at 6645 Gleneden Beach Loop Road, on the ground floor of the Blue Mountain Contractors building next to the Side Door Cafe. Cremeen, who was awarded the two-year post office contract in December, said there was some initial grumbling about moving the facility from its previous long-time location. But the town is growing and progressing, she said, and it was time for a change. Apparently, most of her customers agreed, as more than a dozen showed up on New Year’s Day to move equipment, hundreds of post office boxes, and even a two-ton safe to the new spot. “There was no delivery on Saturday, and we had to move and be open on Monday. We couldn’t miss a mail day,” explained Cremeen. The move was completed in less than eight hours, thanks to many hands and cars—and a pick-up that towed the safe (on rollers) down Gleneden Beach Loop Road to its new home. Cremeen, who worked for the prior Gleneden Beach postmaster and had the emergency contract for the site in Oct. and Nov., said the community is pleased with the change. She said, “Everybody has loved the fact we moved. Before, it was 20 to 25 years in the same place.” The move in careers has also been good for Cremeen, whose background is in inventory control and purchasing. “It’s the most fun job I’ve ever had in my life,” she said. Cremeen firmly believes the “post office belongs to its customers.” She and her crew, Lora Perry and Jeannie Angermayer, plan to operate the facility that way, catering to their 800-1000 patrons. She appreciates the help the post office received in moving, and said, “I couldn’t have done it without customers, and also John Manca’s (Blue Mountain Contractors) crew.”
     Harborton, now known as South Beach, is an unincorporated part of Lincoln County located on the south shore of Yaquina Bay. The earliest notice of the area was during WWI when the US Army spruce division established Camp III at Idaho Point to get out lumber for planes and ships. Camp I was at Beaver Creek near Waldport. Logs were shipped by rail to South Beach and then rafted to Toledo to the mill. Some of the old track bed can still be seen at the Toledo air strip, which is visible through the old piling on the far side of the Yaquina. The air strip is 1,725 feet long, and accommodates single engine planes. An early resident of South Beach, Elsie Omlid, was a cook at Camp III. Three buildings on 4th Street were used as the US Army hospital during the war. The Omlids remained in South Beach following the war, and their children attended a school located west of Toby Murray Auto Body on US-101. Omlid recalls one of her daughters rode the jitney on a spur of the railroad to school. She remembers there was ferry service to Newport every hour. People could ride free, but rigs cost $1.50. The Omlids ran a stage coach service for passengers and mail along the beach. At times winter storms and high tides held them up. A post office, store, and tavern were among the first businesses in the area.
     Harlan post office, established Mar. 3, 1890, was located near the junction of Spout and Elk creeks, eight miles southwest of Burnt Woods. Jas. R. Harlan was first postmaster of this office, which closed to Eddyville on Feb. 23, 1968. Johnny Feagles (1873-1963) was the first non-indian child born in Lincoln County’s Harlan area. His recollections of the early days include the terrain. The Harlan area was nearly all fern in the early days. There were lots of burnt trees and snags standing and some on the ground. All the trees and the brush have grown up since he was a boy. When he was small, there were only a few scattered trees here and there. The area was the scene of a forest fire sometime back in history. But nobody knew exactly when it happened, including the Indians. Johnny Feagles remembers an abundance of cats and cougars in the area when he was a boy. There were also many deer. He was ten or 11 years old when he shot his first deer. Fishing was good in those days too. Salmon was abundant on the river in autumn. Feagles remembers one party who caught 200 trout in just one day’s fishing. The advent of good roads in the area brought people out in greater numbers. Now the fish are scarce in comparison. There weren’t any roads at all in the area when the first three squatters packed in to Harlan from Burnt Woods by horse. One of the first three settlers was Johnny Feagles’ father, Rbt. Lew Feagles, who moved into the Harlan area in 1872, having originated from Missouri. Nearby Feagles Creek is named for him. Johnny was one of four children. His brother died in scarlet fever epidemic that swept the area. The doctor said the other children would have died had they arrived for help two and a half hours later. Johnny Feagles attended school only three months out of the year. He figures learned more in those three months of concentrated study than children learn in nine months of school today. The curriculum stuck strictly to the basics. The story of Rbt. Lew Feagles’ shooting and causing the death of his father-in-law, Morgan Lillard, has details given in the Jun. 1980 issue of the Corvallis Gazette-Times. Lillard had long held a grudge against Feagles. He had threatened him often and was said to have started the shooting. Feagles was building a fence on the roadside near the line between their places. That would have been in front of the Harlan Community Hall. Lillard’s Granddaughter, the late Ida Miller Smouse, said the trouble began when the two families had scarlet fever. During Nov. and Dec. of 1877, Lillard’s Wife, Nancy, Jane Feagles’ daughter, her son Thms. and another young son, died and were buried on a hillside above Charley Mulkey’s large cedar barn. John Feagles, who was about four years old at the time, and his sister, were dangerously ill. A question arises as to how they could use a wagon on those hills. There were no bridges. Riding horses would have been a serious undertaking. About 1920, Maybelle Allison and Houston Grant carried their small son to Corvallis on horseback and that was known to be a real task then. One of the smallest covered bridges over Deer Creek near Big Elk River was used on the road to Harlan. Before the road was moved nearer the river, Deer Creek was a halfway point for picnics.34
 Idaho Point is a prominent landmark on the south side of Yaquina Bay about two miles southeast of Newport. In times past it has been known both as Point Virtue and Hinton Point. Andrew L. Porter, a resident of the Yaquina Bay district since the 1860s, said in 1945 that the point was named for one Hinton who settled there in the early days. This was Rowland B. Hinton, a pioneer of 1846 who was a prominent resident near Monroe in Benton County. The name Idaho Point appears to have been the result of a real estate venture but after WWII it became well established.
     Johnson post office, named for an Indian Shaker couple, Sissy (1859-1931) and Jakie Johnson (1859-1933), was at the Parmele place about half a mile up Drift Creek from the mouth of the stream on the east side of Siletz Bay, and about two miles north of Kernville. The office was established Mar. 11, 1899, with Geo. S. Parmele (1853-1930) first and only postmaster. The office was closed May 23, 1903, and what business there was turned over to Kernville. Sissy and Jakie Johnson, a local Native American couple, were well and favorably known. Jakie Johnson is said to have been a Siletz Indian. Sissy Johnson, a Shasta from Northern California, bore the tribal markings of three double lines tattooed on her chin. Among the Southern Oregontribes, adult women tattooed their chins with three vertical stripes and were dubbed the “One-Eleven Girls” by whites. The ancient Shasta had tattooed the entire chin, and while the Yakonan did not use face markings they tattooed dots on the wrists of their women for strength. Indians of the Willamette Valley (the closest to the Siletz on the east) did not use tattoos. A very light-skinned people, comparatively speaking, the Southern Oregon Chasta Costa women also wore chin tatoos. This was not unlike the chin-tattooing tradition of the ancient Libyans. In 1980, Harvard professor Berry Fell wrote: “Those Berbers who retained their ancient customs practiced chin-tattooing of the women, who did not wear the veil even though they are now Moslems. The men on the other hand often cover their head and face with a scarf-like cloth, showing only the eyes to strangers.” Indian women of Sissy Johnson’s period imitated non-indian dress habits and were especially fond of hats, shoes and colorful shirts. One news reporter said, “The Indian women from Siletz made an admirable appearance in their Sunday best.” He watched the two cultures collide “head on” as it were, however, when blue facial tattoos appeared atop 19th Century urban fashions. A more graceful blend resulted when Indian women completed their costumes with their own beautiful basketry hand bags. A friendly and outgoing woman, Sissy Johnson taught local people how to cook mussels and how to mix ashes and salt to make a cement to patch cracks and drafts in wood-burning stoves. The Johnsons held land by patent and part of the town of Taft is on property owned by the pair. Sissy and Jackie Johnson were influential Siletz Shaker missionaries and ministers. The Shaker Church, advocating strict morals, originated among Squaxin Indians at the upper end of Puget Sound on the Washington Coast. It made its appearance at the turn of the century on the Quinault Reservation which was established by executive order Sep. 22, 1866. The land on that reservation was not especially desirable and never heavily settled. Many Indians preferred to remain off the tract, fitting their way of life to that of whites around the bay, perhaps because both races were involved in the fishing industry. After the Chehalis Reservation was established by executive order of Jul. 8, 1864, Washington superintendent of Indian affairs I. J. McKenny sought to bring onto that confine all nonreservation Chinook, Willapa Bay, Chehalis, and Cowlitz Indians. To hurry them along to what he hoped would be their new home, he ordered his agents to lure them with gifts of every kind from timber to trinkets. McKenny hoped that reservation life would gradually eliminate among these unconfined Indians “bad habits,” the worst of which, to his thinking, were gambling, drinking, sorcery, head flattening, and polygamy, all of which prevailed into the second half of the 19th century. About the same time as the Quinaults, the Willapa Bay Chinook also embraced the Shaker religion. Like many other messianic cults, the Shaker church was a compound of native and Christian forms. Yet, in their working of these ingredients, Shakers had created a unique system of belief and behavior, and refused to accept the status of an affiliate of the established religions. The Indian Shaker church developed inspiration and sanction of its own, and evolved a pattern of internal development peculiarly its own. Persecution by outsiders had certain negative effects, but it also acted as a powerful stimulus for the consolidation and intensification of belief. The cult underwent numerous changes since its inception in 1881. Its history is, in fact, marked by constant flux of ritual and belief. In part, this characteristic was due to the fact that the movement had diffused through several Indian groups with quite different cultural backgrounds. There is, however, an even more fundamental reason for the dynamic quality of the Shaker religion. Cult doctrine exhibited a remarkable tolerance toward individual interpretation and the extension of its forms and meanings. Private convictions, based on alleged Supernatural sanctions called “teachings” or “gifts,” were regarded as the true sources of doctrine and procedure; and while conflicts of personalities and ideas inevitably resulted, the basic tenet granting the truth of individual inspiration was never questioned.37 The Johnsons, who are both buried at Paul Washington Cemetery on Government Hill in Siletz, were well and favorably known. Jakie’s mother, Susan Johnson, died Mar. 13, 1910, and is buried at Taft Cemetery. The Johnsons operated a general store, once owned by Parmele, for Nelson & Ray of Cloverdale, who built their ocean-going boat, Della. They built their large, two-story home on the hill east of the store at a location near the present US-101 and Coast Avenue. They rented rooms and served meals to travelers as there were no other accommodations available. Their estate included many farm buildings. Later, in 1909, the Mercer family built a home on the bluff facing the ocean just above the store, and operated it as a hotel. In 1974, a new home replaced this landmark. In 1904, John W. Bones (1884-1970), homesteaded a claim on the Bayfront adjoining the Johnson estate. On Jan. 22, 1906, Taft post office was established with Bones the first postmaster. The post office, named after the pres. Wm. Howard Taft (1857-1930), was located on the north shore of Siletz Bay in the urban strip, which is now Lincoln City. Bones donated land for the cemetery located above Spanish Head and some time later the pioneers collected money to buy land for the cemetery. He sold his business in 1910 to Wm. Dodson, who built a new general merchandise store a little farther back from the waterfront. This building, after many renovations and additions, eventually became the Driftwood Nursing Home. The nursing home is no longer in operation but the building still stands.
 Kernville post office was originally located on the southwest bank of the Siletz, about a mile upstream from the present community. The post office was established in the same building in the same building on Jul. 6, 1896, with John H. Kern first postmaster. The office was discontinued Dec. 15, 1913, and re-established Dec. 14, 1920. It was discontinued again Jan. 11, 1926, and reopened its doors for service on Jul. 26, 1928. On Oct. 31, 1957, the Kernville office became a rural station of Taft, and on Dep. 25, 1965, it became a rural station of the newly established Lincoln City. That office was discontinued Mar. 9, 1968. Old Kernville, located about two miles above the present site of Kernville, was the site of the first commercial industry in North Lincoln County. In 1896, when this part of the Coast Reservation was opened to white settlement, Danl. Kern was among the first to exploit the situation, when he built a salmon cannery that employed Chinese labor. As established in 1885, the Siletz Reservation, a remnant of the Coast Reservation, covered more than one and a third million acres but as the non-indian population of Oregon increased the newcomers decided that there was too much valuable land in the hands of the natives. Though there were more than 2000 Indians on the reservation in 1867, war, famine and disease had reduced the number to about 550 in 1887. By 1892, the allotments of the Siletz group covered only 47,000 acres. In 1925, though the number of Indians had increased the Siletz Agency was closed. John Fleming Wilson’s (1877-1922) novel, The Land Claimers (1911), tells the story of men like the Kerns who rushed into the Siletz lands when they were thrown open to non-indian settlement. Cannery Mountain (1065') is on the south side of Siletz River about two miles southeast of the present site of Kernville. This mountain is about south of and across the river from the site of the former Kern fish cannery and it was named on that account. Coyote Rock is on Siletz River, two miles above Kernville. To insure himself of a constant supply of salmon, so the Indian legend goes, Coyote attempted to dam the river here and was partly successful. In the autumn especially, large Chinook salmon wait here for the first rains before ascending to upriver spawning beds. Medicine Rock is on Siletz River six miles above Kernville. Native Americans believed presents left on Medicine Rock near here would bring the giver good luck. The place was a familiar landmark to the pioneer travelers.
     Lincoln City has been a favorite spot for honeymooning couples for more than a century. In 1837, traveling by horseback on the Old Elk Trail along the Salmon River, missionary Jason lee brought his bride, Anna Marie Pittman, together with Cyrus Shepard and his bride, and a guide, Joe Gervias. The two couples set up camp at nearby Oceanlake and evangelized the Salmon River Indians. The Jason Lee Campsite can be seen at Oceanlake, at the north end of Lincoln City near Devil’s Lake. Lincoln City was placed on the map Dec. 8, 1964, when the cities of Oceanlake, Delake and Taft and the unincorporated communities of Cutler City and Nelscott voted to merge to form a new single community. Lincoln City post office, formerly known as Delake, was established Sep. 25, 1965. The City of Oceanlake is a coast town of about 400 supported by sportsmen and tourists. It is located west of Devils Lake on the Oregon Coast Highway. The name called attention to this position between the lake and the ocean. The post office, formerly known as Delake, was established Mar. 15, 1927, with Arthur C. Deuel first postmaster. The City of Delake was named for Devils Lake, near which it was located. Arthur C. Deuel, postmaster at Delake in 1925, said that Delake was the name agreed upon by himself and judge Frank L. Mann (1863-1956), a Lincoln County resident, because it was the way many of the Finnish people, who settled in the area as fishermen, pronounced Devils Lake. When the name of the original post office, established Jan. 11, 1924, was changed to Oceanlake, the site was moved a bit over a mile south. The original community then applied for and received a new post office, which was established Mar. 15, 1927. In 1837, Methodist missionaries Jason Lee and Cyrus Sheppard, with their brides of one month, and guide Jos. Gervias, came over the Old Elk Trail and camped at the site of Oceanlake for a week. The honeymooners “cured themselves of malaria and evangelized the Salmon River Indians.” So far as is known, they were the first vacationers on the Oregon Coast. The City of Taft was named for Wm. Howard Taft, 27th president of the US. The post office was established Jan. 22, 1906, and was named when Taft was secretary of war. John W. Bones was first postmaster, and is said to have suggested the name. The community of Cutler City, just south of Taft and on the east shore of Siletz Bay, has had a remarkable development as a resort town. The town was named for Geo. Cutler, who acquired the property from Charley DePoe, a Siletz Indian, and developed the resort with several other nearby communities to form Lincoln City. The post office was established in 1930 with Jacob H. Boomer first postmaster. The Cutlers formerly lived near Dallas. Cutler died in 1913, and his wife in 1939. The community of Nelscott has become an important summer resort on the Oregon Coast Highway about two miles north of Taft. A letter by Alma Anderson, published in the North Lincoln Coast Guard, May 4, 1939, indicates that the name was formed by combining parts of the names of Chas. P. Nelson and Dr. W. R. Scott, who opened the town site in Apr. 1926. The post office was established Aug. 2, 1929. Nelson died in Dec. 1946. On the beach at Nelscott, as elsewhere along the Oregon Coast, Japanese floats—colored glass balls, are frequently found. These floats—used as net supports by oriental fishermen—are carried across the ocean by the Japanese current. They are prized by tourists for decorative purposes. A line of substantial cottages face the ocean here.
     Linville post office, located on Drift Creek, about seven miles northeast of Waldport and a few miles east of Bayview, was established May 26, 1896, with Rbt. W. Linville first postmaster. The office was discontinued on Apr. 15, 1915, reestablished Sep. 22, 1916, and permanently discontinued on Oct. 15, 1918.
     Little Elk post office, established Jul. 14, 1868, was located on Yaquina River at the site of present-day Eddyville. John L. Shipley was first postmaster of this office, named for Little Elk Creek, a stream near whose mouth the office was situated. The office was discontinued on Sep. 16, 172, and reestablished on Oct. 20, 1873. It was discontinued Mar. 13, 1888, and reestablished on May 31, 1892. The name of the office was changed to Eddyville on Oct. 7, 1893. Early details of Little Elk have been compiled from a letter to Emma Allphin McBride, Feb. 1938, from Florence Mason; Rachel Ann Henkle Shipley Kitson’s interview with Fred Lockley 1937, and Branch V. Henkle Genealogy, page 359. Rachel (1846-? IA) and John L. Shipley (1840-? MO) moved to Little Elk soon after their marriage. They were at Little Elk from 1864 to 1871. John was postmaster of Little Elk, and kept the toll gate on the Yaquina Bay Wagon Road. The charge was 50 cents and 25 cents for a man on horseback. The Shipleys had five daughters and one son. Two of their granddaughters are the late Ethel Shipley Smith and Opal Shipley Smith of Toledo. Their sister, Florence Shipley Mason, married Sam Smith’s brother, Tom, of Coos Bay. Lumber for the Shipley house was hauled from Henkle Sawmill near Philomath to Summit the first day and it took another day to reach their home at Little Elk. They lived for the most part on wild meat—deer, elk and bear—and, of course, “all the trout we could eat.” There was no graveyard at Little Elk: One man was buried above the grade on the hill. The Shipleys’ neighbors were Charley Mayes, Pearl Bryant, and Ike Porter upriver, and Rooks, Ridenour, Mike Brannon, Mathias L. Trapp, and Benj. and Nelson Thorpe downriver. McVays and Babers were across the river. The hills around Little Elk were bare with underbrush. In 1859, a company was organized to build a road. Members of the road crew were: Dr. Bayley, A. B. Newton, Kit Abbey, Jacob Henkle, Geo. Mercer, Saml. McClain and Icabod Henkle. They blazed a trail so teams could go through to Pioneer City and Elk City, the head of navigation on the Yaquina. In 1872, col. T. Egenton Hogg, a Confederate soldier, bought the wagon road land for $25,000. The money was divided equally among the eight who had carried out the project. He agreed to maintain the road. The tollgate was removed. Shipleys sold their land to Ezekiel Eddy for $1400, who paid for It with silver dollars. Eddy had said, “I wouldn’t a gi’en ten cents for the place if it hadn’t been for that orchard.” Among those who were held as slaves in Oregon were Louis A. Southworth, who in 1855 purchased his freedom from his master in Polk County for $1000, and Reuben Shipley of Benton County. Reuben Shipley had been a slave in Missouri, according to Mark Phinney of Corvallis, who interviewed John B. Horner, professor of history. His master, Rbt. Shipley, trusted him to a large share in the training of his sons, whose mother had died, and he was regarded as almost one of the family. When Shipley decided to come to Oregon, he promised Reuben his freedom if he would drive a team of oxen on the road. Reuben left a wife in Missouri who died before he could send money for her. After he purchased his freedom, he was employed by Eldridge Hartless, who settled one mile south of Philomath in 1846. Hartless was quite well-to-do and had many cattle. In a few years Reuben had saved $1500, and with a part of it he bought a grange where Mt. Union Cemetery and Mt. Union School are now located. Now col. Nathaniel Ford, who settled in Rickreall in Polk County in 1844, owned a young African American woman named Mary Jane. Ford allowed Reuben to marry this woman and take her to his farm. Then, having learned that Shipley had money, he came without knowledge to his non-indian friends, and made him believe that he must purchase his Fiance’s freedom, which he did for $700. Reuben and Mary Jane reared a large family—Wallace, Ella, Thms., Martha, Nellie and Edw.—on their 80 acre grange four miles west of Corvallis. Reuben was industrious and Mary Jane was a splendid housekeeper and the family entered into the life of the church and the community without too much consideration of the question of social equality. When Wm. Wyatt, another pioneer spoke of the hill on Reuben Shipley’s farm as a likely place for a cemetery, Reuben agreed to give two acres for that purpose if he might be buried there. This two acres donated in 1861 was the beginning of Mt. Union Cemetery where many of the pioneers of Benton County are buried. Reuben is there among them. According to Benton County Archives, page 18, he died in 1873 at the age of 74. His wife Mary Jane lived in Benton County until 1880. In after years she married Alfred Drake and lived well into the third decade of the 20th century.
     Logsden post office, located on the Siletz, eight miles east of the town of Siletz, was established Jun. 11, 1921, with Wolverton C. Orton (1874-1963), first postmaster. The office was formerly known as Orton, and was established Jun. 27, 1914, with Philip H. Fliting (1873-1938) first postmaster. The name of the office was changed to Logsden on Jun. 11, 1921. Hazel Schaffer, postmaster at Logsden in Apr. 1927, reported that the place was named for an elderly Indian who lived on the Siletz Reservation. There are several men with the surname Logsden who are buried in pioneer cemeteries throughout the Siletz area. Possibilities might include John, Jos. M. and Chas. Logsden, who are buried in the Logsden-Rock Creek Cemetery. During the spring of 1885, a hotel and store was started at Caledonia near Toledo as well as the Chas. Logsden Sawmill, so it is most likely Logsden was named for him. Most of the burials in the area within the boundaries of the entrance to Moonshine Park above Logsden, east to the west side of Nash Mountain and west to Sam Creek are in private and small cemeteries, unmarked or lost graves which have been verified through relatives, friends, published obituaries, death records or mortuary records, and known graves which are on private property. The location of the known graves has not been revealed here due to the problems experienced in recent years with vandalism of Indian grave sites. Rbt. T. Fieber, 60, and Dotti Martin, 60, currently of Otis were arrested Jun. 9, 1999 on Idaho allegations of cruelty to animals. The two were taken into custody on Bannock County warrants out of Pocatello, ID. Fieber and Martin allegedly were charged in connection with the care they provided large exotic cats. Several of the animals escaped, necessitating that they be shot. Also, about 100 wolves were kept by the defendants in Idaho. The two were lodged in the Lincoln County Jail. Fieber at one time reared exotic animals at Logsden.
     Lutgens post office, located four miles south of Seal Rock on the north shore of Alsea Bay, was established May 17, 1890, with Albert H. Lutgens first postmaster. Numerous name changes mark the history of this post office as it moved about Alsea Bay. Lutgens post office, formerly known as Collins, was established Jan. 31, 1875, with Matt. Brand first postmaster. This office, once known as Drift Wood, was named in honor of Geo. W. Collins, the first settler in the Lower Alsea. Collins came in 1860 as Indian agent for the subagency of the Alsea Reservation. Formerly part of the Coast Reservation, which by treaty with the Indians extended for 90 miles along the coast and about 20 miles inland, Alsea Subagency near Yachats was established in 1856. David D. Fagan’s History of Benton County records: “When the white man began to settle in the Alsea district they found there the remnants of three tribes: the ‘Alseas’ by the bay and on the coast, a people of fishers; the ‘Klickitats’ who hunted in the woods and over the mountains to the south; and the ‘Drift Creek Indians’ whose homes were scattered through the heavy timber round Table Mountain and on the streams leading thereabouts, to the east and northeast of Alsea. Though generally at enmity with each other yet there were times when, feuds laid aside, the hunting tribes visited their neighbors by the ocean in peace, bringing with them the spoils of the chase to exchange for the sea fish and shell fish of the Alseas. Then fires were lighted and feasting and jollity went on day after day together.” The agency was closed in 1875 and Indians were forced to remove to Siletz so whites could settle here. Collins post office was discontinued Jun. 17, 1881. The name of the office was changed to Waldport on Feb. 23, 1882. It was changed again to Lutgens on May 17, 1890, and to Stanford on Jul. 29, 1893, with W. C. Shepard serving as postmaster, and was discontinued Jun. 21, 1897. The name of that office was changed to Nice on Apr. 24, 1917. Nice post office was named for Harry Nice, a prominent Alsea Bay resident during the last half of the 19th century. Nora L. Strake was the first postmaster. The office was discontinued Nov. 15 1919.
     Millville was sited in 1867, as the culmination of the Premier Steam Mill’s success. Located on Depot Slough, Premier Steam Mill was considered one of the best steam sawmills in Oregon, sawing 7000 and 8000 feet per day. According to Royal A. Bensell (1838-1921), the mill “had a lumber yard containing good saleable lumber; boats coming and going, loaded with lumber all the time. This is a lively place; some 15 hands employed.” Reports of daily lumber production fluctuated from 6000 to 10,000 feet over the next few years, with lumber selling for $15 per 1000 board feet in 1867. In 1868, the schooner T. Starr King arrived at the mouth of the slough to pick up 140,000 feet of lumber. A 20 ton schooner was even being constructed at the mill in 1867. In 1869, the mill was employing five men and working 11 hours a day, although not without danger, for Geo. R. Meggison nearly lost his hand the next year. The mill spawned other activities, as a “magnificent ball” was held in “a spacious building near the sawmill” as early as August 1866.
     Morrison Station was located on the Yaquina and the Southern Pacific Railway, about four miles west of Chitwood. The post office was established Aug. 29, 1894, with Barney Morrison (1827-1907) first postmaster. The name of the office was changed to Pioneer on Oct. 4, 1900. Pioneer post office, located on the Yaquina near Pioneer Mountain, and about two miles north of Elk City, was established Oct. 4, 1900, Morrison continuing to serve as postmaster. The name Pioneer was selected because of the operations in that section of the Pioneer Sandstone Company. The covered bridge over the Yaquina was directly in front of the Pioneer post office. Maggie Bell Kleut prepared the mail sack at Pioneer post office. If there was no need to stop, she threw the sack and caught the incoming mail on the platform at back. The post office closed to Elk City on Aug. 31, 1929. The house burned while owned by Ethel McClaflin. Several square nails were found in the ashes. The rock quarry can be seen through the alder trees. Margaret Attridge stood on the original road from Pioneer to Newport and took a picture of the quarry in 1984. In 1985, the location was still, owned by Dond Darlene Deardoff. Barney Morrison was born Jun. 1, 1827 in Washington County, TN. He was married Apr. 1, 1846 to Zimma Stoner. The couple had six Girls and two boys. Of those living in 1907 were Ruth Embree of Dallas, J. H. Morrison of Washington, Chelsey L. Morrison (1859-1940) of Pioneer, Tabitha Simpson and Josephine Bevens. Morrison died at his home at Pioneer, Sep. 24, 1907 at the age of 80 years, three months and 24 days. The “good wife,” his obituary said, survived him.
     Nashville was named for Wallis Nash (1837-1926), a native of Great Britain, who visited Oregon in 1877, and came to this state to settle in 1879. He was prominently identified with various enterprises in Benton and Lincoln counties, including the construction of the railroad between Corvallis and Yaquina Bay. Nashville was located on the Southern Pacific Railway, about seven road miles northwest of Wren. The post office was established Jun. 12, 1888, with Jennie C. Curry first postmaster. On Jul. 31, 1958, the office became a rural station of Philomath, and was discontinued on Sep. 23, 1978. A prominent figure in Oregon and one of Benton County’s foremost citizens of pioneer days, Wallis Nash, passed away Sat. afternoon at the country house near Nashville, in Lincoln County. The remains are being brought to Corvallis today and the funeral services will be held form the Episcopal church immediately after the arrival of the funeral party. Internment is to be in the Crystal Lake Cemetery. Nash passed away Mar. 13, 1926. Nash was a native of England and was probably 90 years of age. He came to Oregon in 1877, passed two years in Benton County and then returned to England. Nash then headed an English colony that came to Benton County. The men in the party were here to learning farming and the families settled on tracts over this section. Nash, himself, became interested in farming and planted the first vetch sown in Benton County. Vetch at that time was recognized as tares, and Nash won quite general criticism for his act. The seed was sown on land that is now the personal site of the forestry building and gymnasium on the OAC campus. With judge Stahan and judge M. L. Pipes, Nash helped frame the constitution of OAC and had it ratified by the legislature. Born near London, England, in 1837, Nash was educated at Mill Hill School and New College, University of London, and then further for his profession of lawyer, finally becoming a senior member of Nash & Field, solicitors, of London. Always interested in new ventures, Nash secured Alex. Graham Bell’s patent rights to the telephone for England and the first message passed from there to Queen Victoria, at Osborne House. Other important projects of their firm were the financial agreements for the first Atlantic cable for Cyrus Field and for a large Brazilian railroad, and Nash helped the framing of the first “limited liability” which passed by act of Parliament. Nash later met Colonel T. Egenton Hogg in London, a Southerner who was much enthused over the great possibilities of Oregon, and came with him to the new country, first in 1877 and returning in 1879. He was second vice-president of the Oregon Pacific Railway Company for many years. Nash was influential in the construction of the Oregon Pacific Railway, from Yaquina City to Mill City, now a part of the Southern Pacific lines, and was legal advisor for the road and one of the promoters under the management of Colonel Hogg and his brother, Billy Hoag. He was one of the first reagents of OAC, serving in the capacity of secretary. Later, for a brief time in the fall of 1898, he acted as president of the board. His early connection with the college was at the time it was being turned over to the state and released from church control. Nash’s home was for many years on the present campus, He and his family residing in the English mansion that stood in pioneer days on the site of Waldo Hall. The old English home was then the gathering place and headquarters of the members of the English colony. Following the years in Corvallis, where he secured large farming acreage, Nash located in Portland. He was for a time president of the board of trade in Portland and for many years was an editorial writer for the Oregon Journal and the Morning Oregonian. A writer of note, Nash was the authors of several books on Oregon, including Two years in Oregon. He was renowned as an English scholar and was an accomplished pianist and recognized musician. He was a barrister in England during his young manhood but his law practice in Oregon was confined to brief periods in this city (Corvallis) and Portland. The little Lincoln County town (Nashville) near which Nash spent his years of retirement and where one or more of his books were written, receives its name from the beloved citizen who had done so much towards the development of that section. He also was active in enlarging the CC and brought to the school the late Geo. Coote, florist, and other men (and women) who were prominent in the school. Nash was instrumental in establishing the Sanitation & Household Economy Department and bringing Dr. Margaret Snell to the OAC. Nash was twice married, the second Ms. Nash passed away only two or three years ago. The children surviving include Dorthea Nash, prominent in musical circles, in Portland, and the only daughter. There are four sons, Desmond, Percival, Rodney and Darwin Nash. Nash played the organ in the Corvallis Episcopal church and also read the service there many years. In 1919, Wallis Nash wrote: “Bald Mountain and Grass Mountain look down on us [at Nashville] from the next ridge of the encircling hills, and each season, as sit passes from the gray brown of the winter fern and wild grass to the bright green of spring and the more sedate green of summer, has a beauty all its own.” The view from Nash Mountain, the highest spot on the Logsden-Nashville Road, about 800 feet above sea level, is one of the more striking in the Coast Range.
     Nelscott has become an important summer resort on US-10 about two miles north of Taft. A letter by Alma Anderson, published in the North Lincoln Coast Guard, May 4, 1939, indicates that the name was formed by combining parts of the names of Chas. P. Nelson and Dr. W. G. Scott, who opened the town site in Apr. 1926. The post office was established Aug. 2, 1929 with Nelson serving as first postmaster. Nelson died in Dec. 1946. On Dec. 8, 1964, the town voted to become a part of a new community to be called Lincoln City, and the post office closed to the newly created town on Sep. 24, 1965. On the beach at Nelscott, as elsewhere along the Oregon Coast, Japanese floats—colored glass balls, are frequently found. These floats—used as net supports by Oriental fishermen—are carried across the ocean by the Japanese current. They are prized by tourists for decorative purposes. A line of substantial cottages face the ocean here. North of Nelscott were the Elvin A. Thorpe and Harry Thorpe homesteads. They were platted in the 1920s and named, after the Roosevelt Military Highway, Camp Roosevelt and Roosevelt-by-the-Sea. These tracts subsequently became part of the City of Delake.
     Neotsu post office, at the northern end of Devils Lake, was established Mar. 28, 1928, with Frank M. Hodges serving as first postmaster. The name is said to be an Indian word meaning “evil water.” Geo. Davidson, in the Coast Pilot, 1998, uses the spelling Na-ah-so, but does not explain the word. Devils Lake has been referred to as me-sah’-chie-chuck, which is Chinook jargon for “evil water.” There are a number of Indian legends about Devils Lake. The Indians believed that in these waters lived powerful malign deities known as skookums that occasionally rose to the surface to attack men. When used in connection with localities, the word skookum generally indicates a place haunted by an evil spirit, or god of the woods. It sometimes meant a place used as a burial ground. In Clackamas County, Skookum Lake, about ten acres in size and 20 feet deep, is located on the north slope of Thunder Mountain, between Toketee Falls and OR-230. It drains into Fish Creek, a tributary of Clackamas River, and is stocked with brook trout. The modern meaning of the work skookum is quite different from the earlier connotation; it can also mean “stout” or strong,” and a skookum chuck did not mean a strong, swift stream, but a place to stay away from. The word skookum has been applied to various geographic features in Oregon. Indians near the mouth of Rogue River in Curry County built a fort or stockade on the south bank of the stream about 15 miles from the ocean. Non-indian settlers drove the Indians out and took the fort. Skookumhouse Butte was named on account of stockade incident, and the word skookumhouse was also used by early settlers to describe a jail. In contradistinction to a skookum, a hehe was a good spirit and a hehe chuck was a fine place for games, races and other sports and festivities.
     Newport is the keystone to the Pacific Northwest coast. The town spreads across a blunt ridged peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and Yaquina Bay. Though the first settler arrived in 1855, it was several years before there was a village here. Traders and fishermen were the first arrivals. Then the people of the Willamette Valley discovered it to be a delightful resort area and the Ocean House, built in 1866, and the Abbey House and Fountain House, opened in 1871—all facing the bay—began to draw visitors who would take the five-day coastal voyage to San Francisco as a diversion. Others engaged in the clam-digging and crabbing that still attract many. This section remains the commercial center of town, which flourished in the 1890s when Yaquina Bay ships carried away the products brought across the range from the Willamette Valley on the old Oregon Pacific Railway. In 1873, the trip form Corvallis took from early morning till dusk at night by stage (drawn by four horses, changed at noon for a fresh double team) which bumped and climbed over the 49 miles to Elk City where the mail boat waited for the 25 mile trip down the river and bay to Newport; leaving the next morning on the first of the ebb tide. Twelve miles down, the boat stopped at Toledo, then at Oneatta, and finally at Newport, at a rickety wharf in front of Bay View Hotel (latter renamed the Abbey). At the other end of town was Ocean House, owned by Mary Craigie (1848-1933) and Saml. Case, which is the Coast Guard station now. The Portrait And Biographical Record Of 1904, say that Mary Case “is proprietor of the Ocean House at Newport, Oregon, which is famous for miles around, and has a commanding view over the bar end and far out to sea.” Mary Craigie Case (1848-1933) ran the resort after her husband died in 1897. Saml. Case had built the health resort, which was a two-story building with 25 rooms on eight acres, on Yaquina Bay in the late 1860s and early 1870s. A mother of six, Case was a native of Boise City, ID, and the daughter of a Scotsman who emigrated to the US when he was 21 and helped build the fort at Boise City. Case was a “faithful attendant and active member of the Episcopal Church,” according to the record, and was “among the most businesslike and popular Ladies in Newport.” In between were four saloons, a store, over which was a hall used for dances, political meetings, and—more rarely—church services whenever a minister of the gospel happened along. Near the sand path up the hill to the beach of land occupied by the Ocean House, took a building quite imposing when compared to the rest of the town. Lucy Blue wrote that “at that time the property was owned jointly by Saml. Case and Dr. Jas. R. Bayley, the latter a physician in Corvallis. The 1885 History of Benton County, Oregon says that Dr. Bayley “was born in Clark County, OH, 1918. He began his medical studies in 1841, and graduated from Ohio Medical College in 1884. He practiced medicine for four years in Springfield, OH before relocating in Cincinnati, where he enjoyed a successful practice for seven years. In 1852, Bayley marred Elizabeth Harpole of Green County, OH. The couple moved to Oregon in 1855, first locating in Polk County. In 1857, Bayley moved to Corvallis where he opened an office in connection with his pharmaceutical business. He was a member of the Territorial Council in 1856 and again in 1857. He was elected Benton County judge on two occasions. Bayley was also a state senator from Benton County in 1866 and again in 1868, and was appointed supervisor of internal revenue in 1869, and office he held until 1873. Afterwards, he devoted himself to his medical practice in Corvallis, Newport and the Yaquina Bay region, where he spent his summers and owned valuable property. The Bayleys also owned a beautiful home in Corvallis. Bayley was a 32nd degree Mason and grand high priest and grand master of the Masonic jurisdiction of Oregon and had been a prominent Odd Fellow.” Case and Bayley also owned the whole town site of Newport except the few lots that had been sold and built upon along the shore for the space of two blocks. The town site was laid out by Case in 1873 and named by him for Newport, Rhode Island, where he lived at one time. The Ocean House was also named for the famous old hotel of that name at the eastern resort.” About 1885, the railroad came to Yaquina City, then the ferry went from Yaquina City to Newport, and valley residents began coming to Newport for the summer. For the Fourth of July, 1885, the Oregon Pacific Railway announced the first of its grand excursions from Corvallis to the coast. At 7am on the morning of the 4th, the trip started with the Little Corvallis heading a train of flatcars each of which had been fitted with railings and plank benches running lengthwise. About 70 passengers climbed aboard for the adventure, and they were not disappointed. In the spring, weeds flourished in Oregon, and since the tunnel had burned, few trains had run over the track. Between the ties and the rails, the weeds grew waist high and the Little Corvallis had trouble bucking its way through them. The sun poured down, and a light breeze swept the cars, yet the passengers did not complain. At the burned-out tunnel, everyone unloaded and walked over the road around the blockade to take another train waiting on the far side; a train like the first, with benches on flatcars, but drawn by one of the heavier Rogers engines. Still all went merrily, the only disaster coming when vice-president Wallis Nash had his hat blown off. At Yaquina City, a band tootled welcome, and the excursionists scrambled onto steamboats for the trip to Newport. “Amid the noise and confusion, the whistling of opposition boats and the sight of the ocean steamer Yaquina might easily imagine himself on the San Francisco docks,” the editor of the Corvallis Gazette exclaimed. Daily round trips were made from Albany to Yaquina City, and then by the old tug Newport on to the Newport Bayfront. In winter, if the Bay was rough, passengers sat in the engine room. No one ever seemed to get seasick. Front-page news in 1957 was the purchase of the Gilmore Hotel in Newport by Donald L. Young of Portland from Cecile Gilmore (1883-1962), owner and proprietor since 1920—37 years. Gilmore bought the hotel with her husband, Peter (1877-1929), in 1920. They operated the hotel together until 1929, when Peter G. Gilmore (1877-1929) passed away. Cecile Gilmore then became the sole proprietor of the hotel. The couple moved to the area in 1915 and started a dry goods store, which they then sold. They lived on a 5-acre tract for a short time before buying the hotel in 1920, which was described as a “landmark for many years on that section of the coast.” The hotel stood on the site of the present-day Sylvia Beach Hotel in Nye Beach. Gilmore, who is buried alongside her husband at Eureka Cemetery in Newport, retired from active business after selling her hotel. The arrival of the Newport on the Bayfront was greeted by a band; Peter Gilmore from the Gilmore Hotel, Elizabeth Schollenburg (1851-1938) of the Grand Rooms, and others, ballyhooing for their hotels, each trying to drown out the others. In A Lawyer’s Life On Two Continents, Wallis Nash wrote of his excursion to Newport: “All the members of our little expedition made the trip to Yaquina Bay, and gazed out to and over the Pacific on the sunset of our arrival at the infant settlement of Newport at the mouth of the estuary. There were, even then, two little hotels, one on the bluff above, other on the street facing the wharf at which the boats of the settlers on the shores of the bay were tied up. Beside the Abbey House stood the one dark little general store, to supply the little community.” In the dining room of The Abbey on the Bayfront was a big round dining table that would seat 20 to 25 people. It was in the middle of the room loaded with big platters of cracked crab and buckets of steamed clams, with drawn butter, lemon and catsup for dunking. There were finger bowls, out of which Margaret Peterson and her sister drank, much to the embarrassment of her grandparents. Later, Peterson’s father, Vivian Cartwright, and his mother had the Bon Bon Confectionery on Front Street. Some time between 1900 and 1908, Vivian Cartwright, Rich. Chatterton and Jack Fogarty, father of Frances Burdett, decided Newport should have electricity, so they built three windmills on the sandhills, and hooked up the necessary machinery to generate current. Newport then had lights from 7am to 10pm. Newport could also have a movie with electricity. The movie house was lighted by carbide lamps to the electricity could be used to run the movie machine. The single feature movies were shown about where Mark’s Market Basket is now. John Fleming Wilson (1877-1922), the author of numerous books, lived here for about three years after his marriage in 1907. Mariner, schoolteacher, and newspaper reporter, he was able to leave $90,000 earned by writing stories and novels, some of which were based on material gathered in the Yaquina Bay district. For 22 years (1962-1984), on the location of what is now the Circle K, was a market well-known to locals as Mark’s Market Basket. It’s proprietor, Mark Collson, first started a grocery store on the Bayfront in a building across the street from what is now the public dock at the Abbey Street Pier. Before he took over in 1952, it was called Ernie’s Market. Collson, whose son is now mayor of Newport (1996), operated at the Circle K location until 1984. Mark’s Market Basket also included what is now Rickert Gallery. On Jan. 1, 1908, there was a disastrous fire on the waterfront, burning from about Mark’s Market Basket to the corner at Fall Street. “Lover’s Lane,” also called Zig-Zag, commenced down the road from the Coast Guard Station, wound up the bank through the most beautiful rhodies, ferns and wild flowers to the top of the hill to the Midway Theater, which was “uptown” in those days, where the Newport post office (now the Gateway Cafe) was located. The biggest attraction was the arrival of the mail. It came in about 5pm and the line was way up the sidewalk waiting for the distribution. At the present location of Log Cabin Court was Log Cabin Inn, with a beautiful garden, small stream and tiny bridge. Special parties were held there. On the Fourth of July, the building and garden were lit by Japanese lanterns and the best homemade ice-cream and cookies were served. Behind the city hall was a tennis court, and long before that there was a lake in front of Bateman’s Funeral Home and back of the city hall. At the southern edge of Newport, the Coast Highway passes through a landscaped park, then crosses the Yaquina Bay Bridge, a graceful cantilever structure, completed in 1936. The bridge deck, rising to 138 feet above the channel water, is high enough to permit the passage of ocean-going craft. After the completion of the bridge, the “top of the hill” and along the highway became the main part of town. The tourists came and went overnight, and didn’t come to stay the months of July and August in the old days. Legend has it that four valuable diamonds were thrown into Yaquina Bay in 1915. A Portland resident who died that year stipulated in his will that these stones, which had belonged to his mother, should be thrown into the water to keep them forever from others. The view of the bay at sunset, when the fishing fleet rides to anchor, is particularly attractive. This bay is also the anchorage for the deep-sea fishing boats that carry visitors across the bar to fish and to watch for the porpoises, sea lions, and whales occasionally seen offshore. Newport is located on the north shore of Yaquina Bay. The post office was established Jul. 2, 1868, with Saml. Case was first postmaster. This is the first post office on Yaquina Bay, and one of the first in what was later to become Lincoln County. The town was incorporated on Nov. 4, 1882. The council’s first action as recorded in the minutes of its inaugural meeting Nov. 4, 1882, was consideration and adoption of Ord. No. 1, Article I, of which read as follows: “No person shall be permitted to sell spirituous liquors within the corporate limits of said city in less quantities than one quart without having obtained a license from the city council for that purpose.” Newport’s postmaster in 1939 was John Franklin Paden. Paden, the son of Lora Adams and John T. Paden, was born in El Dorado, OK, Dec. 28, 1903. The music man of the Central Oregon Coast, Paden served as director of Newport City Band from 1931 to 1934, and the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps from 1936 to 1940. Paden married Maude Thames of Smithville, Texas, Mar. 18, 1907. The father of a daughter, Joyce, and four sons, J. F. II, Alvin, Melvin, and Jas., Paden was chairman of the local Boy Scouts in 1914. The Lincoln County Historical Society (LCHS) has been preserving historic moments since 1948, when it for Yaquina Bay Lighthouse from demolition. Thanks to the Society’s research and restoration efforts, the lighthouse was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. A thriving membership has kept the LCHS growing. Today the LCHS operates two full museums, maintains an extensive collection of artifacts and offers a fully equipped research library to the public. The Burrows House and Log Cabin museums (located at 545 9th Street, Newport) showcase the historic moments that have shaped Lincoln County. Professionally designed exhibits tell of the area’s Native American traditions; the birth of a prosperous logging industry with the coming of WWI; the explosion of tourism with the completion of the Roosevelt Military Highway; the evolution of the country’s maritime industry. Because only a fraction of the Society’s collection can be displayed at one time, exhibits are constantly changing. The Society’s artifacts are preserved in climate-controlled conditions monitored by staff trained in museum science. Because of its expert collections management, the Society has been chosen to house nationally recognized traveling exhibits. Thousands of historic photographs, news clippings, maps and other documents are available to the public for research in the Burrows House. Society staff members help everyone from scholars to schoolchildren research towns, homes, families and heirlooms. Newport is now primarily a resort with a somewhat Victorian appearance in the older areas. Shell-fishing gives it some commercial importance. Crabs, clams, and oysters—the latter artificially planted to renew the supply—are shipped inland. Oystering is done in flat-bottomed boats with the aid of long-handled tongs.
     Newton, now known as Elk City, is located on the Yaquina at the mouth of Elk Creek. It is said to have been the first settlement in what is now Lincoln County. Postal records show that Newton post office was established in Jul. 14, 1868, with Edwin Alden Abbey, first postmaster. Abbey, who was fondly called Kit, was born in New York in 1824. Marshall Winchester Simpson became postmaster in Nov. 1869. He was out of the office for a few years, but held the position again on Nov. 23, 1888, when the name of the office was changed from Newton to Elk City. It is said that he instigated the change. Statements to the effect that Elk City was named by pioneer settlers about 1865 do not agree with the records unless the locality and the post office went by different names. This has happened at a number of places in Oregon.
     Nice post office, formerly Lutgens, was established Apr. 24, 1917. The office was discontinued Nov. 15 1919. It was named for capt. Henry “Harry” Nice (1837-1921), a prominent Alsea Bay resident during the last half of the 19th century. Nora L. Strake was the first postmaster.54
 Nortons is located on the Southern Pacific Railway, about six miles west of Nashville. The post office was established Apr. 6, 1895, with Jas. S. Huntington first postmaster. The office closed to Eddyville on Jan. 15, 1934. The community was originally called Norton, but postal authorities did not accept this name as there was another office in Clackamas County of the same name so the “s” was added. In former times, Nortons, named for Lucius Norton who owned a ranch nearby, was a station on the Corvallis & Yaquina Bay Railroad. A weathered and decrepit structure that once housed the general store and post office stands by the road site. Nortons, like Elk City and Hoskins, is another ghost village in appearance. The first military wagon road linking the Summit-Nashville area to the Corvallis-Elk City wagon route was built in the 1860s. It was graveled from Summit to Nashville around 1930, and paved in 1947. In 1910, Carey Peck, the community blacksmith, carved a new road along the right-of-way to the Clem Road to Burnt Woods on Highway 20. He was paid with county script, as was customary in that day, and had considerable difficulty cashing them for provisions. The road now graveled, opened up a new artery of travel to and from the area, which throughout the years has helped the Nashville-Summit residents considerably. Around 1912, when Jim Highland brought the first automobile to the Nashville area, the family’s team of carriage and horses, the reliable pack-horse and the plodding draft teams obtained their first glimpse of their retributive justice. In 1903, the first store in Nashville was owned by Bruce Hamar. It served as a depot and waiting station along the route of the early railroad. At that time, the store was also the post office. When another large portion of the original Siletz Reservation was thrown open to homesteading in 1895, the Nashville-Summit area offered the quickest and easiest route to the virgin timberlands of the northeastern part of the county. Logging and lumbering were carried on in a small way with an ox team. Manpower predominated. The first donkey engines were used by Wallace A. Moody of Parkdale. In 1895, his father helped Sim Benson, who sold his oxen and bought enough donkey engines to run his logging operations and set up the first logging camp. In 1927, Ted Harmsen came to the Summit area and herded 2000 Angora goats over the hills. In 1936, Harmsen & Hall built their first sawmill on the Earl Davis ranch. In 1945, Harmsen erected a sawmill at Nashville, which burned down in Jun. 1949. In 1950, a new electric mill was constructed with a planer added to its equipment in 1954. The first lumber was hand stacked, then shipped to Eugene. Harmsen received $8 to $9 per thousand board feet. In 1913, early telephone communication in the area was first attempted on a neighborhood basis. In 1977, Clara Howard Mears of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, wrote: “The coming of the telephone was quite an exciting event there as elsewhere. I remember my brother coming home from town and telling us that he heard mr. Mansfield speaking from his John Creek office to some one in a store at Lake Mills as plainly as he ever heard him when present. My nephew and I rigged up a telephone with two tin cans and a wire over which we talked.” The switchboard was located at Summit, and extended through Nashville to the Chapman place. Rodney L. Nash, son of Wallis Nash, made the first call on his phone. It was Jul. 16, 1913, the day his daughter, Mary Lou, was born. The doctor was summoned to assist in the delivery. However, this line was not kept in repair, and for many years the closest telephone service was at Summit. On Nov. 7, 1954, Nashville was connected with a modern dial system under the Pioneer Telephone Company. In Oct. 1944, Nashville Grange No. 903 was organized by Jesse Reeder. Clyde Hamar was the first master of the Grange. Gladys Hinshaw was its first Secretary. In early 1932, the Nashville Gas & Oil Company drilled an extraordinary oil well on the outskirts of the town. In Mar. 1923, the well was drilled to a depth of 480 feet. Small quantities of gas were present. The well was abandoned a short time later, and only recently have options been renewed, and new incorporation papers filled in the amount of $250,000. Mary Lou Nash Commons was the daughter of Faith Lister and R. L. Nash, and the Granddaughter of railroad baron Wallis Nash. In 1963, she was managing the family’s fine cattle ranch. That year, she hosted a potluck picnic for the Salem DAR, who spent the day learning about the Nash family and their contributions to Lincoln County. Singing “Home On The Range,” was almost too much for Mary Lou, who was devoted to her many pets. Her parents were selling the ranch her grandfather, acquired during the building of the railroad. The move was in keeping with the health and age of her parents. Hamar, or Yaquina Lake, three miles northwest of Nashville, is a point of interest. In 1887, the lake was formed by a slide which blocked the course of the Little Yaquina River on land formerly owned by Chas. Hamar during his absence. In past years, the state Fish & Game Commission has stocked the lake with fingerling trout. On Apr. 3, 1914, Peter Meads (1820-1914 KY), who once owned the place at Nortons now owned by Harry Porter, died at Walla Walla on Monday. His obituary said that “Meads and his family homesteaded a place at Nortons in the spring of 1867 and lived on it some 20 years when he sold out and moved to Walla Walla, where he has lived until his death. Meads was well-known to the early settlers of Yaquina Bay. He used to team over the roads hauling oysters and clams from Elk City to Corvallis. This was done in the worst part of winter and over the muddiest kind of roads. Meads never stopped for rain or mud. He had a nice home at Walla Walla and enjoyed life in his later days. He was 84 years old. His wife, Rebecca Jane Carter (1841-1911 MO) died about three years ago. She was a sister of Siletz Reservation physician Franklin Marion Carter of Elk City. The Meads are survived by the couple’s children: Wm. H. (1860-? OR), Olive A. (1862-? OR), Solomon S. (1864-? OR), Elijah F. (1866-? OR), and John S. (1869-? OR). So one by one the pioneers are passing away leaving behind them a name of honor, courage, perseverance and hospitality. May they rest in peace.” Nortons Cemetery is located near Homer Edwards’ farm not far from Eddyville. Evelyn Parry visited Nortons Cemetery in 1975, and says there is a marker identifying the site of the first schoolhouse in Lincoln County under a large fir tree. The grave sites are about a quarter of a mile further on toward Eddyville. The cemetery is about one block from the road. A big tree covers the fenced graveyard. The property is owned by Lincoln County. A Jul. 1898 issue of the Lincoln County Leader, states that H. S. Porter thanks those who helped erect the memorial stone commemorating his mother. “Those who helped me knew of no other graves here,” he said: “Elizabeth Lee Porter’s (1831-1898) obituary states that she was born in Harrison County, OH on Nov. 4, 1831. She was a graduate of Wheeling College, PA. In Nov. 1893, she married Andrew J. Porter (1827-1881), who was a surveyor. The couple moved to Oregon in 1864 and homesteaded at Nortons in 1865. Their home was at one time an overnight stopping place for travelers.” Porter first began educating children in her home. Lincoln County’s first schoolhouse was built in 1866, and Porter was the first teacher. She died at Nortons in 1898. The inscription on the memorial stone reads: “At Rest: Porter, Andrew J (1827-1881); Porter, Elizabeth Lee (1831-1898); First School in Lincoln County, AD 1866; Elizabeth Lee Porter— Teacher.
     Nye Beach, one of the oldest and finest beachside communities on the Oregon Coast, was once a separate community. John T. Nye (1832-1911) was one of the earliest settlers at Yaquina Bay. He took a homestead along the beach and was instrumental in the development of the area. His property is now occupied by motels and houses facing the beach in front of Newport.56 Since the late 1800s, people have been coming to this favored place to seek solace in and alongside the Pacific Ocean. John T. Nye was one of the earliest settlers at Yaquina Bay. He took up a homestead along the beach and was instrumental in the development of the area. His property is now occupied by motels and houses facing the beach in front of Newport. Nye was just 13 years old when his father, Michael Nye, died in 1844. John became an apprentice tailor, presumably to help support the family. He continued working in this trade in his home state of Ohio until 1859, when he crossed the plains with a team of oxen. At Pikes Peak, County, he opted to turn around and retrace his steps to Atchison, KA. During his second attempt on the trail, he stopped in Salt lake City, UT, where he traded his oxen for horses. Completing the trip without major incident, Nye spent the winter of 1860 in Corvallis. The following spring he left for the Rock Creek mines in British Columbia. He spent a few months mining before returning to Corvallis, where he remained for about six months before enlisting in the Union Army as a tailor in Company A, First Oregon Volunteers. In his 19 months of service, he was stationed at Fort Vancouver, Fort Yamhill and Camp Polk. After being mustered out of the service in 1863, he returned to Corvallis to work as a general store clerk for nearly two years. He also worked on the construction of what eventually became Highway 20. In 1865, Nye headed west and took out a claim on the land we know today as Nye Beach. His cabin sat at the present-day intersection of Brook and Third streets. Nye’s obituary states this was the second house to be built in Newport. Apparently he did some mining in Nye Creek, which ran right next to his cabin. According to a biographical sketch written on Nye in 1904, he was a fulltime resident of Nye Beach for must 19 months while he “proved up” on his claim Nye retained ownership of his claim, however, until 1880, when he sold it “at a large profit” to developer Sam Irvin. In 1871, Nye traveled to Indiana to marry Olive Kist, a native of Ohio. When Nye platted Nye Beach, renamed Olive Street for her. When the newly weds returned from Indiana, they settled down in Corvallis, where they remained for about three years. In 1874, the Nyes returned to this area when they took up another 160-acre homestead, this time east of Newport, near the present-day intersection of Fruitvale Road and Highway 20. Together John and Olive farmed their land and raised eight children. John Nye spent the rest of his days on his Fruitvale ranch. He died in 1911. Olive Kist Nye (1849-1936) lived out her days on the nearby farm owned by her son, Andrew. Frail and aging, she seldom made a trip to Newport. On a rare visit in 1925, she returned to the site of the Nye cabin. She told a newspaper reporter, “While the city is very nice... you have no idea what a beautiful sight this little valley was in the old days.” Olive Kist Nye died in 1936 at age 87.59 In 1893, Fall Street was completed. It was then a wood plank road which covered the area from the Bayfront to Nye Beach. At this time, Nye Beach and Bayfront were separate communities, each with its own identity. This walkway was replaced by a road two years later as Newport began to grow.61 In 1975, Wave Leslie Belt and Margaret Peterson wrote that “there were plank roads laid by the government engineer who was building Cape Foulweather Lighthouse. One went over the hill to Nye Beach where supplies for the lighthouse were taken to Jump-Off Joe and along the beach to Agate Beach and Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Nye Beach was one old tumbled-down shanty marking the ground that had been taken some years ago by one Johnny Nye, and abandoned for a claim further inland that was more of a success as a farm.” Most of the cottages were built in the prosperous years between 1910 and 1930. Wives and children would spend the summer in the cottages: their husbands and fathers joining them on weekends. In 1902, Dr. Henry J. Minthorn of Newberg, uncle of pres. Herbert C. Hoover (1874-1964), built a sanitarium with hot sea water baths just north of what is now the Sylvia Beach Hotel. He donated the land for the public bathhouse, now the Yaquina Art Center, which was financed and built by the Nye Beach Association in 1913. On Feb. 16, 1945, Nye Beach post office was as a contract station of Newport. The office was discontinued Jan. 31, 1950.64 Belt and Peterson commented that “in the evenings a crowd of young people gathered at the skating rink or at the Nye Beach Natatorium where there was a swimming and dance hall. There were bathhouses on the beach at Nye Beach at the turn-around, before the “Nat” was built. People went in these, changed to swimming clothes, went bathing in the surf, came out, washed off the sand in the bath house, dressed, and went on their way.” Nye Beach became a literary center for the study of the sciences, especially geology, biology and botany. Students could attend summer college classes in a specially built auditorium. One of the most popular spots on the coast was the Natatorium, a large building with an indoor pool located at the foot of Beach Drive, the site of the present pedestrian plaza at the turnaround overlooking the ocean. The “Nat” had a dance floor and over the years also featured bowling, boxing matches, miniature golf and movies. Newport’s first movie theater was just up the street. Today, as a century ago, this colorful seaside community provides the same charm and beauty in a warm, friendly village of shops, services, guest accommodations, restaurants and art galleries.
     Ocean View post office was established Nov. 5, 1887 and discontinued Sep. 27, 1893. It was re-established Apr. 27, 1904 and discontinued again Oct. 13, 1916. The office was located about a mile north of Yachats, and named descriptively. Geo. M. Starr (1817-? OH), was the first postmaster.
     Oceanlake is a coast town of about 400 supported by sportsmen and tourists. It is located west of Devils Lake on the Oregon Coast Highway. The name called attention to this position between the lake and the ocean. On Dec. 8, 1964, the cities of Oceanlake, Delake, and Taft and the unincorporated communities of Cutler City and Nelscott voted to combine to form a single new community, Lincoln City. Oceanlake post office, formerly known as Delake, was established Mar. 15, 1927, with Arthur C. Deuel first postmaster. The name of the office was changed to Lincoln City Sep. 25, 1965.68 While stationed at Siletz, fr. Chas. Raymond founded a small resort town on 80 acres of land, between Devils Lake and the Pacific Ocean, a little to the north of D River. He gave It his own family name, but It was afterwards known as Oceanlake. In 1966, it become part of Lincoln City. Although this shore of the Pacific is not marked by any great gulfs or peninsulas, it is punctuated many lofty headlands—great spurs of the Coastal Range, which sweep down beyond the beaches and overshadow the shallows with spectacular cliffs and strew them with tall