Coast Highway Most Beautiful Drive in Forty-Five Countries
Press Correspondent Expresses Admiration for Trip Along Oregon Coast Highway in 1936 Before Five Bridges Were in Use
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By Harald B. Say
ment except the right angle turns will be eliminated
Director of Travel and Information Department
within the City of North Bend.
Oregon State Highway Commission , . .
Five Coast Bridges Completed in 1»M
"It was an unforgettable experience—the most
Over Coos Bay is one of the five bridges that
beautiful drive I've ever had, and I have been in w were completed on the Oregon Coast Highway last
45 countries/*
f
,
summer and which eliminated the last of the ferries
Thus did Webb Miller, famous United Press on this route. The five new bridges — over Coos
correspondent, describe the Oregon Coast Highway
BaF. the Umpqua, Siuslaw, Alsea riven and Ya-
on the occasion of nis visit to Oregon last summer
qulna bay—were built at a cost of more than $5,-
after returning to America from abroad where he 000,000. The funds were loans and grants obtained
had just wound up the job of covering the Italian- from the federal government.
Ethiopian war.
_ *■, McCullough Designer of Bridges_____
And Mr. Miller’s reaction is that of thousands
The bridges were designed by Dr. C. B. McCul-
upon thousands of visitors who come from other lough, assistant state
who for-
states and countries to Oregon each yeaf. It is a merlv was bridge engineer nf
fact, development is almost continual from the time
one reaches Newport to Astoria at the mouth of the
Columbia river except for short sections where the
highway cuts inland from the ocean. Seaside is a
metropolitan little beach city with many fine homes,
excellent apartments, fine golf course. Gearhart
close by is also excellently developed from this
standpoint.
Newport is a primary vacation center. It has
been one of Portland's beach playgrounds for many
years. For years the railroad made it available,
then came the highways with passenger cars and
buses. Tillamook beaches to the north likewise
have long been favorite
gon __
le mod
__
__
_ of V. 8.
der the personal_ „
re-
coastline tapped by a fine paved highway its
Highway 101 which runs from Canada to Mexico. cently promoted from assistant to bridge engineer. of
length with the diversity of charm, recreation
Alternately it skirts along smooth sandy beaches,
Dr. McCullough, incidentally, recently returned and scenic grandeur offered by the Oregon coast­
thence lifts high up on the faces of mountain cliffs from Central America where he was on a year’s
line on the Blue Pacific. Alternating with broad
where one imagines he could see across the blue
leave of absence from the Oregon State Highway
Pacific almost to China and Japan, then through lush department designing and building bridges in Costa sweeps of sandy beaches level as a floor where the
breakers murmur peacefully are rocky ramparts
river bottom flats given over primarily to dairy Rica and Panama.
where cliffs reach straight up from thundering seas.
farming, through forests whose trees tower 100 to
Progress Demanded Bridges
The wide sandy beaches with the water deep­
>00 feet above the highway closing together at the
Progress demanded the building of the bridges ening gradually make for delightful surf bathing
top so as to give the impression one is travelling .and the passing of the ferries which slowed travel
under the safest of conditions.
through a tremendous endless tunnel of cool green.
under normal conditions and caused considerable
Horseback riding, clam digging, collecting
Chetos Affords Magnificent Sport
delays at times of heavy traffis Yet many persons agates, surf and deep-sea fishing, boating on the
Brookings is the first little hamlet one enters miss the diversion and short rest that the ferries
bays, watching the sea lions near Florence — it
after crossing the line into Oregon. It is situated in offered to one not in a hurry but out to enjoy the makes no difference what you want to do, your
the ex.i\me southwestern comer ot Curry county, beauties
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the coast country. .From their decks,
pleasure awaits. If you want to be alone with the
an iso’ated pioneering section until the highway folks stood in the salt-laden wind, watching the solitude and majesty of the ocean there are spots •
opened the way to the outside world.
Here the fishing boats putting out to sea or unloading"hun
—
­
without number where you may set up your camp
Chetco river, a beautiful crystal c.ear stream comes dreds of pounds of silvery haul; watched the crab or park your house trailer.
down out of the mountains to the sea. It is one of men cbme in with their dories and skiffs; saw deep
Have you ever sat in the glow of a driftwood
Oregon’s fine trout fishing streams, and when the sea vessels loading lumber in the larger harbors;
fire on the beach at night? The endless supply
safmon are running affords magnificent sport for and rejoiced in the green beauty of the timber-
driftwood brought down to sea by streams at flc
him who likes to fight big fish.
covered hills which plunge down into the bays. The
is another charm of the Oregon seashore.
passing of the ferries has placed many a delightful
CwTj Offers Wildlife Paradise
And have you ever driven through miles
vacation spot hours closer to him traveling all or • miles of rhododendrons and —
For the on? woo likes wild isolated country,
azaleas
___ _ blooming
looming in
part of the Oregon Coeit highway’s length.
their full gli lory as they do along sections of the Ore-
who enjoys getting off the beaten path, Curry ocun-
. From Waldport north where the highway has gon coast? Through
_ canyons of _______________
ty is a paradise. A few miles inland from the high­
Scotch-broom in
been open through to Portland longer than in the case
blazing fragrance.
'
.
way which parallels the coast and one will feel him-
of certain southern ranges erf the highway, develop­
selt ten thousand miles from the dutside world.
These are only some erf the charms that await
The deer in the foothills and mountains just inland ment of resorts and stopping places has gone on for you along the Oregon Coast highway. Webb Miller
from the coast lines, think that a fanner's garden is many years. Communities are closer together. In
was right.
planted for their particular convenience. Streams
of Curry county are the trout angler's dream of
paradise. The Rogue, probably the most famed of
all the world’s Steelhead streams, comes down to
the sea at Gold Beach and Wedderbum.
This
stream is crossed by the beautiful Patterson bridge,
the first of the six bridges on the Oregon Coast
Highway frbm Brookings to Newport. Just south
of it lies the Pistol river.
North of it flows Euchre
ereek. Sixes river, the Elk river, and a number of
other excellent trout streams.
Oregon Coast Line Fishing Country
Ind speaking of fishing -the entire Oregon
line is a fishing country. Not only the streams
flowing down to the coast such as the famed
Umpqua, the Siuslaw, beautiful Alsea, Siletz, the
.Tillar-ook well north and the Necanicum up near
Seaside but many lakes close by the ocean afford
excellent fishing for the man who likes to use flies,
spinners, or plain bait
A pnrticu'ar charm is the fact that innumerable
lateral highways, the major ones paved, lead off
inlandrso that one may jump up into the roaring
gorges of the mountains to fish if he desires.
B-nden That Was—New Rebul'd'ns
But jumping back to Brookings and coming
north—the next community of size is Bandon,
"Bandon-by-the-Sea.” which was destroyed by fire
late last summer and is now rebuilding. In this re­
gion nature worked out a series of intriguing sea­
scapes. As the seas through the centuries ham­
mered and drove against the bes s of the mountains,
the harder sections ot rock were carved into en­
trancing forms that tower up from the surf and
frbm the sea beyond it.
’
.
Then 18 miles further north comes Cooquille,
set in a particularly verdant spot in the meadow
lands ot the Coquille river, in the fertile Coquille
valley. Travelers on 101 find this city one of the
best stopping spots along the Oregon coast, noted
as an industrial city, surrouned by hundreds of
tnodmn and prosperous dairy farms.
Marshfield and the neighboring city of North
Bend, both on Coos Bay, are a short distance inland
from the ocean, busy shipping and lumbering cen­
ters and focal point of Oregon’s new pilchard indus­
try Coos Bay, surrounded by foothill slopes for­
ever green, is the largest body of water between the
Columbia river and San Francisco. Deep sea ves­
sels are always in the harbor, and the fishing Peet
is exceedingly interesting. The pilchard fleet brings
in these small fish by the hundreds of tons for oil
and meal reduction.
To Straighten Out Highway
Surveys are being made for the revision of the
Oregon Coast Highway near the southerly part of
Marshfield which will afford easy curves and wide
rights of way instead of the right angle turns and
congested roadway on the present road.
A new
bridge will be required at Coal Bank Slough, and
an overhead crossing will be provided over the rail­
road on the connection to the Isthmus Slough
Bridge.
This survey will be extend’d southward toward
Coquille to determiné the most prac’ical manner of
revising this section. The survery also includes the
portion between Marshfield and North Bend to pro­
vide for the reconstruction of that narrow portion
The survey will follow closely to the present align
Highway Bridge Work Started
Under His Chairmanship
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