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About The Coquille Valley sentinel. (Coquille, Coos County, Or.) 1921-2003 | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2006)
COQUILLE VALLEY MUSEUM SPECTACULAR I A SENTINEL PUBLICATION- page 2 Henry A. Schroeder Serving the communities of Coquille and Myrtle Point Elbert Schroeder with a personal touch. finding/Schroeder ¡FuneralService, not only offers a com plete line of funeral service, but also many related services including Headstones, monuments and a genealogy library that includes records dating baclfto 1926. Started when ¡Henry fi. Schroeder decided to add the funeral service as part of the family owned furniture store, his son ‘Elbert managed it. Elbert's son-in-law, Ernest finding acquired the business in 1986 who at that time added finding to the name. ‘When finding retired in 1999, the business was managed by Jay ‘Westrum who purchased the business in 2003. ‘Westrum and his wife, ¡Michelle, live in ¡Myrtle ¡Point with their daughters ¡palón, ¡Miranda and fibigad. 225 N. Birch • Coquille • 396-3846 404 Seventh Street • Myrtle Point • 572-2524 .------- T—------------------- --------- ------- J---------- - ------- ----- —------ — Bob Taylor helps visitors at the Coquille Valley Museum, located at 153 N. Central, during a recent Saturday. The museum is run by volunteers and is self funded. Admission is $2 or free with the purchase of a Coquille Historical Society Membership. The museum is open each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Additional information about the museum exhibits and the historical society can be obtained online at: museum.coquillevalley.org. Coquille Valley Museum becomes a reality SENTINEL STAFF COMPILATION History is an important part of every community. Just take a walk through downtown Coquille and inspect the buildings from the early 1900’s. Each neighborhood has its own homes with historic ties to the “old days”.The schools speak of generations of youth passing through the halls. Buildings, busi nesses, and city properties also have their own stories of beginnings and changes through the years. In fact, one of the earliest Coquille settlers built a cabin on the land that is across the highway from the Broiler building. Even Sturdivant Park had an alternate purpose, serv ing as the Sitka Spruce Mill during World War I, where mill workers endlessly converting lumber into frames for planes used in the war. However, even the most rich histo ry can become faded with time, espe cially when there is no central loca tion for people to learn about how things used to be. Coquille, along with the rest of the valley, needed these tidbits of the past collected, cared for, and shared with those who want to learn about local history. In March of 2005,The Sentinel reported on the initial efforts to cre ate the Coquille Valley Museum, a project spearheaded by individuals who were interested in preserving Coquille and the surrounding val ley’s past. Retired businessman and Coquille citizen Bob Taylor and Coquille Library’s Jordi Lindegren worked together with the Coquille Chamber of Commerce to begin collecting photographs, postcards, high school albums, advertisements and memorabilia from yesterday. The Coquille Valley Historical Society began meeting with fresh vigor, dis cussing and planning for a museum site and adding to the membership with volunteers who were commit ted to making the museum happen. In November 2005, organizers announced the Coquille Valley Museum’s new home.The former site of Taylor’s Sports Shop, located at 153 N. Central, was being spruced up and renovated to house all the donated historical materials. The Coquille Valley Museum held its first public open house right before Christmas, Dec. 20-23, 2005. By that time, the museum could enjoy the rewards from a year’s worth of effort, displaying an interesting selection of logging and carpentry tools, farming equipment, and photographs of everything from early settlers to coal miners and workers from the logging era. The museum is a gift to the com munity and organizers plan to keep accepting items, striving to reach eventual goals of changeable exhibits that will give visitors-a fresh look at history upon each visit. Museum volunteers continue to look for ways to enhance the muse um and see the work done to date as an effort among many in the area.