The Official Newspaper of the City of Bandon
CHRISTMAS NUMBER SECOND SECTION
WESTERN
WORLD
WHERE PRODUCTIVE SOIL AND TIDE WATER MEET
VOL. IV
LUMBERING, MINING, DAIRYING, STOCK RAISING
BANDON, COOS COUNTY, OREGON, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1915
NO. 4
$300,000 Has Been Spent to Give Coquille River a Good Harbor
OME thirty or forty years ago
the Coquille river, a stream
then navigable only a few miles,
poured its waters into the Paci
fic ocean over a shallow and very
dangerous bar which was close to the
high point where the Coast Guard
lookout now stands. Only small sail
ing schooners, of the type long since
passed from the census of coast
shipping, made port at Bandon and
these only at rare intervals. Twenty
to fifty days were consumed in the
passage to San Francisco, from
whence they came with supplies and
returned with the product of the one
small mill on the river. One hund
red thousand feet of lumber made
up a big load for the tiny ships and
a round trip every two months was
above the average.
S
Traveling l>y Row Boat
Pioneer days? Yea, and in no way
more so than in the matter of water
travel. What a fuss we would make
today had we to depend on a row
boat to take us to any of the points
on the upper river, from Bullards to
Myrtle Point! Yet, there are many
still living who remember the initial
trip of the first steamboat on the
river and who have pulled a skiff
from the old Bandon Ferry slip to
Beaver Slough or Coquille City, rath
er than walk or ride through the un
broken wilderness.
It is I »liferent Now
Even to those who came to the
Coquille valley during the seventies
and early eighties such experiences
must flavor more of dreams than
realities and to the most of us they
are almost beyond realization. The
mouth of the river has shifted a
quarter of a mile northward and
the tides flow in and out through
a confined channel, giving a depth
of water on the bar of from 12 to
16 feet at mean low tide. Steam
ers carrying upwards of 1,000,000
feet of lumber and making round
trips to San Francisco every five days
can cross in and out without the
slightest danger, while vessels two to
four times as large as the old sail
ing schooners can dock at Coquille
City, 22 miles inland. Regular pas
senger steamers serve the valley as
far up as Myrtle Point, nine miles
above Coquille, and dozens of small
craft ply back and forth over the
river daily.
Again the pioneer spirit. The de
velopment of the Coquille river has
barely commenced.
It is that same
influence that prompted the first
residents to pull snags from the riv
er with teams that is now moving
us to further the improvement pro
jects that are now under way and
planned for the future.
Private Capital Started It
Private enterprise furnished the
funds for the first work done on the
river, way back in 1880 when the
river followed the bluff and had its
outlet between Table rock and the
point upon which the Lookout now
stands. During the next four years
approximately $4,000 was raised by
private subscriptions for harbor work
and expended under the direction of
Captain Judah Parker, founder of
Parkersburg. Close onto $1500 of:
this fund was the result of a grand
barbecue and dance held in Bandon,
attended by everyone up and down
the river and throughout the country
around
Large crates were built, i
filled with rock and sunk on either
side of the mouth of the river in
hopes of confining the ever-shifting
channel.
That Elusive Channel
Figuratively speaking, the mouth
of the river at that time was about
as elusive as the proverbial needls
in the haystack. Col. K. H. Rosa
gives an Interesting story of Its shift
ings. Before he came here the river
emptied into the ocean where it does
now and the present sand flats on
each side were covered with grass
and scrub pine. Year by year it
shifted southward and finally stop
ped at the Lookout rocks
Here
Captain Parker and his assistants
worked to hold It, but without suc
cess for the bar moved northward
again to Its original location.
First Government U <>rk
Panoramic view of Bandon llarltor. taken lx foie Hie eld sailing *.cho< tiers
low shambling affair, had its inland
end at the foot of the bluff, near
what is now Second street and Edi
son avende. Fragments of the work
are still to be seen extending as far
out as the inland end of the present
south jetty, built in 1898. Congress
made small appropriations from time
to time and eight years ago the north
jetty was completed and from that
time on everything stood at a stand
still until 1913, when $26,000 was
appropriated for maintenance. Dur
ing the winter and spring of 1913
the high tides and heavy storms aid
ed by the ever-present tendency of
the channel to shift northward, cut
a gap between the river and the
ocean inside of the north jetty and
behind the light house, causing the
ship channel to shoal to such an ex
tent as to make it dangerous. The
$26,000 available was not sufficient
to warrant beginning the work of
repairing this break and nothing was
done until the following year when
congress made a further appropria
tion of $76,000, to be used on per
manent improvements.
Th'is gave
$102,000 for the work that has just
closed.
The Project Just Finished
At the beginning of the present
year the river was moving north
ward in its search for a new out
let and the same tactics as in 1884
were used to confine it construc
tion of a jetty inland rather than sea
ward.
Under the Portland office,
United States Corps of Engineers
Claude R. Wright arrived in Bandon
early in January to take charge of
the work. The first month was de
voted to surveys, estimates and con
centration of supplies and equipment,
and opening of the Tupper rock
quarry, which had been closed and i
the equipment dismantled following
the completion of the north jetty.
Between the quarry and the receiv
ing wharf 3000 feet of trestle had to
be built and the wharf reconstructed,
while that part of the project on the
north side of the river called for an
entirely new dock and 2500 feet of
trestle. The construction of trestle
and wharves necessitated that a pile
driver be added to the equipment. |
and to handle the rock two derricks,
one on each wharf and each one ’
capable of handling a 10 ton load had
to be erected.
O|x*ning Quarry Big Job
Reopening the quarry presented
some difficulties in itself and in ord
er to understand the problem one,
must know that the quarry is nearly
a hole in the side of a bluff or hill,
into which the cars enter and are
loaded from above by derricks. The
arrangement was simple enough in
itself, but presented this difficulty:
During the previous work all the rock
within a safe reach of the derrick j
boom had been cleared away, so tha»
either the derrick must be placed
deeper in the pit and a less secure
foundation used, or a monster
derrick built. By compromising, a
solution of the problem was worked
out and two 90 foot line boom der
ricks rose into place, one on each
side of the quarry. Each of these
hoists were able to. and did later,
swing boulders weighing up to 15
tons from the pit to the cars, some
times a distance of 180 feet. Two
poles 90 feet long, with not over
4 inches difference in the butt and
the tip measurements and direct
from the woods back of Landon were
used for the derrick booms. Remov
ing thousands of tons of rock from
the pit was the first work of these
derricks.
First Rock Dumped June I
It was here that the first substan
With the completion of the pre
tial efforts were made to confine the
channel, when In 1884 congress ap limlnary work came a lull, the two j
propriated $10,000 for the work and locomotive» and steel for the tracks across the river could not arrive un
With the arrival of the
the government engineers started having been delayed tn transit from | til July.
construction of a jetty on the south the Sluslaw project and the two large locomotives and track however, a
side of the river. The first jetty. a J barges for transferring the rock' temporary barge was secured and the
vvet«* displaced l>, (ho model n steamships.
gap behind the light house, but fur
ther construction is necessary In ord
er that the full force of the current
may be v ncentrated to wash out the
sh< als already formed. To do this
it is proposed that a jetty be built
from the government dock on the
south side of the river to the inland
end of the south jetty. This gap has
been partly closed by an old piling
structure, built years ugo, but the
storms and high tides have worked
havoc with it.
A permanent rock
construction is now proposed and the
cost is to be met by the Port of
Bandon and the government.
In order to prevent the sand, wash
'd out of the river, from being de
posited just outside the bar, as is
now the case, the north jetty must
be extended and it is proposed that
this be built along with the south
inland jetty extension.
Prevailing
currents along the coast are from the
north and with the north jetty shor
ter than the south, sediment is de
posited between them. By extend
ing the north jetty 3000 feet sea
ward the scourings of the river will
be washed southward onto the beach.
Left over from the work Just com
pleted is $30,000 available for new
projects and, provided Its expendi
ture Is authorized, the Port Commis
sion will issue $25,000 in bonds, that
the work may procetvd immediately.
Further appropriations by congress
are also being solicited.
In order to determine the forma
tion of the strata underlying the
bar and make an estimate as to th««
funds necessary to give a depth of
water on the bar of approximately
2 5 or mole feet at low water, the
government has authorized a boring
survey to be made as soon as weath
er conditions will permit.
Hole«
will he drilled at numerous places
and the depth of water and underly
ing formation determined.
This
survey will probably commence about
lune or July of next year.
drills sunk
hole after hole in the
rock to be filled with powder for the
blasts that brought down as much
as 1500 tons of rock to the shot,
broke windows and occasionally sent
stray rocks through houses within i<
radius of a quarter of a mile. Swung
from the pit to the cars, the rock
started its journey, an average of
25 tons to the ear load. Arriving at
the dock it was swung onto the wait
ing barge and ferried across the riv
er, where it was reloaded on cars,
hauled out over the trestle and dump
ed into place. As much as 400 tons
in a single day and nearly 7.000 tone
for the banner month, were the rec
ord runs on the job. Op to Decem
ber first, 35,000 tons of rock were
placed in constructing the 2,000 feet
of jetty.
Now and then little incidents mar
red the regularity and precision «1
the work of the 5 0 men on lite job,
but no interruption lasted over two
days. Once a 10 ton rock broke from
the derrick on tin* receiving dock and
crashed through Hie only barge avail
able at that time for ferrying the
rock across the river, but that did
not stop the quarry However, when
one of the derricks at the quarry
slid off Into the pit It stopped opera
tions all along the line. There wa:
but one serious accident, althougl
narrow escat»*« wore experienced by
most every man on the job.
On«
man suffered Injuries twice, first
*300,000 Has Been Hpeut
when hit by a glancing stone and
It Is estimated that to date $800,-
later crushed badly under a rolllnj. 000 has been spent In improving the
rock
The moHt miraculous eacap« Coquille river aud expenditures ag
occurred when the hig derrick col I gregating twice that sum are prob
lapsed
Seventeen men were in th« j able during the next few years. Not
pit when the huge timbers and rig only doos thl« mean that ours Is to be
ging plunged down around them and one of th«* finest harbors on the
not a man was scratched.
coast, but that the construction work
The first estimates were for 30, will greatly stimulate the Industries
000 tons of rock, but lack of a solid j of the section. In the work on the
bake caused repeated settlings and I new Jetty 200.000 feet of lumber
5000 additional tons had to be placed 1 from the local mills, 15,000 running
in order to bring Hie Jetty well above feet of poles from home yards and
the high water line.
500 tons of coal from mines in the
From the above figures It will be valley were used
seen that the cost per yard of rock
Bandon Whipping Large
placed in the latest Jetty works wai I
Urgent need, rather than the mere
under one dollar. Previous project«- ; desire to “make a showing". Is be
showed a cost per yard ranging front I hind the effort to make this a first
$1 45 in one to $1 65 in another
class port
Under normal conditions
The record established In the lat I Bandon ships annually: 87,000,000
est project is due largely to the ef I feet of lumber. 5,500,000 feet of ties,
ficlent work of three men In particu 1 3500 pieces of piling, 5000 poles,
lar Engineer ('. R. Wright, chief 5.500,000 shingles, 600
cords of
! in charge of the project, and Messrs matchwood. 13,000 bundles splints.
Hoy Rozelle and "Hpeck" Patterson 250,000 box ebooks, 1000 tons of
Mr. Wright first formulated hh coal and thousands of cases of sal
plans, determined Hie equipment and mon and dairy products.
Imports
crew necessary, so that when For I amount to 1200 tons a month.
man Patterson arrived from the Sius
I law, no time or money was squalid
I ered in starting and continuing the
FISHING INDUSTRY
! works.
II«* has made many friend«
here who wish him luck wherevei
Nlnetf>«>n hundred and fifteen was
the government may send him on ! a bad year for the fishing industry
Other Improvement projects.
It Is] along the entire Pacific coast and the
hoped that in future government pro «almon pack fell from 4 0 to 50 per
jects locally Mr Wright may again •ent short of the average. In the
be with us.
' ('oquille river the run of both silver-
Mr Patterson has been a foreman «Ides and chlnooks was light, due to
I on government jetty works for a lie absence of rains until late in th»
i number of years and knows the work j «eason.
from a to z. To him and Mr Rozelle,
In place of the average pack of
who was In special charge at the 10,00* cases tall and flat tins the Co
quarry is. given the credit for much operative cannery, nt Prosper, pack
of the efficiency with which the rock ed only 5241 cases this year and the
was moved They were conscientious Nass plant canne«! about the same per
and careful In their work and in ev cent of Its normal run However, the
ery Instance tried to give local men record for the largest pack of gllveT-
an opportunity to work In fact it ddes south of the Columbia river
could easily be said that the govern goes to the Co-operative cannery. Al-
ment works, f..<" the size of the crew, • hough the pack was short this ye«r
«.• uployed more local men than would 'he financial returns •<! not show a
have been worked under a private ' proportional«* slump, as the prices are
contractor.
well up and the market exceptionally
Mr. Patterson will be transferred strong.
I > the government to another pro-
Under normal conditions the sal
P«t. Mr llozelle will continue the mon fishing and canning Industry
vernment office in Bandon, keep gives employment to about 2nn men
ing tab on the government's property during the season
Close to 50 are
first rock for the new Jetty dumped . here and at Coos Bay. and collecting kept busy In the canneries and up
data r n shipping, etc.
wards of 150 are employed operating
June 1.
New rr««je<ts P«o|H>se<l
| the selnex and (ill nets along the rtv-
I The work, once started, continued
I uninterruptedly A battery of steam
No more sand washes through the er.
,