CHAPTER XX.
THE COAST COUNTRY.
Lying north of Curry, is another coast county—small, but well known, and of commercial importance—and that is Coos. It has a population of about seventeen hundred; and Empire City, the county-seat, has nearly five hundred. This county is famous for its coal and lumber. Coos Bay coal is well known in the San Francisco market, the mines having been worked for several years. Several lumber-mills do a large business in cutting lumber for foreign markets; and the business of preserving fruit, by drying, is carried on to some extent. The natural resources of the county are not yet begun to be developed; but they are numerous enough to make it famous for its wealth, whenever they shall be open to trade.
The coast country of Oregon is peculiar in its physical features. The Coast Range of mountains leaves but a narrow strip of country between itself and the sea; and were this narrow belt all of the arable land on the sea-side, it would be but little. But the Coast Range sends down a great number of small rivers, all of which have narrow valleys lying between high, timbered ridges. These valleys are extremely fertile, the soil being composed of the wash of the mountains, mixed with sand, and furnished with abundant moisture. Most generally, the borders of such streams are covered with a dense growth of alder, vine-maple, wild-cherry, and other thrifty, small trees; but in some cases, the bottom-lands widen out so as to leave fine prairie spots between the streams and the spurs of the hills. All these valleys will grow grain, hardy fruits, and the finest of vegetables, in abundance. But owing to the great amount of moisture from the sea, which keeps ever verdant the nutritious native grasses, it is especially a dairy country. The coolness and evenness of the temperature along the coast is another advantage to dairying, together with the great amount of root-crops which the ground produces, of the kinds best for milch cows. But the diversity of surface allows the farmer to choose what branch of farming he will follow: whether it will please him to raise grains, hay, fruit, vegetables, or make butter and cheese.
Very many of the coast streams empty into bays of their own. At the mouth of the Coquille and Rogue rivers are harbors, which have been used to some extent by small vessels—while Coos Bay is the leading sea-port for Southern Oregon. Mean low-water on the bar is eleven feet; high-water, sixteen feet seven inches. Umpqua Bay is more of an open roadstead than Coos; but furnishes a very good harbor, with thirteen feet on the bar, at mean low-water; and nineteen feet, high-water.
The Alseya River forms a small bay at its mouth, which is not much used. Yaquina Bay, however, is quite an important port, where vessels from San Francisco come to load with lumber and oysters. It has a straight entrance, half a mile wide, with fourteen feet of water on the bar at low-tide. The name, Yaquina, signifying everywhere, describes the shape of the bay, however, when once inside. It meanders about for nine miles, having no less than three settlements along its shores. Newport, the principal one, is located on the north side of the bay, on the site of an old Indian town—the site being marked by the holes in the ground where stood the ancient wigwams, and by piles of oyster-shells, showing how the tenants of these primitive dwellings lived. At the head of the bay is Elk City, the terminus of the Corvallis wagon-road, which passes through a low gap in the mountains formed by the valleys of two streams, one entering Yaquina Bay and the other the Wallamet River. On the Newport Hills, on the north side of the bay, is a third-class light; and on Cape Foulweather, still farther north, a light of the first class. On the south beach is a strip of sandy plains, covered with a scattering growth of pines, which are singularly dwarfed, bearing cones when not more than two feet high.
The Siletz River is a large and rapid stream, with a valley of considerable extent, in which is an Indian Reservation. It is principally timbered land, with a soil of black muck. The tribes gathered on the reservation are remnants of nearly all the tribes of Western Oregon, from the Columbia to the southern boundary of the State. They are tolerably well taught in agriculture, and seem desirous of attaining to a higher civilization. Tillamook Bay, like Yaquina Bay, is the outlet of a river of the same name. It is a good harbor, with sufficient depth of water on the bar for the passage of light-draught vessels. Tillamook County, in which this bay is situated, extends from Benton County on the south, to Clatsop County on the north; and has five small rivers, flowing from the mountains to the sea. Its population is only about four hundred; and its business is confined principally to lumbering and fishing. It has two saw-mills and two grist-mills. A large area of land belongs to this county, probably 1,280,000 acres; of which the greater part is covered with timber. The small valleys we have mentioned, and slopes of many of the timbered ridges, furnish a fair proportion of arable land.
The Nehalem River, which forms the boundary between Tillamook and Clatsop counties, although possessing no harbor at its entrance, has one of the most important valleys on the coast. This river rises in the Coast Mountains, far to the cast, and flows through them, by long meanderings, to the sea, having its mouth only a few miles north of Tillamook Bay. For twenty miles back from the ocean the country along the Nehalem is broken; but at this distance the valley opens out, from half a mile to a mile and a half in width, and continues of this breadth for forty or fifty miles. The soil is a sandy loam, very warm and fertile. On each side of this valley, or bottom-land, the country rises with a gentle slope, far back, and is covered with a fine growth of the best timber; the forest being little obstructed by undergrowth. The soil of the timbered land is also a rich black loam, of great depth, which will make fine farms, when cleared of the timber. The Nehalem country is attracting much attention; and although still unsurveyed, is rapidly being taken up by settlers.
Clatsop County we have already described m an early chapter. To sum up the coast country of Oregon: it is a narrow strip of country along the sea, often intersected by small rivers, some of them with bays of a large size, suitable for harbors; and all of them with some excellent bottom-lands back between the ridges. The bottom-lands are generally covered with a growth of alder, cherry, vine-maple, and kindred small trees; while the slopes of the mountains, and even the highest ridges, are heavily timbered. The soil is excellent, though generally too cold, when taken together with the moisture of the climate, for producing and ripening the cereals, and tender fruits; but very productive in all kinds of grasses, roots, hardy vegetables, and fruits—such as apples, pears, plums, and cherries.
It is an excellent country for lumbering, wherever there is communication with a market. The streams abound with speckled trout; the bays and inlets with salmon, and different kinds of fish; as well as oysters and clams. Game of every variety is plentiful in the mountains and valleys. Coal, iron, copper, and gold, one or all, are found in every county. Owing to extensive fires, which swept over the Coast Range in 1847, from Tillamook to Umpqua, a large portion of the timbered hills are comparatively easy to clear. Of the numerous rivers of clear, cold water, several are navigable for small boats, such as run on Yaquina, Tillamook and Coos bays. In short, the coast counties are capable of supporting a large population of mining, lumbering, stock-raising, dairying, fishing, and farming peoples.
The climate of the coast is extremely healthful, from the evenness of its temperature, freedom from miasma, and invigorating sea-air. The height of the Coast Range varies from two thousand to five thousand feet; and the wall thus interposed intercepts most of the fogs of summer, causing them to be precipitated upon these hills and valleys of the west side—the result being coolness and moisture: yet, when winter comes, sometimes with rigor, to the interior, the same causes operate to keep the coast of a milder degree of cold. To be convinced of the prodigal wealth of the soil and mildness of the climate, we have only to visit any of the small valleys about the mouth of the Columbia River, and find ourselves lost as in a forest, in thickets of ferns and wild berries; while the trees that tower above us two hundred feet have trunks eight feet in thickness. Of the scenery of a country which combines sea, mountains, forests, valleys, and rapid rivers, we need not speak. The imagination has ample scope here; but its variety could never surpass the infinite variety of the scenes furnished by Nature's never-ending new combinations.