Lincoln County, Oregon
Published by Commercial Clubs Newport, Toledo, Elk City and Waldport
C. 1904(?)
LINCOLN COUNTY
OREGON
With its immense forests, its agricultural, grazing and tide
lands, with its splendid dairying and fruit possibilities, Lincoln County offers
remarkable opportunities for industries, homes and profitable investments.
A PIONEER COUNTY
This county offers special advantages to the man who has
money to invest in large enterprises, to the man who has skill and experience in
business, or the man who wants land for farm, fruit and dairy, and is content to
live for a few years "en the edge of cultivation." This is a county for the
pioneer, because it is a Coast County, and a new county. It has great wealth of
resources, but is largely undeveloped. It was not organized until 1893, and was
for many years without railroad connection. The earliest and most continuous
settlements were in the Willamette Valley, and between that great farming area
and the sea lay the Coast Mountains. It was not until the railroad crossed them
and made Lincoln County accessible that it began to develop its riches.
It has the look of a new country still about it, enjoys its freedom and its
opportunities. Here is work for hand and brain. Here are forests to be converted
into lumber, brushy hillsides to be made into farms, tide lands to be dyked and
dairies started, harbors dredged and ships loaded, quarries of building stone
worked, and mines of coal opened; the story, in short, of new beginnings told
again in new successes. Already there is the rising of a new tide drawing inward
to this land, and the time has come to exploit its resources. Until recently it
did not strongly invite settlement. It does now. We think this fact of special
interest. It is to us. It ought to be to you. It ought to be of interest to
every man with small capital who is looking where to best invest it; to every
man with courage and energy who is seeking a place to get a foothold in the
battle of life.
Now to mark this point: the opportunities of the pioneer are
here, without the privations of pioneer life. Much has been already done. The
home-maker of today will find a beginning easy. Towns are here; railroads and
wagon roads are in use, stage lines penetrate to the settlements, schools and
churches are organized and stores, shops, mills, banks and newspapers make this
region home-like and provide conveniences, while the great and small bodies of
tillable and grazing lands are largely unoccupied and low in price. That is to
say, the beginnings are here, and the opportunities of the newcomer are all the
more enticing because the natural wealth of the country is associated with homes
and appliances of civilization without having a premium set upon it. You do not
have to pay for somebody's discovery of opportunities. You may wish a house
already built on a good corner lot, or a farm already improved or a dairy
started. That is a matter of choice, but you can start at the bottom if you
wish, putting your strength, your will, your energy into the work, and reaping
the reward.
THE BOTTOM INDUSTRY
This is always and everywhere farming. The farmer may be a
dairyman, a stockman, a fruit-grower, he may cultivate a truck garden or a berry
patch, or raise fowls, but he lives by the soil, is an outdoor man, a producer
of supplies, and is indispensable. The very state rests back upon the farm, and
we cannot get along without farmers. He feeds us all. And the farmer with a
little ready money can easily make a productive farm here. Many years ago, as
far back as the settlement of Oregon, or beyond, a wide area was burned over,
and this area is now brushland, easily cleared up, by slashing. When dry, a
match leaves the ground clean, save of small stumps, and seed sown in the ashes
and loose surface soil soon makes good pasturage. The soil is moist and the
hills are fertile to the top. Grass will grow readily; the one thing you can
count on here is grass; it takes possession as soon as you let the sun to the
soil, and makes rich feed to the very summit of the hills. The country is like
England in this respect. The moist warm southwest winds from the sea keeps the
face of the land green, and as fast as the vines and shrubs and fallen timber
are cleared away the ground grows green with native grasses. Every slope when
cleared will make grain lands, pasture lands, dairy and fruit farms; will grow
potatoes, berries, root crops—everything. A spring will be found in every
canyon, and the seasons being mild, streams and rivulets are never frozen, and
work and growth goes on all the year. In a land where grass is green every day
in the year it ought not be hard to get started, and if often there are more
young trees than vines on the hills, the fuel they produce will pay for
clearing.
This can hardly be called a mountainous country. It has the
Coast Range for the eastern boundary, and the range of elevation is from sea
level to 1500 feet. The level lands are along the streams, and these get down
quickly from the higher regions into the flat country, so that the tide sets
back from 10 to 20 miles into the interior.
There are many water courses, and several streams are rivers
in size, as the Siletz, the Yaquina, the Alsea and Salmon. The watershed is
extensive, and the streams are well fed from the natural hill drainage and from
abundance of living springs.
The best farm lands, of course, are along the streams, but it
is desirable to join hill and valley often, and find place for an orchard on the
slopes, and have also some rough land for range or as a timber reserve.
We shall follow the streams presently and see what they
offer; but now it is sufficient to point out that 160 acres may give the farmer
only from 20 to 40 acres of bottom, the balance being simply brushy, or covered
with good timber. The body of the farm will be hill land, and available, whether
the farmer grows barley, oats or grass, or plants an orchard and keeps a few
cows. And he can be sure of two or three things—that crops will grow on any hill
that can be cultivated, and will yield surprisingly; that these hill lands will
not wash under cultivation, and that they will never suffer from drought.
The bottom lands are meadow lands of the best class, and will
grow celery or asparagus, or vegetables of any kind, and will yield fine
returns, with a market close at hand.
THE TIDE LANDS
It is estimated that there are about 30,000 acres of the best
valley agricultural lands, and these lie along the chief rivers of the county.
Let us try to understand "the lay of the land."
The county has an ocean frontage of 50 miles, the eastern boundary being the top
of the Coast Mountains from 30 to 40 miles distant. The streams come down from
the hills and find their way to the ocean. In each case they receive the ocean
tide which sets back up the crooked rivers for many miles.
YAQUINA RIVER
This is the most nearly central in the county, and terminates
in a fine broad bay or harbor. The Corvallis & Eastern Railroad comes down
beside the stream, terminating at Yaquina on the bay. Toledo, the county seat,
is nine miles above, and about it are many acres of flat land, some of which
have been dyked. One acre of this rich, moist land, it is said, will support two
cows. The river here is very crooked, and there are some lagoons, the broad area
of grass margining the water as far as Yaquina. Dyked, these lands can be
cultivated; if left for the tide to creep through the grass, they are available
for pasture, and many cows may feed there.
Increase of population will call for the highest use of every
acre of this land. The bay is about one mile wide near its bar, and maintains
much of its width for 15 miles. Several arms reach out into the hills, forming
an island in one or two instances, and embracing many acres, and the loops and
curves everywhere show fine meadows, with the rounded hills for background.
SILETZ RIVER
This also is a river with a bay at its mouth, into which
small coasting vessels come. The bay is near the northern corner of the county,
but the stream swings down in a great loop to within 9 or 10 miles of the
Yaquina at Toledo. It is but 18 miles in a direct line to one of its sources,
yet by the stream it is 150 miles. It is this character of the Siletz which
gives it the chief agricultural land of the county, lying as it does in these
great bends and loops of the river. It was formerly embraced within the Siletz
Indian Reservation, but was thrown open to settlement by the Allotment Act of
1891. Naturally, the more open and valuable sections were chosen by the Indians,
when making their selections, but by a recent ruling these Indians are permitted
to sell these lands, and they are doing so from time to time. This has furnished
opportunity for enterprising dairymen, who have bought lands worth easily
$100.00 for from $10.00 to $15.00 an acre.
No other section of the state is making more progress than
the lower Siletz, and the development of a great dairy industry has begun there.
Barley, rye and oats are grown, the latter yielding 75
bushels to the acre. Barley produces 25 sacks. This region has much fine apple
land, and berries and almost all vegetables do exceedingly well. It is, however,
chiefly a dairy country; yet butter and eggs are shipped in, and a complete
rounded, developed industrial life is far from being realized. But the movement
has begun. The Salmon River is a small stream near the borders of Tillamook
County, beyond the Siletz, with about 3000 acres of grazing land.
ALSEA RIVER
The mouth of this river is also a bay, and is 14 miles south
of Newport, near the southern corner of the county.
The principal agricultural industries along this river are
dairying, stock-raising and fruit-growing, for which it is finely adapted.
There is plenty of good rich soil. There is a network of
telephone lines in this southern end of the county, and this suggests two
things—the class of people occupying the land, and their prosperity.
The Yachats River is 10 miles south, and a fine dairy country
is located well up the river. These regions will become dairy and fruit-growing
centers.
In addition to the tide lands, there are many creeks, as Big
Elk, Beaver, Lobster River, two Drift Creeks, and Schooner and Euchre Creeks,
besides smaller streams. All these have more or less room on the banks for
homes, and the hill lands are everywhere available for cultivation when cleared
of brush and rubbish. Some of these regions are isolated at present, but
accessible, and the streams are alive with trout, the hills full of wild
berries, and quail, grouse, deer and bear abound. They are regions for the
adventurous. There are about 200,000 acres of grazing land in the county.
TIMBER WEALTH
The chief resource of the county is timber. Perhaps the
largest solid body of merchantable lumber anywhere is here, embracing 230
sections, or 920 quarter sections of 160 acres each. It is estimated that
between 8 and 10 billion feet of lumber is growing within from 10 to 15 miles of
Newport, near the mouth of Yaquina Bay.
There is much valuable timber tributary to the Siletz and
Salmon Rivers, in the north, and much near the Alsea in the south. A tract has
just been sold in the latter region for $300,000, and the whole available saw
lumber in that locality is believed to total three billion feet. These are
regions which escaped the early fires, and the forests are not only dense on
many quarter sections, but individual trees are 10 feet in diameter and clear of
branches for 130 to 200 feet, and straight as an arrow.
Make "the mast of some great Admiral"? A single tree would
sink the biggest sailing vessel of the poets' time. From 6 to 15 million feet of
timber are on many 160-acre tracts.
In the county are 80 sections of piling and second-growth
fir, and these sections carry also one hundred million feet of cherry and alder,
suitable for manufacturing purposes.
It is believed that within 20 miles of Newport and six miles
of Toledo is standing sufficient timber to load a vessel of one million five
hundred thousand feet capacity daily for the next 40 years. This lumber is of
the finest quality, and has, until recently, been in the hands of the
Government. About three-fourths of this land will be patented this year. Not
less than six large companies have been organized for the purpose of buying this
land and manufacturing the timber into lumber. One company has already built
several miles of railroad, and is hauling logs to tidewater, where they are
floated to the mills at Toledo and manufactured into lumber.
WHAT IS DOING?
A Coast line of the Hill Railroad system has been surveyed
through the timber district on the north, with terminus at Yaquina Bay, and
survey stakes are set. It is thought that the Southern Pacific will extend its
line to Newport and northwest for a distance of 15 miles, to a point on the
Siletz River, where the logs may be concentrated and made accessible. Those on
the lower river would be floated up on the tide, and those on the upper waters
floated down on the current, so controlling the logs for miles along this river.
A company now has a railroad located from Toledo to Siletz,
with 2 per cent grade, have deeds for right of way and will build soon.
Such a line would open up the great dairy and farming region
of the country on the Siletz, and secure large traffic that now must go out by
team to Toledo. Other roads are also said to be seeking a terminus on Yaquina
Bay. Among them is the Willamette Valley Company, an electric road, and the
proposed extension of the Falls City road from Salem. With the assured
facilities for shipping by rail, the sawmills located on Yaquina Bay are
satisfied they will succeed in getting plenty of cars with which to market their
produce in connection with the exceptional accommodations they already have for
shipping by water.
With these great advantages for shipping, the lumber
in¬dustry on Yaquina Bay is destined to experience a big development.
THE YAQUINA BAY
The development of this harbor is one of the inevitable
things. The completion of the work begun years ago by the Government has been
deferred until the commerce of the region would justify it; and that commerce is
now in sight. Much timber on the Indian Reservation has not been available until
now, and that timber, as well as the great acreage close to the harbor, will
seek a market.
The work done by the Government Engineers has been a success;
it is permanent in its character, and the deepened channel has not filled up.
The Government has announced its purpose to complete the improvements begun as
soon as commerce with the port would justify it. At high tide there is now 22
feet of water on the bar, and the channel is wide and deep.
About a mile out in the ocean, facing the harbor, is a reef
of rocks, that protects the entrance from all heavy seas.
The great feature of Yaquina harbor is the safety with which
vessels enter and depart. It is only 600 feet from extreme deep water inside the
harbor to deep water outside of the bar, and vessels frequently are well started
on their voyage within 15 minutes after leaving Newport. Without any further
improvement, Yaquina is a safe harbor for vessels having a capacity of 1,500,000
feet of lumber and drawing 18 feet.
The increased shipping that will result will demand the
improvement of the harbor, and it is generally believed that the Government will
make the necessary appropriation to give the channel the depth of between 32 and
35 feet.
HARVEST OF THE SEA
There are three Salmon Canneries, one on the Yaquina Bay, one
on Alsea River, and one on Siletz River. The Elmore cannery, at Alsea, has a
capacity of 15,000 to 20,000 cases, and gives employment for part of the year to
many fishermen. When the fish season is over, they go dairying, stock-raising
and fruit-growing.
On Siletz Bay the cannery handles about 15,000 cases, and the
one at Yaquina canned about 10,000 cases, most of the Salmon caught in the bay
being shipped to various points in the Willamette Valley when freshly taken.
The crab fishing in Yaquina and Alsea Bays is a large and
profitable business, as is also the oyster industry at Yaquina. The native and
Eastern oysters are sold in large quantities. Many acres have been planted to
Eastern oysters, and some plantings have been made of Japanese oysters. Clams
are also here of great size and in great numbers; deep-sea fish are readily
taken, and extensive cod banks are off shore from mouth of Yaquina. Perch,
flounder, cod, salmon and halibut abound. The deep-sea trout swarms in the bay.
FRUIT GROWING
The stress we are to lay upon this may surprise those who do
not know the coast at close range. This is a good apple land. Other fruits are
grown; some varieties of pears and cherries do well. Prunes do well in some
localities, but apples are superior. Probably because the country is on the
ocean side of the Coast Range, the apple has no Codlin Moth, and worms or insect
pests of these sections do not trouble the grower. The trees are vigorous, with
smooth, clean trunks and limbs, and the fruit is large and colored, sound, and a
good keeper.
Trees grow more rapidly and attain a sturdier growth than in
hotter and drier climates, and produce fruit sooner. The fruit matures slower
and more firmly than that grown in localities not subject to the influences of
the ocean breeze; for this reason, fruit produced here is more valuable for
exporting purposes. For flavor, color and size, it has no superior, and is
equaled by that of few other sections.
Not much has been done as yet in a commercial way, but
planting is well begun. From a three-acre orchard 1,134 boxes were shipped, and
200 sold in local markets. This represents about 400 boxes to the acre, and
means about $300 net per acre. In 1902 but few apples were shipped, but last
year shipments reached 14 carloads.
The newcomer has these advantages in Lincoln County: he can
produce fruit one-third cheaper than where he must irrigate and spray his trees;
he has both water and rail transportation, and land will cost him about one-half
the price he must pay in better known fruit sections.
Some of the best fruit at present is raised in the eastern
part of the county, in the vicinity of Nashville, Nortons, Eddyville, Chitwood
and Toledo. These points are all located on the railroad, and offer exceptional
opportunities to persons either of large or small means for investment.
Berries of all kinds are easily grown and profitable. There
is said to be wild blackberries enough in some localities to start a cannery;
and this will be built when the cultivated crop will warrant its success.
The bench land is best for apples, and any hillside that can
be cultivated is available for berries and other fruit.
THE CLIMATE
What a country is best fitted to produce is largely
determined by the weather. The soil has something to say about crops, but in
general the climatic conditions determine the character of the products. This is
a coast country, and its latitude is about that of Boston. But we make garden
here in February and March; the grass is green all the year, and the lowest
temperature (for a few days only) is about 26 degrees, or six degrees below
freezing.
If you are incredulous about this, trace the parallels of
latitude across the Atlantic, and you will find Lincoln County touching Italy
and the south of France, countries of the olive and the orange. The same
physical causes here produce a mild climate as there, viz: The ocean currents
and the southern winds. You have heard of the "chinook," that soft southwest
wind, which melts the snows of Eastern Washington and Idaho and brings Spring
mildness into the heart of Winter. This soft south wind makes the climate of all
the coast of Oregon to differ from that of the Atlantic Coast in the same
latitude.
Locally, the rains are not heavy, are never violent; there
are no storms. People from the interior come here for comfort in Summer, and
come here in Winter for the same reason, because on the ocean shore the air is
tempered by the great body of water. There are here no Winter fogs, and much
Winter sunshine makes for comfort as well as for the growth of grass and plants.
There are few places where the climate is so nearly even the year round as in
Lincoln County.
PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRIES
The country on the north of Lincoln is famous as a dairy
country, yet has no railroads and but uncertain water transportation. It has
less dairy land than this county, yet the industry is well developed. Here it is
not, in spite of very great advantages. It must soon become one of the leading
industries.
The same is true of stock-raising. Where green feed is
supplied all the year, where vetch makes great crops and corn produces the best
of green feed; where root crops can be left in the ground and do not need to be
stored; where the hills are full of wild growths, upon which stock feed; where
stock needs but little shelter, and the calf at one year can be turned into the
hills and left to take care of itself, sure to come back in good condition—it is
plain that such a country is a natural stock country. Grasses, timothy, clover,
Alsike or Swedish clover, mesquite, vetch, peas, rape, kale and Winter oats, all
grow here as if it were a joy to grow, or a duty owed to the stockman.
The cattle come in from the hills fit for the market in
February, never having been in the barn. They have fed on native grasses and
upon a pea vine which grows here abundantly. Stockmen and dairymen prize the
wild pea very highly. It is nutritious and produces an early bite for stock, and
is readily eaten when cured on the ground. It is easily produced in open places,
and yields enormous crops.
Sheep do well on the hills with little care, and Angora goats
with less. The latter feed on the brush, and are valuable aids in clearing up
lands. At one point in the country— Eddyville—there are about 5,000 goats, well
bred and profitable. The sheep grown are chiefly the long-wooled Cotswolds.
The stockman will emphasize the fact that this is a grass
land, and will note that grass is but another name for beef, mutton, bread and
clothing.
OTHER RESOURCES
This country contains extensive coal deposits of the best
quality, lying north of Yaquina and west of Toledo; and there are quarries of
superior sandstone, granite and other building rock. A quarry above Elk City is
accessible by rail and water, and is a valuable asset. The quality of this
product is first-class; in fact, the Call building in San Francisco, which was
constructed of this material, stood the earthquake and fire better than any
other similar building in the city.
There is good fireclay west of Nortons, a siding on the
railroad. It is abundant, and the quality superior.
But Lincoln County's great asset is timber, and will be for
many years to come. Next to this in value—perhaps surpassing it in the long
run—is Yaquina Bay and harbor, and destined to make this port rank among the
foremost of the Northwest coast.
COUNTY TOWNS
Toledo is the county seat. It is a city built on a hill, and
has 800 energetic people, who make themselves heard as well as seen in the
business world. It is the manufacturing center of the county, the natural
trading point for the Siletz Reservation, and thousands of acres of tidelands
surrounding the city are being dyked and put into cultivation. It is on the
Corvallis & Eastern Railroad, a part of the Southern Pacific system, and is 9
miles from the terminus at Yaquina, with regular train service with the interior
and with the bay at Newport. Launches ply on the tidal reservoir and down the
bay.
Toledo has a good school building, four organized churches,
two weekly newspapers, two hotels, a good bank, creamery, tannery, two sawmills,
boat works. It is set in the heart of a good farming, dairying and fruit-growing
district, is well supplied with stores and is growing. It has a good trade.
Newport is not only the resort town of the county, but of the
Willamette Valley. It has natural attractions enough to make it the great
watering place of the Oregon Coast. The bathing is absolutely safe, there being
no undertows. The town itself is picturesque, situated as it is on Light-House
Hill, a peninsula thrust out between the ocean and the bay, clothed with trees
and seamed here and there with little canyons or dells, furnishing charming
building places. Many Summer homes are here, not built in rows, not cheap,
temporary structures, but artistic and finely located. These are owned by
residents of the interior, who come regularly for the Summer outing. This is an
educational center, the home of the Summer Educational Association. There are
many good hotels and boarding houses, bank, shops and stores are numerous, and
the resident population numbers about 800.
A life-saving station occupies the old light-house, which has
been superseded by a new one a few miles above at Cape Foulweather. The ocean
near this cape is a feeding ground for whales, and they often come close enough
to shore to be observed and their habits studied.
The luscious rock oyster, a curious bivalve, that bores into
the rock and enlarges its home as it grows, is found on the beach at Newport. It
is not found elsewhere only on the coast of Spain in sufficient quantities for
food. Many agates of great value are found on the beach, with fine crystals,
cornelians, jaspers and other valuable stones.
Aside from its reputation as one of the most attractive
Summer resorts in the world, Newport has numerous industries, and will make one
of the most substantial towns on the Pacific Coast. It is visited annually by
15,000 tourists, who spend, it is estimated, $750,000 each year.
Elk City is a beautiful little railroad town, located on the
Corvallis & Eastern Railroad, at the junction of the Yaquina and Big Elk Rivers.
It is a popular mountain resort, and is known for the abundance of large game in
the mountains and the many varieties of trout in the streams. It is also a
favored location for fruit, and many new orchards are being planted.
Elk City has a hotel, post office, store, sawmill, etc., and
many come here from Newport in launches to spend the day. The distance is 25
miles.
Yaquina City is the present terminus of the Corvallis &
Eastern Railroad, and is an ideal location. It will eventually be a part of the
large city that will border the north side of the bay to the ocean beach. This
will come as the county fills up and the resources of the region become known.
Waldport, the largest town in the southern part of Lincoln
County, lies 15 miles south of Newport. It is situated on the southern shore of
the beautiful Alsea Bay, and occupies level ground very favorably located for a
townsite. The present population is about 200, which, added to that of the
surrounding country, is enough to support the business houses and industries now
located there. These consist of a sawmill, planing mill, shingle mill, two
general merchandise stores, butcher shops and confectionery store. There are
good openings for a bank, Summer hotel, lawyers, dentists, doctors, barbers and
blacksmiths.
Lutgens is located across the bay from and just north of
Waldport. The principal industry located here is the salmon cannery operated by
Elmore & Co., of Astoria.
A short distance east of Lutgens and on the shore of the bay
is located Bay View Postoffice, which is quite a central point for that part of
the county.
Tidewater is located 10 miles above Waldport on the Alsea
River, and is reached by daily boat from Waldport and Lutgens. As the name
implies, Tidewater is located at the head of tide on the Alsea River.
Eddyville is in a dairy and stock region. Apples do
especially well here, and farmers are doing much to clear up land and set to
grass.
Chitwood, Nashville and Nortons are small towns on the
railroad as we approach the summit. The latter has connection with Siletz by
wagon road, and supplies are hauled from here during part of the year.
Siletz, on the river of that name, has three general stores,
and is a trading point of considerable importance. There are about 200 people
around the agency. Supplies are chiefly drawn from Toledo, nine miles, and
products hauled to railroad at that point.
LAND VALUES
These are too varied to fairly indicate. A dairy ranch may be
valued at $50.00 per acre that elsewhere would readily command $100.00 per acre.
Some good bottom lands can be bought for $30.00, and hill lands for $5.00 up.
The Indians on the Siletz are selling out as fast as they can. Valuable agency
lands in the bottoms can be bought for $15.00, and the cost of clearing will be
about as much, if hired. In the movement upward now beginning in the country,
there is much advantage in being on the ground. Population is increasing, and
the strides in growth hereafter will be rapid. A peaceful, law-abiding people
are here, schools organized in all parts of the county; transportation is
provided, and in all things a good beginning has been made. There are golden
opportunities here for the young and the strong, and the citizens who are
established here invite within their borders those in search of a home,
believing that the development of the resources of the county will increase the
value of every man's investment. We toil to own a bit of land, and measure
success by-our ability to buy a few acres. It is property that never burns up.
Lincoln County is in the last West, and it is the best West.
It has much undeveloped territory, and there is no better county in Oregon for a
variety of industries, and where the man with little capital can easier make a
home and produce a good income. There are opportunities for men who can do
things, for investors, farmers, fruit-growers, dairymen, stockmen, lumbermen,
for single men and for men with families. There is no better investment than
virgin land, and the man who has but ten acres can here make a good living and
be independent of landlords, panics or broken banks.
The county wants families and men who will have an interest
in developing its resources, and for such there is room and the promise of gain.
©Shauna Williams