The bay and harbor in Coos Bay
Coos Bay is the harbor that gave the area its economy. Wikipedia describes the Port of Coos Bay as the largest deep-draft coastal harbor between San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound and Oregon's second busiest maritime commerce center after Portland. The Oregon Blue Book makes a similar claim, calling it the best natural harbor between Puget Sound and San Francisco. Those are descriptions from reference sources, not measurements we made.
A short harbor timeline
These dates come from the Port of Coos Bay's own history page.
- 1836: the first vessel to enter Coos Bay, a British sloop-of-war, arrives.
- 1853: the first settlement is established at Empire.
- 1878: the first federal harbor project is authorized.
- 1891: work begins on the North Jetty, completed about ten years later.
- 1909: voters approve forming the Port of Coos Bay. Sources differ on the founding year. The port's page says the port was reorganized under a revised charter in 1912, and some other sources give 1912 as the founding.
- 1916: rail service connects Coos Bay to the rest of Oregon.
In more recent years the port bought the Coos Bay rail line and has owned and operated it since 2018, according to its history page.
The two cities
- Coos Bay began as the settlement of Marshfield, founded in 1853 and incorporated in 1874. It was renamed Coos Bay in 1944. The Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw and Coquille peoples lived in the area for thousands of years before European settlement.
- North Bend was incorporated in 1903. Sawmills and shipyards drove its early development, and rail links arrived in 1916.
- The Conde McCullough Memorial Bridge, completed in 1936, carries U.S. Route 101 across the bay at North Bend.
Where to look
The Port of Coos Bay publishes its operations and history. Oregon's Adventure Coast is the visitor site for Coos Bay, North Bend and Charleston. Coastline Libraries lists the Coos Bay Public Library and the North Bend Public Library.