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1 The Rise and Fall of Yaquina City Rich Sandler Geo 422 Winter 2008 Source - Salem Historical Society2 Introduction In the late 1800’s, Yaquina City was going to become Oregon’s answer to San Francisco or New York – the great Seaport of the Northwest. From humble beginnings in the 1860’s, the rosy plans of optimistic businessmen led one to believe that Yaquina City, not Portland, would become the commerce center of Oregon. Yaquina City was positioned perfectly on Yaquina Bay, only seven short miles from the ocean. Timber, wheat and other goods would travel west by railroad, be met by ocean ships to move these goods to their final destination. Millions of dollars were invested into making this dream a reality. As promised, the train did arrive in Yaquina City in 1884 and the city did grow. Over 2000 residents called Yaquina City home in the 1890s. The town boasted more than seven saloons, fancy hotels, and some of the best shopping in all of Oregon. But by the early part of the 20th Century, the population dwindled. By 1947, just 26 families lived there. By the 1960s, Yaquina City no longer existed. Why did Yaquina City fail? What makes a city go boom and then bust? This paper will tell a story of promise, broken promises and a town that never came back. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from the story of one small town that’s no longer anywhere – Yaquina City. Source - Salem Historical Society Yaquina City Hotel – 1880’s3 Early History In January 1852, the schooner Juliet was forced inland by storms, and her captain and crew were stranded in what would become the Central Oregon coast for two months. (Kumar, 1997) The captain, Captain Collins, reported that the Yaquina River was abundant with oysters, clams and fish of all kinds. (Bancroft, 1888) In particular, the captain discovered that the bay was full of oysters, a delicacy favored by San Francisco society. In 1863, two oyster companies began operation on the bay. In 1864, the first merchandise store in the area opened to support people working in the oyster business and one of the early settlers in the area was the grandson of Daniel Boone, who had come to Oregon in 1852. (Moe, 1993) There was one small issue: the bay belonged to the Indians. A federal Indian agent decided to charge a fee of fifteen cents for each bushel of oysters harvested. One of the two oyster companies paid the fee. The other company sued in court and lost. A third businessman, whose warehouse on Elk Creek had been torn down by soldiers for failing to pay, took the fight all the way to Washington, D.C. He gained a favorable ruling that the Indian agent had no authority to interfere with his commercial aims. (Wells, 2006) Yaquina Bay was also promising as a harbor. In 1860, the Oregon legislature requested to the Oregon members of Congress to obtain right of way for a wagon road to “Aquina Bay.” Congress in 1866 granted lands for a military road from Corvallis to Yaquina and the same year the Oregon legislature passed these lands to the Corvallis and Yaquina Road Company. (Scott, 1924) President Andrew Johnson signed an executive order excising a twenty-mile-long strip of land containing Yaquina Bay from the center4 of the reservation and designating the remaining land as two smaller Indian reservations, the Alsea and the Siletz. (Wells, 2006) In 1875, at the request of Oregon senator John Mitchell, Congress authorized the opening of another large section of the Alsea Reservation to settlement and also closed the Alsea agency, claiming it was as a money-saving measure. The Siletz sub-agency was largely reduced at the same time. Over the next few years the Indians from western Oregon were concentrated on the remnants of the Coast Reservation and on the Grand Ronde Reservation. (Wells, 2006) Of course, the Indians got the raw end of the deal. Congress granted railroad rights-of-way through both reservations in 1888, 1890, and 1894. In the 1880s and 1890s, other laws pressured Indians to cede most of their collectively held reservation lands and accept individual land allotments. In 1892, when the Siletz lands were allotted, the Siletz Reservation contained 225,280 acres; two years later it contained only 46,000 acres. Today the Siletz Reservation is only 3,600 acres. (Wells, 2006) By1890, Yaquina City was a thriving town of some 500 inhabitants, and marketing materials indicate that it “is only waiting the completion of the railroad to its eastern connection, and the marketing of its lots, which are owned by the railroad company and have hitherto withheld from sale, to bloom into a Yaquina City - 1890Source - Salem Historical Society5 seaport city of importance.” (Corvallis, 1890) How did Yaquina City grow so fast? Railroad Town Much of the history of Yaquina City is predicated on the building of the railroad from the East Coast, through the Cascades and Corvallis, and into Yaquina City. However, the construction of this railroad line, eventually built in 1878-89 and stretching from Yaquina City into, but not over, the Cascades, has been called one of the ”monumental fiascos in railroad finance.” (Scott, 1924) The plan, according to the men who proposed it, was to make Yaquina City the great seaport of the north Pacific Coast and the trans-continental terminus of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific or the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. The route of the Yaquina railroad, in earliest time, was that of a trail used Native Americans and followed a gap in the Coastal Range. The wagon road mentioned earlier had been built along this path and it was logical that the train would take the same route from Corvallis to the coast. In 1871, Colonel Thomas Egenton Hogg arrived in Corvallis and started to plan his ill-fated railroad. (His brother William M. Hoag was also an officer in the railroad. The brothers spelled their last name differently.) (Haskin, 1980) By this time, a toll road existed from Corvallis to Yaquina City. In 1872, Hogg incorporated the Corvallis and Yaquina Bay Railroad Company, later changing the name to the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad. Hogg ran into some early issues with money and looked to outside investors to help him build his railroad. By this time, his plan included building a railroad from Yaquina Bay through the Cascades to Boise City, Idaho. (Scott, 1924) Wallis Nash, who would prove to be an important figure in Corvallis history, arrived6 from England


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OSU GEO 422 - LECTURE NOTES

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