Coos Bay

The Infamous Black Bird Southern Oregon History, Revised

Coos Bay

BEFRIENDED THE WHITES
OLD CHIEF DOLOOSE, OF THE COOS BAY TRIBE.
Indians Kindly Treated United States Dragoons,
Who Were Wrecked Nearly 50 Years Ago.

    The early pioneers of Oregon have a vivid remembrance that as they pushed forward their plans of settlement they had more or less difficulty with almost every tribe of Indians from the southern boundary of the state to the British possessions. One tribe on the Coast, that became known as the Coos Bay Indians, were friendly to the early settlers, and they even gave protection to their new neighbors when other tribes adjacent to them were on the warpath. The Coquille tribe, whose possessions were only 20 miles away, were not so peaceable. They committed several depredations, one of which was the T'Vault massacre, which took place in 1851, a few miles above the mouth of the Coquille River. Five of the 10 men attacked were killed. T'Vault escaped, and made his way to Port Orford. L. L. Williams and Cyrus Hedden escaped after a fearful, hand-to-hand fight with the savages. The former was dangerously wounded. Making their way to Coos Bay, Williams and Hedden were kindly treated by Doloose, John and George, the three chiefs of that tribe. It is said that the Coos Bay Indians had erected a rock pyramid a few miles south of Cape Arago, and had decreed that no Indian would be permitted to molest white settlers north of that pile of rock. It often happened that white men were glad to reach this place when coming from the south, for they knew that the Coos Bay Indians would not only protect them from violence, but would supply them with food.
    About the time [of] the T'Vault massacre, or soon afterward, Dr. Dart, Spalding and Parrish arrived at Port Orford with two Indian interpreters. Their mission was to look after the tribes along the Coast. Parrish at once proceeded to the scene, being permitted to do so by Superintendent Dart. The chief, Saguami, received him cordially, and gave up the gun and some clothing that he had taken from T'Vault and offered to accompany Mr. Parrish back to Port Orford. On the way the treacherous rascal murdered the unsuspecting Parrish, quartered his body, and, by the aid of his squaw, carried the pieces to the Indian village. [Parrish was unharmed, living until 1895.]
    These depredations soon reached the ears of the government, and troops were sent by water to Port Orford. The schooner Capt. Lincoln, an old craft of about 300 tons, was sent from Benicia, Cal., with Troop C, First United States Dragoons, consisting of 35 men, commanded by First Lieutenant Henry W. Stanton. The schooner was wrecked about two miles north of Coos Bay bar, then known as "Cowes" or "Kowes" Bay. This was January 2, 1852. The vessel was commanded by Captain Naghel, who succeeded in saving his men and a large amount of cargo, which were sent ashore and a camp established. The Indians, led by Doloose and the two other chiefs, visited the wreck and helped the dragoons to carry freight to camp. They gave the men fish, and did everything possible to assist them in their forlorn condition. H. H. Baldwin, now living at Bandon, at the mouth of the Coquille River, was one of the troopers. Though the Indians seemed kind, the white men expected treachery, but the only bad trait shown by the natives was a disposition to steal small articles from the camp. The company got spars and sails ashore and, as Mr. Baldwin says, "In a few days quite a large and handsome sailcloth village raised its head and graced the sands of that wild beach, the terra incognita of the far West."
    After remaining three weeks in camp, and constantly associating with the Indians, the troopers were visited by Patrick and James Flanagan, James Maxey, Edward Breen and Peter Johnson, who were engaged in mining at Randolph. They had heard through the natives of the disaster and went for the purpose of giving relief, if needed, but the relief required could be given only by an order from some military officer for them to abandon property. Until Messrs. Flanagan and company visited them they did not know where they were, but they have always felt grateful that they fell into the hands of the docile and friendly Coos Bay Indians.
    In May, 1854, the Coos Bay Commercial Company was organized at Jacksonville, Or., by P. B. Marple, and a company of about 40 men went to Coos Bay. They first came into contact with the Coquille tribe of Indians, which, though but 20 miles away from Coos Bay, were a distinct tribe. Although they were comparatively friendly, the adventurers saw that it was necessary to watch them closely, as signs of hostility were apparent. As soon as Marple and his associates arrived at their destination they found a better class of natives. Doloose and the other two chiefs were friendly and ready to oblige them, and their friendship continued until, at the close of the Indian war of 1855-56, the Coos Bay tribe was taken to the Siletz Reservation. It is said by the old settlers, who knew the chiefs personally and their tribe, that there are but few of them now living. Some of the young men of the old natives occasionally visit Coos Bay and fish, but they are obliged to obtain permission from those in charge of the reservation. Doloose is still living on Coos Bay.
    Notwithstanding the friendship shown by the Coos Bay tribes, the people feared that they might be induced by the Coquille natives as well as the bloodthirsty Rogue River savages to massacre the whites; therefore, a company was raised and a fort built at Empire City, where the women and children were placed at night. This was about the time of the massacre at the mouth of Rogue River.
    Mrs. [Esther M.] Lockhart, the first white woman to settle on Coos Bay, who has filled the chair as president of the Coos County Pioneer and Historical Society, says in one of her interesting reminiscences: "For the first few weeks all went smoothly enough. The Indians were friendly, too friendly in fact, for their calls at the cabin with requests for food became too frequent. Gradually there came mutterings of discontent among them. They looked on us with jealous eyes, and declared we had stolen their illahee (land). Finally, one Sunday, about six weeks after our arrival, a party of 50 or 60 Indians, dressed in war paint and feathers, armed with bows and arrows, with an Umpqua Indian as an interpreter, came to our cabin, demanding that we give up everything and leave at once. We had no right there, they said. We were fighting [sic] the fish from the water, and already there were fewer ducks and geese because of our presence; soon there would be nothing left for the Indian; the paleface would own everything. Mr. Lockhart listened quietly to their threats and complaints and, buckling his revolver about his waist, mounted a stump and addressed them, telling them we had come to stay; that we wanted to help the Indian, and would improve the land so that the country would be better; that the Great Father at Washington had told the white men to come and live there. He finally succeeded in pacifying them, and they said we might stay, but no other people could come. A week afterward the Indians again visited the family, and their demands and insolences caused much anxiety. Mr. Lockhart, who was then living at North Bend, four miles from the fort at Empire, loaded his family and a portion of their supplies into a canoe and paddled down to the fort in the night. The Indians discovered them after they had got well out in the stream, and hallooed, 'Nika clatawa,' ['I go' in Chinook jargon--apparently an error for 'Wake clatawa,' 'Do not go.'] and fired a few arrows, which fell in the water nearby. This was about the only hostile movement that can be remembered to have taken place with this tribe. Mr. Lockhart had a small family of little girls, and one can easily imagine the heartfelt anxiety that the mother felt for the safety of her dear ones when the awful massacre at the mouth of the Rogue River was fresh in their minds."
    Of the natives along the Coast there were 12 tribes. From their habits and pursuits they were considered as one nation, and were denominated as the To-To-Tin, or Tututni, the latter appellation being applied to them by early visitors. Eight of the bands, or tribes, were located along the coast from the mouth of the Umpqua River to below the mouth of the Rogue River. They had intermarriages, a common language and a common interest. The Nasoma, with Chief John, was located at the mouth of the Coquille River. The Choc-re-le-a-ton band, with Washington as chief, was located at the forks of the Coquille. Each tribe had its villages, hunting and fishing grounds. The whites found these tribes with a kind of patriarchal form of government peculiar to themselves. They were supplied by nature with a liberal hand, and gathered an abundance of subsistence. Wild game was plentiful, and the rivers abounded with fish, and the coast with a great variety of shellfish. They seemed to be free from disease, but showed evident marks of smallpox, as that disease had been among them a decade or two before. Their houses were constructed by excavating a hole in the ground 12 or 16 feet square, and four or five feet deep. Upon the top of these holes boards were placed for the roof. In the gable end a round hole was made sufficiently large for the entrance of one person. The descent was made by passing down a pole upon which rude notches were cut, which served as steps. In the spring they gathered the stalks of wild celery and wild sunflower, and ate them with a relish. Tobacco was the only article cultivated. The Indians spoke of it as having always been cultivated by their fathers; hence it must have been indigenous to the country. They did not seem to have any religious worship. Their idea of a supreme being was extremely vague. They did not seem to know the value of gold and silver. They had shells that traders from the Hudson's Bay Company had traded them for furs, and it was their circulating medium. The shells were of a spiral shape, and their value was calculated by the length or size of the shell. "Hyakwa chick" was the name given to this money. They had no stock, not even the traditional pony. The females of the tribes packed the game from the mountains and dried the fish for winter use.
    An incident occurred at Empire City, the first town built on Coos Bay, the relation of which may not be out of place at the close of this brief article. Some time after Burton and Venable were murdered, on Dead Man's Slough, a tributary of the Coquille, an Indian came into Empire City with a roll of blankets strapped on his back, and one of the murdered men's names was plainly printed on the outside blanket, which was noticed by the white settlers. The Indian went below the town and entered Doloose's camp. A squad of white men was formed, who went down to the camp. After some difficulty, they found the object of their search, who had been covered up by some of the squaws with a lot of old rubbish. They arrested him, and found to their satisfaction that he had the blankets that belonged to the murdered men. Doloose was perfectly willing to give him up when he saw the evidence of his guilt. A jury was impaneled, a trial had, and the prisoner was condemned to the scaffold. The detail appointed to prepare the gallows cut a long pole and placed the large end on the crotch of a tree at a convenient height. The small end of the pole was lifted up in the air. A rope was adjusted around the neck of the Indian and attached to the pole. At a given signal the long end of the pole was rapidly pulled to the ground, and the Indian was hanged. This was the first execution in Coos County. However, two other Indians who were implicated in the same murder were hanged at Randolph, 20 miles south of Coos Bay. The Indians to a great number witnessed the hanging of the one at Empire City. They seemed to flock in from every quarter, and made doleful sounds as the stern reality of the law's power was carried out. They preserved the peculiar gallows for a long time, utilizing it for the purpose of hanging their dogs, at which times they had general gatherings, and seemed to enjoy the proceeding very much.

ORVIL DODGE.

Sunday Oregonian, March 18, 1900, page 19

THE AWAKENING OF COOS BAY
By MITCHELL MANNERING

    Coos Bay extends inland from the Pacific Ocean, on the Oregon Coast, about seven miles northeast, and then bends abruptly southeast about the same distance; its upper bay is protected by a promontory about four miles wide and five to six hundred feet high. Several tide-water inlets branch from the main channel, some of them navigable for several miles at high tide by vessels drawing from ten to fifteen feet of water. The United States government is now planning very extensive dredging operations in order to make this not only the safest, but the most commodious harbor on the long coastline between San Francisco and Puget Sound, a distance of almost a thousand miles.
    Rich in standing timber, possessing the only coal measure on the Pacific Coast south of Puget Sound, surrounded by a fine agricultural district, with thriving cities on its borders, Coos Bay, in Southern Oregon, is the latest point on the Pacific Coast to be made a great seaport, and is attracting thousands of home-seekers by its rapidly increasing growth, and assured prosperity.
    This rich tract has hitherto been neglected by the railroads, and only in recent years have capitalists realized its great natural resources and begun the era of real development. There are four cities: Empire, the oldest settlement near the harbor entrance; North Bend, with its big mills; Marshfield, the largest city, at the head of the bay, and Eastside, newly incorporated, standing opposite Marshfield on the east side of the bay. All are so situated that it is only a question of time when they will probably become one large city.
    Passenger boats and many larger lumber schooners are engaged in coastwise and foreign commerce, among them the Nann Smith, named for Mr. C. A. Smith's eldest daughter, having a carrying capacity of 2,350,000 feet of lumber; she has carried an immense quantity of timber in the past year, and when the harbor is deepened by local capital a vast increase is expected in the trade. C. A. Smith and L. J. Simpson, representing two great lumber plants, have already each subscribed $10,000 for harbor improvements. Some years ago a short jetty was built which more than met the estimate of the engineers; there is now twenty-one feet of water on the bar at low tide, but forty feet can be obtained, as engineers declare that there is no rock ledge on the bar, and that deepening the channel is an easy matter. Officers of the army engineering corps have made a survey, and from this have recommended to Congress a big appropriation for this purpose.
    The vast quantity of standing timber in the Coos Bay country can scarcely be realized, for there is probably not another place in the world where so much timber is found near a fine harbor affording manufacturing and shipping advantages. It is estimated that, within a radius of sixty or seventy miles from Coos Bay, and so located that the harbor is the natural outlet, there is something like a hundred billion feet of standing timber; that is, about one-third of the standing timber in Oregon, and one-tenth of that in the entire United States is here. The principal variety is fir, intermixed with spruce, red cedar and the Port Orford or Coos Bay white cedar, which is very valuable in ship building or wherever the lumber is to be subjected to the action of water; there are also maple, ash, alder and myrtle, the latter admitting of a beautiful polish and being extensively used for furniture and residence fittings.
    Now that the standing timber in the Middle West is rapidly becoming exhausted, lumbermen are transferring their interests to the Pacific Coast. A little over a year ago the C. A. Smith Lumber & Manufacturing Company bought a large tract on Isthmus Inlet, at the head of the bay adjoining Marshfield, and an old mill was purchased and remodeled to turn out lumber to build the new saw mill and its auxiliary structures. There is yet a year's work to be done in constructing additional plants, lumber yards and general improvements, but the Smith Company has now begun to cut lumber in earnest. Seven lumber camps are operated by the firm to supply logs to the mill, which can cut about 30,000 feet of lumber an hour, and when completed will be one of the largest saw mills in the United States; with the other mills, it will make Coos Bay one of the most important American lumber-shipping ports. The Minneapolis mill, owned by Mr. Smith, which is the largest in the world, must close in a few years for want of raw material, and Mr. Smith's vast lumber interests will then be centered on the Pacific Coast. His new Coos Bay plant is strictly modern in design, with all improvements, and is built for permanent business. No expense was spared in procuring the latest and best milling machinery, and it has its own fire protection system, electric lighting plants and water works, a fine machine shop, engine and boiler houses and many other buildings--in fact, it is a little city of itself, standing where a year ago there was only a vacant field.
    The Smith Company has provided residences for the men with families, a boarding house for the unmarried employees and a beautiful office building where the office force work and live. The latter is three stories high and contains fine sleeping rooms, a first-class restaurant and billiard hall, bowling alley and baths. In this building Mr. Smith and other members of the firm have private apartments which they and their guests occupy when at Marshfield.
    Lumber to supply local consumption is handled on little cars run on a tramway to the local lumber yard at Marshfield. Eastbound lumber is shipped by water to San Francisco, where, at Bay Point on the Sacramento River, the Smith Company own a large tract of land with water front. Here will be built a town and a planing mill to finish lumber for shipment east by rail, two roads having branches to Bay Point. Finished lumber must be moved by rail, which makes it necessary to ship the lumber in the rough to Bay Point.
    The Simpson Lumber Company of San Francisco operates at North Bend a large saw mill, sash and door factory, etc. L. J. Simpson, the local manager, is still a young man, and has been prominent in promoting the progress of Coos Bay. He founded the city of North Bend, gave financial aid and personal service and has reason to be proud of the beautiful and prosperous little city of 2500 people, with many factories, fine waterfront and elegant residences, which now stands where five years ago there was only a settlement of four houses.
    In Coos County there are 400 square miles of coal lands, lying near the surface and easily and cheaply mined; it is a lignite of good quality, and is the only coal found to any extent on the Pacific Coast south of Puget Sound. Here coal has been mined in a small way for years, but capital is now being secured and Coos Bay will doubtless be a great Pacific coaling station. The Southern Pacific Railway Company is enlarging its coal output, and investors are beginning to develop the coal fields. Petroleum is also found here, but has not yet been developed.
    Coos Bay is building ocean-going schooners and gasoline launches, and has fish canneries, a condensed milk plant, creameries, a furniture factory, cold storage plant, brewery and many other industries. In Marshfield four large concrete and brick business buildings, many smaller stores, and scores of residences and cottages have been or are being erected. All the bay cities are lighted by electricity and have a good water supply, the houses are fitted with modern conveniences, and the retail stores are first-class in every respect.
    Coos County is an ideal section for the farmer, with its mild winters and luxuriant grazing, choice livestock and improved dairying methods, and the dairymen are getting rich. The orchard and small fruit industry is also rapidly increasing in importance.
    As a summer resort, Coos Bay has many attractions--beautiful scenery, lakes, rivers abounding in trout, mountains which are the hunter's paradise, and boating and sea bathing are all within easy reach of the bay cities. The climate is healthful; in winter there is rain, but no snow and no severe cold. The summer heat is never excessive, the nights are cool, the days bright and pleasant and the sunshine brilliant. Add to these desirable climatic conditions, the educational and religious advantages and refined social life of the city, and one finds the Coos Bay cities delightful either to reside in or to visit.
    Railways are needed at Coos Bay; one small road connects Marshfield with the Coquille Valley towns; it is owned by the Southern Pacific, and this company has surveyed a line from Drain over the mountains to Coos Bay. It is understood that a coastline route will be extended to Eureka and San Francisco. Some grading on the line has already been done; bridges have been built and material for work to be done has been brought, so that there is reason to believe that a transcontinental road will make Coos Bay a terminus and so create another seaport outlet on the Pacific Coast.
    Unlike many new places, Coos Bay is not being "made" by the railroad; she is a little empire by herself, is building up rapidly and could, if she chose, be independent of the rest of the country, but that is not her desire; she is ready for cooperation, and offers to dairymen, farmers and fruit-growers a delightful climate, good health, beautiful home sites, good investments for capitalists or men of moderate means; she beckons the thrifty to come and reap the harvest with her when she becomes a big city, a terminus of a transcontinental railroad and a seaport of importance in the Pacific Ocean commerce, nobly fulfilling her destiny.
National Magazine, February 1909, pages 549-551

Last revised July 26, 2025