A
Little About Our Town of Myrtle Point!
Said
to be one of the
best-preserved small towns in Southern
Oregon, Myrtle Point is at the southern end of the Coquille River
Valley,
about 25 miles inland from the Oregon Coast. The historic downtown
district
is ringed by many vintage homes, some well kept and others in the
process
of restoration.
The town sits along Highway 42, a major east-west
route
between US 101 and Interstate 5. Highway 42 S, which branches off
Highway
42 in Coquille, provides an easy route to the Pacific Ocean at Bandon.
There are full services, including a motel, RV parks, supermarkets and
other businesses. Myrtle Point, Oregon is the location of
Coos
County Fair which has been held yearly since 1912
with only one closeure in 1942 during the warII. The
Harvest
Festival is really a very new attraction. The town is home to the Coos
County Logging Museum, open in summertime. The museum is located in a
domed,
pioneer-era building with unusual acoustics.
The town’s main event is the Harvest
Festival, usually
the last weekend in September. There are several other quaint festivals
in spring and summer.
Myrtle Point’s boom years came in the
late 1890s, when
speculation ran high about a railroad connection to Roseburg. The
railroad
eventually chose another route, but the region’s rich
timberlands and farmlands
sustained the community.
The town is adjacent to the Coquille River, which
rises
from the nearby Coast Range and finds its way to the sea at Bandon.
Once
an important waterway for frontier-era commerce and transportation, the
river is a popular fishery for salmon and steelhead.
The Coquille River Valley remains a productive
cattle
and dairy region, and there are sawmills and other small industry.
Pride
in a hard-working pioneer heritage runs high, and the town strives to
maintain
its downtown district and small-town character.