NORTH BEND |
Early
transportation around the bay and inland
was difficult. A rail link to Oregon's interior valley was completed in
1916 and the opening of McCullough Bridge in 1936 stimulated
development
and tourist travel.
Asa Simpson, shipbuilder and sea captain, established a sawmill and shipyard in the mid-1850's on the north bend of Coos Bay. His shipyard built about 60 vessels between 1858 and 1903. In 1899 Louis Simpson, Asa's son, came to manage the family's North Bend holding. Ambitious and adventuresome, Louis personally purchased the platted townsite of Yarrow and renamed it the City of North Bend in 1903. Exciting boom town real estate speculation dominated the 1903-08 period as saloons, churches, businesses, and homes replaced scrub land. |