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SAVE OUR WALL
MUSEUM LAUNCHES WALL RECONSTRUCTION CAMPAIGN PRESERVING OUR PAST The Siuslaw Pioneer Museum is launching a campaign to save its west wall. Time has taken its toll on our beloved Museum and we are now facing a critical challenge: the west wall has...
TAHKENITCH TRAIN DERAILMENT
What they hoped to find lay at the bottom of Tahkenitch Lake for 37 years. Local folks may recall that June day in 1987, when a Southern Pacific (“SP”) Railroad train derailed on its daily route between Coos Bay and Eugene. As the 102-car train...
A MAIL CARRIER’S RESILIENCE
Perhaps resilience can best describe how pioneers met with their everyday challenges and experiences. Such was the case for mail carriers in the Siuslaw Valley during the early1900’s. They were fearless individuals who traversed rough trails often...
JAMES OSCAR RICH, A Railroad Tragedy
The attempt to reveal stories that touch our lives and connect us to history begins and ends with research. Along the way, it’s the discovery through research that we gain a sense of those bygone days and what life was like for the people who lived...
FLOOR LOOM
FLOOR LOOM DEMONSTRATIONS On the second floor in Jean’s Sewing Room, I was recently introduced to a 1951 wooden floor loom. To the unfamiliar, (such as myself), it commands attention as the largest display in the room. Each of the 528 parallel warp...
NORTH FORK CHEESE FACTORY
CHEESE, PLEASE Sometimes it can be the one thing or experience that makes all the difference. Such can be said in the case of Jesse Lee Houghton, who found his calling in cheese. In 1890, at 20 years old with an eighth-grade education, he found...
DAVID L. MUNSELL
Popular Munsel Lake and Munsel Creek are named after an early settler to the Siuslaw area. David Munsell (often spelled Munsel) was born in 1824 in Ohio and is said to have crossed the plains in 1847. Records show he spent time on a donation claim...
A 1952 RHODY PRINCESS AND HER PRINCE
JOYCE AND WILLIE WORNSTAFFWith the upcoming 117th year of the Rhododendron celebration, it was an ideal time to visit and chat with a 1952 Rhody Princess. At first, the thought for this story was to capture the experience of becoming a Rhody...
GEORGE DUNCAN
George Duncan was 9 years old and living in Scotland when his father immigrated to Canada and never returned to his family. The year was 1836. To help support their family, George and his younger brother John raised and butchered sheep. Despite...
TWO-TOES
Dan Miles shares 1914 story of bear in Maple Creek on Siuslaw River near Florence, Oregon.