Nehalem Valley Historical Society

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Nehalem Valley Historical Society

NVHS is a local museum and archive for items of historical significance in the Lower Nehalem Valley. We offer programs to educate about our unique history
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11/08/2024

This will be a fascinating presentation about "lights on" in the Nehalem Valley. Tomorrow: Saturday, Nov. 9, 3:30 at NCRD.

11/06/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day! This is a piece of history that may be lost to eternity. From the bow of the Mimi, I don't know where this photo was taken or what has become of the artifact. We are often asked where the anchor of the Glenneslin has disappeared to. I don't know. So for all of you historical sleuths out there. Give me some clues. Feel free to show me some of the other rarely seen treasures that you may know about from Wayback in our Nehalem Valley.

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween from NVHS! Aarghhhh.

10/30/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day. Here's the obituary for Sam Reed. Most people only know of Reed for his ownership of the Neahkahnie Tavern and don't understand what a fine community leader that he was. This article is a quick encapsulation of his other accomplishments. There is more to be told. One aspect of Reed's impact was his determination to use Ellis Lawrence as the architect of the Neahkahnie Tavern. Lawrence's protégé was AE Doyle. Doyle fell in love with the entire area. Even though Doyle has the reputation as Portland's architect, Doyle designed homes in Neahkahnie, the Nehalem School (now NCRD), the current Nehalem Elementary and the White Clover Grange. Reed's influence is everywhere in our area.

10/25/2024

Save the Date: Saturday, Nov. 9, 3:30pm at NCRD: the fascinating story of electricity's arrival in the Nehalem Valley.

10/23/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day!

When the railroad came in, our valley really came to life. So many things became possible. Farmers could get their fresh milk, eggs & produce to market in the Willamette Valley. Fish processors could move their fish along. Mills popped up at the water's edge and sent lumber to Portland. And, locally, the guys working in the woods could get from town to the log shows and back again.

Watch for an upcoming NVHS program set for January 18 when Martin Hansen will tell us more about the arrival of the railroad in the Nehalem Valley.

10/17/2024

I’m on the road but remembered that it’s Wayback When’s Day before you all got up on Thursday. Gotta love a red eye flight.

This headstone is located in one of many family burial plots on family homestead property. One of the first settlers in the Nehalem Valley, SK Scovell, still has family here proudly representing their deep local ties.

10/14/2024

This Saturday, Oct. 19, 3:30 at NCRD: author Bonnie Henderson will share the fascinating story of how geology and oral histories helped uncover the secrets to the Cascadian Subduction Zone.

10/14/2024

Its Indigenous People's Day, but no longer referred to as Columbus Day. There are reasons. Columbus didn't "discover" the Americas, he found them, and their people. He must have been a brave adventurer and worthy of respect. Nonetheless, the carnage to the indigenous people is undeniable.

The Clatsops and Nehalems have never been federally recognized tribes. They signed treaties at Tansy Point, as identified tribes, with Indian Agent, Anson Dart. They were promised $10,500 (in goods and cash paid over ten years) but Congress never ratified the treaty and payment was not made.

Later, Silas Smith, a grandson of Coboway, in 1897, sought and was granted a waiver of sovereign immunity that allowed him to successfully sue the federal government for the benefit of the treaty. It wasn't until 1913 for payments to be funded by Congress. Later, in the 1950's, Congress began to terminate treaties with tribes and discontinued recognition of tribes. Congress directed the Bureau of Indians Affairs to investigate whether tribal people could likely live independently of the benefits that they were receiving from the government and, if so, to pay them for the land no longer recognized as Indian land. First, a tribe had to be recognized as a tribe and then the swath of land ceded to the government had to be quantified. In the Indian Claims Court, the Nehalem tribe again was recognized for its tribal existence. The map seen here shows the property described in the treaty. It was 97,250 acres. The court deemed the amount of $10,500 to be unconscionable and adjusted the amount. In 1962, each person able to establish their tribal heritage was issued a check for $620. Needless to say, there weren't many.

You can admire Columbus for his bravery to show that the world isn't flat. You, also, have to admire the perseverance of the Indigenous People.

10/10/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day and it seems that the more things change, the more things stay the same. You can't wander through town without the marks of our rich history hitting you square in the jaw. This promotional piece could have been written for Goonies. It could be why the streets bear names like Treasure Cove, Treasure Hunter of just plain Treasure.

10/02/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day! This article ran in a recent edition of Manzanita Today authored by our local historian, Mark Beach. We have run pics of the Glenesslin and the Mimi. Today, let's focus on the Oakland

Shipwreck draws tourists to Manzanita in 1916

Coastal lumber schooners sailed the west coast from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. We covered the deadly Leggett shipwreck of 1914 in the January 2024 issue. On March 19, 1916, the three-masted lumber schooner Oakland, built in 1902 and owned by the Fyfe Lumber Company of Humboldt County, California, sailed from the Coquille River in Oregon with a cargo of railroad ties. Two days later the steamer Saginaw, bound for Seattle,
rescued the Oakland’s seven-member crew from the apparently water logged vessel. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Snohomish sighted the abandoned ship ten miles west of Tillamook Bay on the
morning of March 23 more than 200 miles north of the Coquille River. Shortly after that sighting, the Port of Portland
dispatched the tug Oneonta on a salvage operation but failed to arrive before the crewless Oakland drifted onto the sand
spit south of Manzanita (now Nehalem Bay State Park). When the ship struck shore, the March 23 Morning Oregonian reported that
railroad ties were floating ashore, much like the Leggett’s cargo two years earlier. Since no Oregonian reporter was at the scene and no other observer reported floating logs, that report cannot be verified.

Local Manzanita residents rushed to see the wreck in the gathering darkness, but they need not have hurried. The Oakland
remained beached for nearly a year. Tourists from Portland could have their pictures taken on the wreck by traveling
to the scene on the recently completed Pacific Railway and Navigation Company line. The shipwreck even prompted the
sale of postcards. Finally, a local salvage crew hauled the ship across the spit into Nehalem Bay, where it was refloated and
towed to Portland for repairs. When repairs were completed in 1918, the ship re-entered the coastal service as the Mary
Hanlon with the Albion Lumber Company in Mendocino County, California. Only six years later, in 1924 the Mary Hanlon, overloaded with iron ore, foundered off the Mendocino coast.

1 Mark Beach is the author of photo-histories of the Nehalem Bay area and Logging Oregon’s Coastal Forests. His books can be found at Cloud and Leaf bookstore in Manzanita. Mark’s website has hundreds of historical photos collected for the Nehalem Valley Historical Society.
Manzanita Today for April 8, 2024

09/25/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day. Much has been written about the intrepid Mary Gerritse. You don't see much about her husband, John. John and Mary obtained contracts to carry the mail but, because John was also clearing land and claiming homesteads, Mary frequently became the mail carrier. Here's John Gerritse in front of the Elk Creek Hotel who, apparently, by this point had a car! Looks like another successful mail run.

09/18/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day. This is the MIMI. It washed up on the sand of Manzanita Beach on February 13, 1913. The crew came ashore safely and lived locally while reclamation efforts took place. The rest of the story is ghastly. Come down to the museum and see the exhibit that tells the story.

A little known fact about the MIMI is that it was a sister ship of the Glenesslin both having been built in the same Scottish shipyard in Glasgow. In October of that same year the Glenesslin foundered on the rocks of Neahkahnie.

09/12/2024

Did you know that geological research done in Tillamook County and native peoples' oral histories led to the discovery of the Cascadia Subduction Zone? Author Bonnie Henderson will share this fascinating story on October 19 at 3:30 pm at North County Recreation District NCRD. The book reads like a mystery novel - and Cloud & Leaf will be there with books!

09/11/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day but it wasn't that long ago that various targets in the United States, including New York's twin towers, were attacked by terrorists. It was an awful day that most all of us remember. Two years later, our own, Dave Dillon wrote a piece for the North County News with his insights at the time.

https://nvc.stparchive.com/Archive/NVC/NVC09112003P04.php?tags=september,11,2001

09/05/2024

AE Doyle was known as Portland's architect but it was in the Nehalem Valley that he did some outstanding work. This is the Stan Wentz cottage. Its kind of hidden (was then and still is now). There are other notable Doyle cottages that are easily seen from Neahkahnie Beach today. But don't forget that Doyle also created the building that was the Nehalem School (currently NCRD), the current Nehalem School and the White Clover Grange.

08/29/2024

Its Wayback Whens Day. Today's photo from our collection is noted as "Salmon Bake 1923" but every time that I look at it I find something that suggests that it was an event to sell lots on the Neahkahnie Meadow. In any event, we always marvel at the number of automobiles that got up there when, to our knowledge, there was no established road!

Address

225 Laneda Avenue
Manzanita, OR
97130

Opening Hours

1pm - 4pm

Website

http://www.nehalemvalleyhistory.org/

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