The Mills That Built Coos Bay, Oregon

Description

The Mills That Built Coos Bay, Oregon

The Mills That Built Coos Bay and the Men Who Made It Happen. It is a history of the mills that populated the shores around Coos Bay, Oregon from the mid-1850’s to around 2020. It includes a 1923 base-map of the bay upon which each mill and their successors are labeled with dates of operation during this 170-year time frame. Without the map, documenting the Coos Bay mills would have been impossible. I needed the map in order to keep myself on track in describing those mills as they were built, burned down, went bankrupt, refinanced and rebuilt again during the cycles of the lumber, plywood and paper industries in our area.

The book grew to 574 pages as I traced backwards the lives of the timber barons who helped build Coos Bay. Names like Frederick Weyerhaeuser, Charles Axel Smith, Edward Steptoe Evans, Philip Buehner, Frank Deming, Al Peirce, Gus Adelsperger, William J. Conrad and many others all helped our area grow, including more modern ones like Wills and Wylie Smith of Coos Head Timber. The history of these timber entrepreneurs are covered in some detail along with over 700 photographs, charts and tables.

I also became fascinated by the connection between the big mills around the bay and the small “Gyppo saw mills” that populated the back country of Coos County. Men like George Youst, Hurley Collver and Glae Gould left their unique mark on our area, so I decided to dig into their contribution.

Bill Lansing

2020