TimManBlog

The Far Edge of the Country: Gold Beach, Oregon

May 31, 2024
(photos and memories from May 2017)
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Seven years ago, on my birthday, I returned to Curry County, Oregon, hoping that some sort of birthday magic would provide me with a beautiful day. It worked.

For those of you unfamiliar with this part of the country and this part of Oregon, Gold Beach is a town, not a beach resort. It was never at the end of the Oregon Trail — that pathway of emigration dropped off its travelers over 300 miles to the north near Portland and the Columbia River. Gold Beach is the seat of Curry County at the southwestern corner of Oregon, at the mouth of southern Oregon’s Rogue River, just north of the California border.

Gold Beach earned its name when early settlers found specks of gold in the sands at the mouth of the Rogue. There was great anticipation of more gold to be found, but the miners were ultimately disappointed. Some residents stayed here anyway, and Gold Beach became a town in 1890. Its population today is a bit over 2,000.

Below is a rundown of the town’s history, as told by the sign in front of the county courthouse.

Although strategically located at the mouth of a large river, the Rogue, Gold Beach has never grown as a seaport since lands bordering the river are steep, rocky, and difficult to farm. Only a few roads head inland from Gold Beach; these roads are steep gravel tracks without asphalt. (I traveled them once years ago in my passenger car and deemed myself lucky not to have slid off the side of a cliff.) The terrain is so difficult that mail to upriver residents is delivered by U.S. Postal Service mailboats, one of only two rural mailboat routes remaining in the country. The Patterson Bridge over the Rogue River was built in 1932 during the Great Depression, allowing traffic to move north and south along U.S. Highway 101 up and down the Oregon Coast without interruption.

But that’s enough background. Here are some photos of this beautiful area.

U.S. Highway 101 runs along the length of the Pacific Coast from Washington to California. This is Gold Beach’s main street, and the small town has only a few other streets besides this one. Below is Highway 101’s appearance in Gold Beach and some businesses and signs associated with the local commerce.

This next picture might be my favorite. See that house halfway up the hillside? It overlooks town and the Pacific Ocean. There’s been a little bit of retirement settlement in town, and this house might belong to someone who has moved here after making their fortune in California. I’d happily live there, enjoying the ocean views every single day.

I’ll finish the post with some views of the Pacific Ocean. These were taken at various turnouts along Highway 101 south of Gold Beach toward the larger town of Brookings. Brookings is the largest town in Curry County — it has 6,000 residents.

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A list of all photo posts from the American County Seats series in TimManBlog can be found here.

All photos were taken by the author on May 22, 2017, except for the photo of the sign explaining Gold Beach’s history — that photo was taken in 2007.

My lifetime hobby is traveling to all of America’s county courthouses, and each month, I post about a visit to a scenic or exciting county seat. It’s a hobby, and donations are greatly appreciated to help cover my costs.