Central Coast

Location:
From Interstate 5, take the Corvallis exit (228) west 38 miles through Philomath on US 20. Follow Highway 34 southwest through Alsea and continue 20 miles west to the Five Rivers-Fisher Road (Forest Service Road 141). Turn south at the fork at Siletz Road. Continue left past Buck Creek Road about one mile to the bridge. Alternately from Yachats, travel east on Forest Service Road 1560 about 20 miles. This route is not recommended because the road is extremely rough and steep. Note: Forest Service Road 141 connects to the Deadwood Bridge in Lane County.

Experience the finest in premium Oregon Coast lodging at the Hallmark Resort Newport. Amenities include fitness room, room service, heated salt water pool, sauna and spa. Guest rooms' patios and balconies offer stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and the area's lighthouses.

Experimentation: if there was one word that would describe the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport that would be it.

From trying to figure out how plate tectonics work, to seeing how you compare to the wingspan of an albatross, expect to learn volumes while you walk through the many exhibits – several of which change regularly.

But Bill Hanshumaker, who is responsible for many of the exhibits in the Visitor Center, says it is more than just a place to see an octopus and touch things in simulated tide pools.

Oregon's most photographed lighthouse stands at the tip of a scenic, forested cape

About the Hike: Two easy trails climb through the coastal woods to this spectacular lighthouse and the allegedly haunted lighthouse keepers' house nearby.

Difficulty: Two easy trails lead to the lighthouse, a 0.5-mile path from the state park and a 1.3-mile Oregon Coast Trail segment from the north.

Season: Open all year, but the Oregon Coast Trail section is slippery in wet weather.

A few headlands over from the Sea Lion Caves lies one of Oregon’s most photographed lighthouses, the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

Surrounded by a state campground to the north, and a state park to the south, the lighthouse can be seen from Highway 101, or up close and personal if you are willing to take a bit of a hike.

This division was organized for World War I in 1917 at Camp Greene, North Carolina and was demobilized at Camp Die, New Jersey in 1919. It was reorganized and Federally recognized at Portland, Oregon in 1930.

Spanish navigators were the first to explore the North American Pacific Coast, beginning fifty years after Columbus discovered the western continents. Sebastian Vizciano saw this cape in 1603 and named it after the patron saint of the day of his discovery. Other navigators Spanish, British, and American followed a century and a half later.

During the early 1850s hundreds of miners and settlers poured into southwest Oregon and onto Indian lands staking claims and establishing farms. The clash of cultural attitudes toward the ownership and use of natural resources led to the Rogue River Indian Wars of 1853-56. War came to the coast in March of 1856, when the "Tu-tu-tuni" attacked Ellensburg, a settlement at the mouth of the Rogue River (present-day Gold Beach). A party of 34 armed civilians, led by vigilante George H.

Native Americans occupied the banks of this river and its bay long before Euro-American settlements appeared. Empire City, a bustling port of call that occupied this portion of Coos Bay’s waterfront, was once the site of an ancient Coos Indian village called Hanisitch. In 1826, fur trappers for the Hudson Bay Company were the first to meet the local natives. Emigrant settlers arrived here in 1853 to found Empire City. The community quickly established itself as an economic and commercial center.

Alexander R. McLeod led the first overland expeditions to Oregon's central and southern coast between 1826-27. McLeod, a Chief Trader for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver, sought furs and trading opportunities with tribes such as the Tillamook, Umpqua, Coos, and Coquille. Local tribes also provided information, canoes, and other assistance.