Port Orford

“ But in my review of Port Orford's port, I should not close without reference to a few pioneer worthies, and especially in eulogy of the one who first brought it to historic light, and gave to it continuous and effective aid to the end of his life. He was a man of rare and diversified talents, of indomitable energy, and a fighter to the last. In his day he was one of Oregon's most active and influential men. And this was Captain William Tichenor. ”

“ He had sailed with Captain Cook on his two previous voyages. Vancouver, in his exploration, charted this Port Orford harbor, and named the cape nearby as Cape Orford in honor of his friend the Earl of Orford. For over 200 years the straits of Anian still continued to be a mystery. All above the 43rd degree of latitude of the Pacific Coast was an undiscovered country through the seventeenth and three-fourth of the eighteenth centuries. ”

“ Coming from California mines and new settlements on Coos Bay and interior Oregon, soon thousands of these hungry gold seekers were washing out from ten to twenty dollars per day by every kind of crude device and handmade structure.
A CITY GROWS
Port Orford, like a fabled dream of Utopia, at once grew into city proportions in a few weeks time. Ships by steam and sail came into port with passengers, mail, stores and supplies to maintain the gathering hosts. ”

“ Fort Point, Curry County. Fort Point is at the south edge of the town of Port Orford, overlooking the ocean. It is just northwest of the famous Battle Rock. On July 14, 1851, Captain William Tichenor's second expedition landed at Port Orford and built two blockhouses on Fort Point, with log defenses. This establishment was built as a place of refuge for local settlers. The government, on September 14, 1851, established the military post of Fort Orford, but this was in addition to the original blockhouses. The blockhouse fort was destroyed in the fire that burned Port Orford October 10, 1868. ”

“ Port Orford, on the southern coast of Oregon, is the largest and best summer roadstead, but it is exposed to the fury of winter gales. Destruction island, off the Washington shore, is the only spot of land on the coast large enough to be called an island.
The influence of man in improving for his benefit the conditions imposed by nature may be instanced in the works at the entrance to the Columbia river, where in place of a dangerous channel and bar a very good and secure one has been formed. ”

“ The vast timber, coal, and gold bearing resources tributary to Port Orford, and now made accessible by transportation facilities, with greatly increased manufacturing investments here and nearby, now more than ever justifies the local improvement of harbor shipping; while the old-time necessity for a safe port for sailing vessels to enter during a heavy southwest gale is more than ever called for by the increasing commerce on the high seas. ”

“ This navigator was Captain William Tichenor. His ship reaching Portland in her regular journeys from San Francisco, he at once made notification and entry in the Surveyor General's office at Oregon City for one section of land, embracing this site and naming it Port Orford—transferring and adopting Vancouver's name of "Orford" from the cape and restoring its former name. Congress the previous year had enacted the Donation Land Law, giving to heads of families 640 acres of land and to others less. ”

“ At the election of 1858 Ellensburg, a mining town, was chosen, and the choice confirmed by state legislative enactment in October 1860. Port Orford is the principal port in Curry county. Chetcoe is the only other town on the coast. There is no reason for the unsettled condition of Curry except its inaccessibility, which will be overcome in time, when its valuable forests and minerals will be made a source of wealth by a numerous population. Salmon-fishing is the principal industry aside from lumbering and farming. ”

“ Port Orford has given its name to a valuable lumber, Port Orford cedar, botanically known as Lawson cypress, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana. It is considered one of the most beautiful cedars in cultivation. Port Orford post office was established March 27, 1855, with Reginald H. Smith first postmaster.
PORTERVILLE, Lake County. Porterville was a homesteaderspost office situated a few miles southwest of Silver Lake town, in the north part of section 7, township 29 south, range 13 east. This is on the Buck Creek drainage. ”

“ Having concealed their portable property, they were removing to Port Orford for safety. At the mouth of Rogue River defences had been built, and in their wrath the white men were threatening to kill or disarm all the Indians in the vicinity. A few cool and reflecting minds were able, however, to maintain a more prudent as well as humane policy, the excitement on both sides seemed gradually to abate, [43] and Wright believed that with the assistance of the troops at Port Orford he should be able to preserve the peace and secure the public good. ”

“ Casey's command having returned to Benicia about the 1st of December, in January following the schooner Captain Lincoln, Naghel master, was despatched to Port Orford from San Francisco with troops and stores under Lieutenant Stanton. The weather being foul she missed the harbor and went ashore on a sand spit two miles north of the entrance to Coos Bay. The passengers and cargo were safely landed on the beach, where shelter was obtained under sails stretched on booms and spars. ”

“ Port Orford entertained as its honored guests at their Pioneer Reunion, the men and women who first settled in Curry county. The celebration opened on the beach near Battle Rock, Thursday afternoon, with the arrival of the grand old pioneer, Binger Hermann. ”

“ Only a small portion of the county is surveyed. Its valuation is placed at about one million dollars, and its population at not more than two thousand. Lumbering and salmon-packing are its principal industries. Ellensburgh was made the county-seat in 1858.
Port Orford is the seaport of Curry County and the whole Rogue River Yalley, so far as Oregon is concerned; although Crescent City in California was the actual port in use in early mining times, supplies being carried from that harbor over the mountains to Yreka, and again over the Siskiyou Range into this valley by mule-trains. ”

“ Tichenor left his California party at Port Orford well armed and fortified and proceeded to Portland, where he advertised to land passengers within thirty-five miles of the Rogue River mines, having brought up about two dozen miners from San Francisco and landed them at Port Orford to make their way from thence to the interior, at their own hazard. On returning down the coast the Columbia again touched at Port Orford and left a party of Oregon men, so that by August there were about seventy persons at the new settlement. They were all well armed and kept guard with military regularity. ”

“ Upon reviewing their numbers and their situation, without the hope of reënforcement for some time, and with an insufficient supply of ammunition for a protracted siege, the unanimous opinion of the Port Orford company was that flight would give them a chance for their lives, while to remain was to yield up all hope, as the savages would finally conquer by mere numbers and persistence. ”

“ Thus exposed, annoyed by high winds and drifting sands, and by the thieving propensities of the natives, Stanton was forced to remain four months. An effort was made to explore a trail to Port Orford by means of which pack-trains could be sent to their relief. Twelve dragoons were assigned to this service, with orders to wait at Port Orford for despatches from San Francisco in answer to his own, which, as the mail steamers avoided that place after hearing of the wreck of the schooner, did not arrive until settled weather in March. ”

“ The alignment could be improved but is satisfactory for the present. A gravel surfacing on this section makes it passable the whole year round.
South of Port Orford the topography of the County changes. The slopes are steep; in many cases reaching forty degrees, and are badly broken up. This section is also subject to slides of which there is abundant evidence of recent activity. The drainage being at right angles to the coast must be crossed by the highway requiring considerable rise and fall in the grade line. ”

“ If widened and the alignment corrected in a few locations, this would afford a direct route to the Rogue River where a ferry runs regularly. Between the river crossing and Gold Beach there is a fair road requiring only straightening out and widening.
A large portion of the total area of Curry County is in the forest reserve making the taxable area relatively small. For this reason and in view of the heavy cost of construction, aid is asked by the County from State and Federal sources. The most needed improvement is the section between Port Orford and Brush Creek. ”

“ But "Wright suc ceeded in allaying this feeling, or at least in persuading them to trust their safety to the Indian department and the United States troops at Port Orford yet a little longer; and by making one of them local agent, left the manage ment of affairs largely to his discretion. The settlers not being convinced of the good intentions of the Indians, soon after removed their families to Empire City, where a fortification had been erected. The miners at Randolph also concealed their portable property, and removed to Port Orford for safety ”

“ To the north-east of this place, three or four leagues, is Orford Haven; and in the towns of Orford and Aldborough especially be many good fishermen. And there are belonging to those towns some forty or fifty North Sea boats, that yearly go to sea, having seven men a piece; and ten or twelve Iceland barks, which sometimes get something, and sometimes little or nothing. If that these men's wealth were in Busses and nets, and had but once the trade, they would put down the Hollander! for they be great plyers of any voyage that they do undertake. ”

“ It was all a wonder to him, just as Oporto, whither the “John and Jane” was bound, was a wonder to him after the cold stormy North Sea, the bleak streets of Newcastle and Wapping which so far had been his only idea of seaports. The schooner, as has already been said, was an easy ship, and in port the hands had plenty of time to themselves. He liked the sun, the light, the warmth, the colour. He liked the laughing, lazy, careless children of the South. ”

“ But in 1694 he was appointed to the command of the fleet which, taking advantage of the inability of the king of France to maintain a great fleet in the Channel from want of money, followed the French into the Mediterranean, confined them to Toulon for the rest of the war, and co-operated with the Spanish armies in Catalonia. He returned in 1695, and in 1697 was created earl of Orford. For the rest of his life he filled posts of easy dignity and emolument, and died on the 26th of November 1727. He married his cousin, Mary Russell ”

“ The startled housekeeper protested that she had never seen it again; and here was another touch of mystery—the old peach–colored silk skirt that four persons had observed in Mr. Orford's cabinet the night of his murder, had completely disappeared.
"He must have burnt it," said Captain Hoare, and though it seemed unlikely that he could have consumed so many yards of stuff without leaving traces in the grate, still it was the only possible solution.
"I cannot think why he kept it so long," murmured Mrs. Boyd, "for it could have been no other than Mrs. Orford's best gown." ”

“ We read of buccaneers and filibusters; of Morgan, the last of the tribe, knighted and made Vice-Governor of Jamaica; of the doings of the redoubtable Kidd; of the bloodiness of Blackbeard; of the countless list of names, some high-sounding, which at last were painted in crimson splashes on the gallows slip at Port Royal headland. Port Royal itself deserves a niche in the temple of fame. The richest and the most vicious town the world ever knew; so it was before the clean ocean washed away its vice and corruption, and buried it deep in the pure water of the blue Caribbean. ”

“ The rain trickled down their glistening oilskins, and dark, angry clouds sweeping up from behind Gosport Town on the opposite side of the harbour, and scudding overhead, one after the other, in endless battalions, made it certain that a south-westerly gale was raging in the Channel.
At the top of the steps, with his back to the wind and rain, his feet wide apart, and his hands in his pockets, was the midshipman of the boat, in oilskin, sou'wester, and sea-boots. This was Mr. Vincent Orpen—commonly known as the Orphan—not very tall, but sturdy and broad-shouldered in his bulky oilskins. ”

“ On a certain bright morning in the month of May, 1843, the little port of Stromness wore an aspect of unwonted commotion. The great whaling fleet that every year sailed from this place for the Greenland fisheries was busily preparing for sea. The sun was shining over the brown hills of Orphir, and casting a golden sheen over the calm bay. Out beyond the Holms the whaling ships lay at anchor, the Blue Peter flying at each forepeak, and between them and the town many boats were passing to and fro. ”

“ The deadness of Orford may be estimated from the fact that it can support a kinematograph only three nights a week. It has electric light, but no railway, and the chief attractions are the lofty castle, a fine church, an antique quay, and a large supply of splendid lobsters. It knows not the tourist, and has the air of a natural self-preserving museum.
CHAPTER XIX—THE INCOMPARABLE BLACKWATER TIME was when I agreed with the popular, and the guide-book, verdict that the Orwell is the finest estuary in these parts; but now that I know it better, I unhesitatingly give the palm to the Blackwater. ”