In 1906, California timber baron John E. Brookings began investigating expansion opportunities along the Southern Oregon Coast.

In the early 1900s, Southern Oregon communities often held events to boost the economy and bring attention to their uniqueness. One type of celebration, the industrial fair, publicized not only the civic organizations, but also the community’s businesses.

A 4-week-old baby was among the survivors of the steamer Crescent City that broke up in January 1903 on the rocky ledges of Fish Rock Island off Mendocino, Calif.

When in late December 1959 Angie Hawkins responded to the call of the wilderness, she was reported missing from her grandson’s home in Gold Beach, Ore.

One of the earliest pioneers of Shasta County, Calif., Alonzo Engle, was born in 1824 in Ohio.

In 1964, a Medford, Ore., watchmaker, George Grabow, found a basket in an old barn that contained pieces of what turned out to be a tall mahogany clock, mixed with pipe-organ parts.

In 1935, Howard Newhouse began attending the Wedderburn Grade School with a dozen other children. The divided school had a classroom on one side and a playroom and woodshed on the other. Wedderburn is on U.S. Route 101, separated from Gold Beach only by the Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge that spans the mouth of the Rogue River.

The great-great nephew of George Washington, Col. Benjamin Franklin Washington, headed West in 1849 at the height of the California Gold Rush. He was born in Virginia, the great grandson of Lawrence Washington, became a lawyer and practiced law for many years before settling in California.

Pictures of Steve Oster show him with gold pan, pick and axe, a solitary prospector who mined in the Applegate area in the 1860s and 1870s. Little is known about Oster, but many landmarks bear his first name.

When major U.S. cities were connected to telephone service in the late 1800s, small towns in Southern Oregon were left on the sidelines. They didn’t have electric power plants or sewer lines, and couldn’t afford to build phone networks and pay royalties to Alexander Graham Bell.