Posted on May 20, 2026
Shipwreck, survival and a shifting coast
The early 1800s heralded a period of immense change for the Coos Bay area with the arrival of its first non-Indigenous people: fur traders seeking fortune and military expeditions charting the new frontier. The discovery of gold and coal along Oregon’s southern coast in the 1850s intensified the rush of land speculation that followed.
The year 1852 saw one such paramount occurrence. The U.S. Army’s schooner, the Captain Lincoln, crashed upon the shore of Coos Bay’s North Spit, the vessel succumbing to the power of the Pacific Northwest’s infamous coast.
Stranded and far from home, the crew made first contact with the Hanis Coos and the Miluk Coos. According to historian Patricia Whereat Phillips in the Oregon Encyclopedia, these Indigenous groups have called Coos Bay home since time immemorial. Long before a single stone of the Coos Bay North Jetty was laid, their lives were intricately woven with the rhythms of the tides and the bounty of the water.
The bay and its surrounding rivers were a life source.
Their deep knowledge of the land and sea was not just a matter of sustenance, but of culture and identity passed down through generations. In an account recorded in the 1898 book Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties, crewman Henry Baldwin recalled how that knowledge helped secure the crew’s survival, as the Coos people provided them with a steady supply of fish, game birds, elk, and venison.
Upon their return home, the crew members’ stories sparked an interest that would change the area forever. According to an article by Michael Shay in Oregon Coast Magazine, this curiosity motivated a rapid increase in the non-Native population along the coast.
However, these new non-Indigenous communities faced significant challenges. The geography that sustained the Coos people proved treacherous for newcomers. Intense storms, high tides, and the frequent movement of silt on the coastline prevented ships from traveling safely and negatively impacted reliable trade.
As the U.S. government secured control over the territory of Oregon, officials looked for ways to encourage commerce. This led the Territorial Legislature to formally petition Congress in 1856, requesting that Coos Bay be made an official port of entry. As detailed in a 2008 manuscript by Ben Grupe on file at the Coos Historical & Maritime Museum, this included a Customs House and permanent government presence.
But establishing a commercial hub directly conflicted with the natural landscape. As settlers and industry poured into the region, the traditional lands of the Coos peoples were forever changed. The waterways they navigated for centuries were now seen as obstacles to commerce, leading to massive engineering projects like the Coos Bay North Jetty.
While the stone jetties stand as monuments to taming the natural forces of the bay, the true and oldest story of this coast belongs to the people who first called it home.
Construction of Coos Bay North Jetty (1890 to 1897)
Turning Coos Bay into a big shipping port required a lot of work to tame the natural harbor. Unpredictable storms constantly shifted silt into a shallow, underwater bank of sand, called a sandbar, that blocked the entrance and made the waterways impassable for large ships.
To address this, the government tasked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE ) with improving safety and navigation. Following surveys in 1861, 1878, and 1879, USACE made a recommendation in 1879 that a jetty at Fossil Point was necessary.
The nearly 2,000-foot-long Fossil Point Jetty was constructed between 1879 and 1884. Built with large, stone-filled timber frameworks known as cribs and paired with a dredged channel, engineers hoped the structure would maintain the channel’s depth and location.
An 1885 survey found that while the jetty was helpful in navigating the inner channel, it proved ineffective, perhaps even detrimental, in addressing the navigational hazard of the bay’s sandbar. Therefore, the jetty was abandoned, left for nature to quietly dismantle what man had built.
And the core of the problem remained.
A natural channel across the Coos Bay bar was subject to large and rapid changes in depth and location. Furthermore, according to USACE reports from 1881 and 1890, surveys showed the North Spit itself, an unstable formation of sand dunes, was actively moving south and into the bay.
In response, the USACE developed an ambitious new plan.
According to a 1983 master’s thesis by historian George Baxter Case and USACE reports, the plan called for two jetties at the mouth of Coos Bay. These jetties, set 1,500 feet apart, would work together to stabilize the channel, prevent sand from blowing off the North Spit, and interrupt the spit’s southward movement.
In 1890 and 1891 annual reports, USACE detailed how the jetties would also direct the ocean’s tidal flow by naturally scooping the channel down to a depth of 20 feet, which meant it could accommodate larger ships. The importance of this reliable navigation is noted by multiple historians, as Coos Bay became a key shipping hub for the region’s growing timber, mining, and agricultural markets.
As documented in USACE’s 1891 annual report, Congress authorized the construction of the North and South Jetties with the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1890. Construction of the North Jetty began that same year, though the South Jetty would not be built until the 1920s.
The North Jetty was constructed at the southern end of the North Spit. According to historical accounts and his own papers held by Archives West, USACE civil engineer James Suydam Polhemus oversaw the project. Work began in December 1890 with the construction of the wharf, living quarters for the workforce, and the first part of the elevated tramway. The jetty itself, built of stone laid on top of 3- to 4-foot-thick bundles of brush, was constructed in phases as funds became available.
To build it, crews first constructed an elevated, double-track tramway over the planned route. An 11-ton Baldwin Locomotive Works engine, known as the Yarrow, then moved loads of timbers, brush mattresses and piling (long, strong columns driven deep into the seabed for support) out over the ocean.
In a process detailed in USACE reports and historical accounts by Case and Henry Richmond III, workers first lowered the brush mattresses to the ocean floor, sinking them with small rocks. Then, boulders averaging two tons each were loaded onto special carts, hauled out on the tramway, and dumped onto the mattresses, slowly raising a mound of rock.
By 1895, the North Jetty reached its planned length of 9,600 feet. While the goal was to raise the entire structure above high-tide levels, only 5,000 feet had reached that height by that year, with the remaining distance sitting at low-water level. Despite being shorter than planned, surveys from 1894 and 1895 confirmed the jetty was already a success, maintaining a reliable channel depth of at least 20 feet.
Due to a lack of funds noted in the 1896 USACE report, no work was conducted that year.
Additional rock was added in 1897 to bring the entire length’s height up to high-water level. However, as a USACE report for that year describes, heavy weather destroyed 400 feet of the tramway, which had to be rebuilt before work on the jetty could be completed.
Preserving and repairing Coos Bay North Jetty (1900 to 2025)
The work of maintaining and improving the Coos Bay North Jetty began immediately after construction ended.
Rough winter storms battered the structure, causing it to deteriorate and deflate. According to a 1970 history by Henry Richmond III, by 1900, more than 1,000 feet of tramway was destroyed and a portion of the outer end leveled. As the brush mattresses at the jetty’s base compressed under the weight, the jetty’s height decreased, resulting in the consistent need to place more rock.
Another constant challenge was the wind, which blew sand from the North Spit directly into the bay entrance. To solve this, USACE began planting Holland grass, a tough, non-native grass with a dense root system used for stabilizing sand dunes. The project began during the jetty’s construction, and according to a 1912 USACE drawing, the grass eventually covered about 575 acres.
But by 1913, as the relentless assault from the Pacific Ocean continued, the situation had grown dire.
According to the official journal of the Oregon House of Representatives, the state legislature declared a need for emergency funds to repair the jetty. Historian George Baxter Case noted that parts of the jetty had submerged so much that they posed a grounding risk for ships and complicated channel maintenance.
Richmond notes that by 1920, about half of the North Jetty had been beaten down to almost the low water level, and the original tramway and receiving wharf had washed away.
Citing the need to achieve a 22-foot-deep channel, Congress authorized a full restoration of the North Jetty and the construction of the South Jetty in 1922, as documented in USACE’s 1923 annual report and a history by William Willingham.
According to Case, between 1923 and 1929, approximately 690,000 tons of rock were added to bring the jetty back to its original height. In 1930, USACE added a sandstone and concrete cap to create a large piece of stone and concrete, called a monolith, at the jetty’s head, to protect it from wave damage.
Over the decades, the cycle of damage and repair continued.
In 2023, with the jetty having lost 1,100 feet from its original length, USACE announced it was beginning another round of critical repairs. A news release from USACE, Portland District stated the three-year project would improve channel depth by renovating damaged sections to their original height and rebuilding the deteriorated head.
The new project echoed the goals of the original 1890s project: calm the turbulent waters and create safe passage for commercial and recreational vessels. And like earlier efforts, the construction involved moving immense amounts of rock.
According to dredging industry reports and the Portland District project website, millions of pounds of stone arrived by barge, with some of the heaviest individual stones weighing almost 80,000 pounds, ensuring the continued integrity of the historic structure.
An enduring landmark
The Coos Bay North Jetty stands today as more than just a barrier against the ocean’s fury; it is a monument to the ambition that shaped the Pacific Northwest. In 2019, its crucial role was formally recognized when it was eligible for inclusion in the nation’s official list of historically significant resources — the National Register of Historic Places. According to a 2024 cultural resource report prepared for the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay, the jetty’s significance lies in its direct contribution to the commercial, industrial, and maritime economies of Oregon. By providing a reliable avenue for safe navigation, it spurred the industrial growth of Coos Bay, North Bend, Charleston, and the surrounding region. From the first stones laid in 1890 to the massive 80,000-pound boulders delivered in the recent repairs, the jetty has been in a constant state of construction and preservation. A battle against the sea may never end, but USACE continues to preserve a legacy of engineering that paved the way for the development of the Pacific Northwest. It remains a testament to the enduring effort to tame a wild coast for the promise of commerce and connection.
