GOLD BEACH

A short history of Gold Beach

The early narrative of Gold Beach represents an intricate tapestry encompassing Native American civilizations and conflicts, Spanish explorers and European fur traders, ranchers, gold prospectors, loggers, fishermen, mill operatives, and townspeople.

The community was originally named Ellensburg in the 1850s, but later took the name Gold Beach after a beach near the mouth of the Rogue River where hundreds of placer mines extracted gold. An Ellensburg post office was established in 1853, changed to Ellensburg in 1877, and changed to Gold Beach in 1890.

Mailboats based in Gold Beach have been delivering mail upstream to Agness since 1895, one of only two rural mailboat routes remaining in the U.S.

Although Gold Beach had been a community since the middle of the 19th century, and the county seat since 1859, its current incorporation charter only dates to 1945.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Gold Beach, Oregon, revision 1379037651 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.