REEDSPORT — It’s a town hit hard by floods in earlier decades. It’s a town that boasts the chainsaw festival. It’s a town that claims timber and fishing as parts of its history.
This coming year marks the centennial of Reedsport’s incorporation.
With this in mind, city leaders and volunteers are getting the engines ready for a big bash or series of parties to celebrate the lady that’s Reedsport.
Main Street Coordinator Emerson Hoagland discussed how best to commemorate the birthday with a group of roughly 20 residents March 7 at city hall.
“It looks like we’ve got a good turnout tonight,” said Hoagland.
He emphasized that his focus for the evening wasn’t to lecture to residents, but to get their thoughts on how to best showcase Reedsport.
“I was doing a little digging today,” he said, noting that settlers came to what’s now known as Gardiner, settling the town in 1852. Prior to white explorers and settlers coming through, the Kuitsh or Lower Umpqua tribe lived in the area.
Jumping ahead by 67 years, area residents voted June 19, 1919, as to whether to incorporate Reedsport “and it passed 151 to four.”
Why Reedsport?
Hoagland explained that the name came from Alfred Reed, who was a state legislator and area landowner. His nephew Warren Reed named the community after his uncle and “was the driver behind incorporation as well as the first mayor.”
By comparison, to this day Gardiner remains unincorporated but has its own fire department and sanitary district.
On Aug. 6, 1919, for the next door neighbor was when “the official seal and stamp and paperwork was filed.”
“I think the biggest not to miss is Aug. 6, because that was when everything was signed, sealed and delivered,” Hoagland stressed, adding that’s when all incorporation papers were filed with the state.
Participants spoke of the need to incorporate other events and anniversaries into next year’s bash — the Confluence, the chainsaw competition, when Lower Umpqua Hospital was built and the Community Emergency Response Team, or CERT group. Volunteers put together Confluence each winter with the aim of bringing in more tourists during the off season.
“I’m sure the schools would be involved,” said one audience member. Other ideas consisted of getting more research from the Oregon Historical Society and speaking to civic groups such as Rotary to do what is key — getting the word out.
Hoagland said Main Street volunteers and others could reach out to the Winchester Bay-Reedsport Chamber of Commerce. Audience members also wanted to invite local tribes to participate.
“We were thinking one of the most obvious things would be to have some street banners,” he said.
Councilor Rich Patten wondered ‘if there was still time to put a book together of families histories.
Mayor Linda McCollum said “one of the things that was mentioned as doing something every month.”
He added in an email that the “centennial planning has no specific budget at the moment. However we will be fundraising for it and have funds set aside for complementary projects. For example we have money set aside for street banners which may have a centennial theme.”
“We would like to maybe get a theme,” he said. “Plus we have the usual suspects. Do we want a parade or fireworks?”
That appealed to City Manager Jonathan Wright, who said “Oooh fireworks!”
As Hoagland put it, “so it’s kind of as big as we want to make it.”
Money will also come in from the Pub Crawl, which took place this weekend. This was specifically a fund-raiser for the centennial, as local Kathleen Miller emphasized.
Some communities’ volunteers get a time capsule together for a future generation and Hoagland said “of course that could be for the next 100 years or 25 or five months.”
Diane Novak, who operates the Umpqua Discovery Center, referred to a historical point when workers opened the Umpqua Bridge. She said the community could bring in drivers who own antique vehicles. The bridge dates to 1936.
Hoagland pointed out that volunteers already have put together a historic archive.
Originally Published in The Umpqua Post
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