Remembering History, Healing the Past

From left to right, Ron Brean, Mayor of Yachats, Robert Keeler, Chair of the Oregon Historical Marker Committee, and Warren Brainard, Chief CTCLUS

On Friday, May 27, the new historical marker was dedicated at Yachats State Park. The sign, sponsored by the City of Yachats and the Oregon Travel Information Council, is the newest member of the regional marker series, and the first on the coast.

Our new sign tells the story of the land and the people who have lived here. The land was formed fifty thousand years ago, as tectonic plates collided with the continental land mass. People arrived at least five thousand years ago, migrating over the Arctic land bridge from Asia and slowly making their way down the coast. About three hundred years ago, new people arrived from Europe and other parts of America. Every movement, both geological and cultural, changed the landscape, but once the Euro-Americans arrived, change began happening at an accelerated pace.

The marker celebrates the industry of the early pioneers whose can-do energy created an economy based on timber and fishing. Small farms were carved out of the wilderness and gradually transportation shifted as highways were constructed along the rugged coastline. But the marker also pays homage to the history of the Native peoples who were displaced and in many cases destroyed by the activities of the newcomers. The Alsi people, already decimated by disease, and the Coos and Lower Umpqua who were forcibly marched to Yachats, were confined to the Alsea Sub-agency, a part of the larger Coast Reservation (1859-1875), Many perished due to the neglect, abuse, and broken promises of the federal government. The surviving Coos and Lower Umpqua, many of whom are now part of the Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI), and what remained of the Alsi (now part of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz) had such feelings of horror about Yachats that they avoided the area entirely.

However, a healing has taken place, thanks to many members of the Yachats community and the willingness of the Tribes to open their hearts to the offer of reconciliation. The dedication ceremony was attended by Chief Warren Brainard of the CTCLUSI, who remembered those who died and also looked forward to the new connections being forged between the two communities. Tribal Elder Doc Slyter saluted the Ancestors with his flute music. And Yachats Mayor Ron Brean spoke movingly about the pace of change and the need for healing and care so that we become mindful of the results of our actions and avoid damage to our beautiful environment and all the people who live here and call it home.

GoYachats salutes all the People of the Oregon Coast!

Remembering the ladies....

When you head over to the Yachats Ladies Club on Saturday (visit GoYachats.com for hours and location) for the pie social, take a minute to appreciate the ladies and what they have accomplished.

The Yachats Ladies Club started in 1927 with fourteen members and a purpose: to promote the welfare of the community. They met in members’ homes, charged 10 cents at each business meeting for dues, and raised additional funds by making and selling quilts and aprons, holding banquets and dances, and organizing a Christmas bazaar.

When the state of Oregon announced they were going to demolish the Yachats Dance Hall to make way for a park at the point, the members of the club decided to buy the building for a clubhouse. That was in March, 1928; by the end of the year, the Ladies Club had $100.32 in their treasury.

The amount of money they needed was daunting. The state agreed to sell the dance hall for $100, but they needed a place to put it. Sir Robert Perks, an Englishman who owned much of the available land in Yachats at that time, agreed to donate the lot on Third Street, and the stumps were removed with 20 pounds of blasting powder. The dance hall was moved at a cost of $500, and they bought a piano for $100. Money was borrowed and paid back over time. There were expenses for insurance, licenses, and other fees. Over the following months, the ladies continued to hold fundraising events, collect dishes and silverware to equip the kitchen, and do all the work to finish the hall and make it useable.

For many years, the Ladies Club was the only place in town available for meetings. Church services were held there as well as card games. A lending library was established in 1930. And of course, the dances: every Saturday night, various musicians rented the hall. The club members ran the ticket booth, the checkroom, and the food and soda pop concessions. The musicians provided their own floor wax. Things got rowdy on a Saturday night in those days. The musicians were supposed to keep the good times under control, but some damage occurred.

The pie social started on the Fourth of July, 2002. They had to move that event to the Commons because of demand, but the pie socials on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends still take place at the newly refurbished Ladies Club on Third Street. “It’s a thing,” says club president Sandy Dunn. Indeed it is, with just about every variety of pie you can imagine. Be sure to get yours this weekend!

“The nicest people in the universe….”

Valeria drove north along the coast from San Francisco. It was late spring, 1985, and the California hills had already turned the tawny color of a lion’s back. Until she reached Oregon, where suddenly everything was green. The further north she went, the greener it became. “It was like nowhere I had ever been before,” she said.

Back home in Indianapolis, she subscribed to Oregon Coast magazine and found real estate bargains she couldn’t believe. There was a house, right on the beach and—“almost free!” So she loaded everything into her car and headed for Florence (which, being the place where the magazine was published, seemed to be the center of the universe.)

Surprise, surprise—the house on the beach was a wreck and Florence, it turned out, was not the center of the universe. But there she was, ready for something brand new, so she began a methodical search of the coast, driving from Brookings to Astoria, Astoria to Brookings.

“I narrowed it down to Bandon, Yachats, and Neskowin,” she says. But in Bandon, all the realtors were on vacation. In Neskowin, there were no realtors at all. And in Yachats, the owners of the house she wanted to look at were in Mexico and couldn’t be reached.  But there was another house, halfway between Waldport and Yachats…

Not long after that, she started a little gift shop and called it ToadHall. She’s never looked back, not even when the snows of ’89 blanketed the beach and drifted against the Little Log Church and she thought just maybe she should have packed her cross-country skis in the car.

It wasn’t about the weather, she realized. It wasn’t even about the gorgeous setting of green trees and sparkling ocean. It was about people and community. In Yachats, you could get a book from the library without producing ten pieces of ID. At the grocery store, the person with five items, standing in line in front of you, lets you, with just two items, go first.

One evening, Valeria left ToadHall at the end of the day, forgetting to lock the doors. The lights were on, and the music too. Eventually, a neighbor came in, turned out the lights and shut off the music, then drove to her house to make sure she hadn’t been abducted by aliens. When she came the next morning, she looked around. People had come in, thinking the store was open. On the counter she found handwritten receipts and money for items people had bought.

“The people in Yachats,” says Valeria, “are the nicest people in the universe.”

Exploring Our Backyard….The Yachats Community Park

On a sunny May morning, my dog and I explored the Yachats Wetlands Community Park. Red-winged Blackbirds trilled from the willows and cattails where they make their nests. Wilson’s Warblers flittered over the reeds like gold coins tossed in the air. American Goldfinches, sometimes called the wild canary, surrounded the feeder at the end of the boardwalk, where we turned and walked through a shady forest of shore pines. The thick duff muffled our footsteps before we wandered back on another path to see Black-headed grosbeaks, a beautiful orange bird with black and white stripes on its wings.

A Great Blue Heron has also come to live in the wetlands. Although these shy birds usually take off in an improbable squawking flight when someone intrudes on their space, this one has gotten used to visitors. Of course, the ready supply of frogs, its favorite diet item, is a big incentive to stay calm.

Suddenly there was a dramatic air battle going on above my head. Two crows were pursuing a Merlin falcon, sometimes called a pigeon hawk. Similar to the Peregrine falcon, this raptor preys on other birds. The crows swooped and attacked and finally chased the falcon off.

I sat on a bench and waited for the high-pitched frog chorus to start up again. Spring peepers--also called green chorus frogs. What a perfect name for these bright light singers of the season! I didn’t hear the slightly deeper tone of the endangered Red-leg frog, but the restored wetland has provided habitat for them too.

This healthy wetland area is the result of years of dedicated work by a committee of Yachats folks, including horticulturists, botanists, fish biologists, hydrologists, and many others willing to do the hard work of recovering a natural habitat that had been lost over the years to a snarl of blackberries, trash and dirt. The City of Yachats was a generous partner. For awhile, it felt as if the mess had been exchanged for a wasteland, as front-end loaders cleared out the blackberries and trash, but gradually, the area has recovered. It is the natural catchment area for the water that runs off the hills on the east side of town, and the shallow ponds began to fill up. The boardwalk was built and volunteers brought in and planted native vegetation.

The Wetlands Community Park is located behind the Commons and maps are available online at GoYachats.com or at the Yachats Visitor Center. It can be part of a longer hike on Yachats’ extensive trails, a pass-through on your way to a latte, a bird-watching expedition, or just basking in the morning sun.

Blissed Out Bookies

For the past five or six years, a group of women from Sisters has rented a house in Yachats for their annual book discussion. This year, the date happened to coincide with Easter weekend and some really lovely sunshine.

The house is right on the beach, just past Tillicum campground. Tote bags filled with food and books lined the hallway and at least half the women were in the open kitchen at any given time preparing fabulous meals. I was a guest for lunch—lentil soup with a bit of curry, salmon salad, fresh greens, good bread, and homemade apple strudel for dessert, warm from the oven. They had just returned from The Annual Shopping Excursion into town where they bought books at Mari’s, scarves at Patty-Kait, and this-and-that from ToadHall and other unique Yachats shops.

The sunlight streamed in from two story high windows and sparkled on white waves rippling up the beach. A bit of a breeze stirred the beach grass and a little gray cat crept along the sandy paths. There were plans for dinner (lasagna was mentioned) and a late night around the table discussing Red by Terry Tempest-Williams and playing Mexican Train dominos, not for the faint of heart.

Yachats is the perfect place for book lovers and book discussion groups. The week before, the Friends of the Yachats Library held a fantastic book sale which drew bookie folks from near and far. I often see six or seven people seated around a table at the Green Salmon talking books over cups of lattes and tea. In fact, Yachats wants YOU to come here with your book group! Contact: andrea@goyachats.com for more information about our Book Lovers promotion.