History of Lakeside Oregon
TENMILE LAKES STATISTICS…………..
Tenmile Lakes have 43 miles of shoreline and covers 1,938.2 acres. The land that forms our coastal basin drainage area covers aproximately 75 square miles. Ten tributaries flow into the lake at the end of eight arms. Water levels range from summer lows of 5 feet above mean sea level to winter highs averaging 12 feet above sea level. Residential land use is listed at only 7% of the total land usage according to DEQ data.
The Following taken from the book the heart of Lakeside by Edna Skinner (available at the Lakeside Library has great pictures of the area through the years)
The Coos Indians were the first to benefit from the beautiful lakes around Lakeside.
It is not known who the first Caucasian was to explore the Lakeside country. An American, Jeediah Smith, passed close by in July 1826 and in October of the same year, Captain Alex McLeod lead a party of Hudson Bay trappers past the area. But apparently neither party saw the lakes. Trade beads from Fort Vancouver have been found locally. Beads of Spanish origin have been found also, but whether they came from a visit by a Spanish ship or from a system of trade with the Indians to the south which eventually passed them northward form Spanish speaking Californians is not known.
The Ten mile country was almost unknown to non-Indians until 1874, when S. F. Johnson and Nels Thompson explored it and located permanently there the following spring.
The firs store on Ten Mile Lakes was operated by a McHandle. It stood across the lake on McFee point, just north of where the city line crosses North Lake.
Education came early to Lakeside. The first school house was near the present city cemetery. While the opening date for this school has not been pinpointed, it is believed that 1881 would be a close date.
Schools were also opened about this time at Big Creek (North Lake) and at Templeton (south lake). The former operated until 1937 and the latter into the 1940’s.
Until 1913, students had to provide their own transportation, which meant rowing for students residing around the lakes. After that, school boats were provided. One man, Adolf Lindros, operated one of the routes for over thirty years.
School picnics always marked the end of the school year. Perhaps one of the most memorable ones occurred shortly after the onset of prohibition. The two teachers noticed the students becoming exceedingly boisterous. Investigation proved that some kids had raided their parents “private” supply and what had passed as innocuous grape juice was in fact very potent wine. The teachers spent the rest of the picnic pouring coffee into the kids and having them walk it off. The remaining wine was confiscated. It was greatly appreciated that evening by the teacher (both young females) and some of their friends at another celebration of school’s end.
In the old days when the children were given their education they were forced to learn the three”R”s in the summer. They rowed themselves to school in town. Five miles each way. Kept minds and bodies healthy. The school boat came later in the 1900’s. Joe McGee was the skipper. The bus naturally was a later addition. So, after the long trip by rowing in the old days the kids had another mile to walk to the school. The school course took the children from grade school right through high school. But, in 1941 the last graduation class closed out that phase. From 1978 to ?????? the children went from kindergarten through the third grade and continue courses in North bend to the college years. Now they are all bussed to North Bend for school.
James T. Gordon was the father of Jane Suess. She was half Coos Indian and Half White. She was born in 1864 and passed away in 1959. But she left marvelous memories within the town of Lakeside where she lived.
It is when Jim Brown begins to talk of his visits with the old lady that his eyes warm with the legend s she was able to relate of her people. She spoke of certain areas on the Lake No white man was to ever tamper with and she spoke of sacred areas and the possibility of what might happen in the future if the area was not protected.
To speak a bit further of the coos tribe. At one time all the land surrounding the lakes as well as Marshfield, etc. belonged to the Indians. It would be repetitive, as all the history books tell us, to go on with the same but always sad story of how the tribe was pushed out, as well as neighboring tribes. But, as history continues it’s never ending channel into mankind’s successes and failures as intelligent creatures of many civilizations it might well to add here that the Indians can trace their way back for at least 2000 years in this area alone. One of the very reasons that in the 1800s they lost their rights to the waters was that the waterways were considered and ruled by the white man as navigable water, commercial waters. Not private waters. Open to public domain. This was Not an Indian ruling for to trace back history there has never been a time an Indian created any rule.
Among other early settlers in the region were Nels Monson, Ben Roberts, Steve M. Johnson, Angus R. McDonald, William Bowron, Charles Siestream, William Noble and others.
Pioneer life in the area was hard, although nature’s bounty of deer, elk, salmon, trout, ducks, berries, etc. meant little actual starvation. While forests provided settlers with lots of material for building and fuel, they were also the cause of exhausting work to clear the land and make it productive.
By 1892 enough settlers were around the lakes to organize a cooperative creamery. It stood on the right back of South Ten Mile creek a few feet from the mouth of South Lake. Cream was brought to it by boats. Around it were a one room school, a hotel and a place to play baseball. This community was commonly referred to as The Creamery. Milk, cream and other farm produce came to it from the farms by rowboat. From there the outlet was by teams and wagons across the sandflats to the ocean, then ten miles southward along the ocean beach to Jarvis Landing on coos bay to connect with steamers operating between empire and Marshfield.
In 1906 L. J. Simpson and C. M. Byler purchased the creamery and operated it until 1916. They also bought up considerable land in the vicinity of the creamery. Later it was bought by Carl Jacobson, who turned the creamery into a general store and ran it until1946. He sold the store to Les and Penny Knipps . The building was still standing in 1978 as Tracy’s apartment building. In the late 1930s construction was started on a third creamery, but World War 2 prevented completion. After the war it was made into a gas station and was the Texaco station in 1978.
The old Lake post office had been discontinued in 1903. In 1908 Simpson and Blyler plotted the land around Lakeside and on April 18, 1908 the town got its official name. That day the Lakeside post office opened and Nels S. Olson became its first postmaster.
The first known transportation system in the area was a stage/freight line founded in the 1880s by a man named Hibbard. This line operated along the county road which ran along the Creek to the ocean and then to Coos Bay along the shore. Later, stages operated over the hills to Hauser. In 1978 the stage coach road was a favorite spot for RVS. Open cars replaced horse drawn stages about 1910, but freight continued to be hauled by teams until much later. The first railroad locomotive seen in Lakeside arrived in 1913. It was a small engine used in driving the long tunnel between Scholfield creek and black creek. The engine was moved by laying short sections of rail and then pulling it with teams of horses. After reaching Lakeside, it was placed on a raft and towed to the head of BlackCreek, and again pulled by horses to the work site.
Establishment of rail service in 1916 provided a boost to Lakeside and ended much of its isolation. Southern pacific constructed an elaborate station house, side tracks, switching facilities and right of way maintenance facilities. Passenger and freight service achieved a remarkably high volume for the small population served. Freight service was discontinued in the 1930s while passenger service was kept on until 1952.
It might be of interest to note that the original ties were hand hewn from white cedar. The railroad paid $1.15 apiece for them.
World War I brought a large number of Spruce corps troops to Lakeside. Their role was to produce spruce used in airplane frames for the army flying corps and our allies. Their cantonment stood where Tugman State Park is now located.
Roy Currier provided a boost to the economy of Lakeside in the early 1930s with his construction of Curriers Village Resort. This was an elaborate vacation resort for its day. It included 36 steam heated cabins, a lodge, a skeet range, tiding stables, a luxurious restaurant and nightclub built on pilings over the lake, and a marina with various facilities including a diving tower built to competition standards. Mr. Currier had connections with Hollywood and he was able to induce many movie stars to vacation in Lakeside. During this period, Rolls Royce’s were not an uncommon sight in town.
The Oregon Coast highway, opening in the thirties, left Lakeside nearly a mile to the side. The Templeton country at the far end of South Lake had been opened up by a fairly good all year to the coos bay markets and trading centers. Shipping through Lakeside and down the beach route had long since ceased. During the depression Lakeside became like a ghost town. The southern pacific removed the depot, leaving only a flag stop. The population dwindled to the point that the remaining residents voted to disincorporate in 1942.
World War II was marked by disincorporation in 1943. So many people left the area to seek employment in defense plants that it was no longer practical to keep a city. During the war years many service men from the different bases in the area enjoyed the RV facilities of Ten Mile Lakes.
In the post war years Lakeside grew slowly. But as the population grew, so did the demand for services. In 1959 the Lakeside Rural Fire District was formed. Then in 1962 a water district was organized, as time passed, the need for sewers became pressing. This need lead to the incorporation a new City of Lakeside. This was in 1973.
A sawmill and a planer mill in town, as well as several sawmills on the Lake shores, added to the activity and prosperity of the community. In 1978 only one sawmill remained in lakeside named the Elkside Lumber company and though it was later bought by Bohemia Lumber Company it was still called Elkside.
