Curry Historical Museum

November 22, 2023July 23, 2015 by skynet

Alice Wakeman Building
29419 Ellensburg
Gold Beach, Oregon 97444

Phone: 541 247 9396
Hours: 10 am to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday
Closed: Sunday & Monday
Closed during the month of January

www.CurryHistory.com

Legends & Lores

Justice on the Beach

Based on an account by Edsel Colvin’s father Frank Colvin Dennis Cunniff, Sr., was born in Ireland on March 7th, 1828. He arrived in San Francisco in 1850 and mined at the Feather and Yuba rivers and then on to the Klamath in 1852. Four years later, in 1856, he married Margaret McAffery Graham. She ... Read more

The Woodman

Once upon a time there was a fellow who made his living in Curry County by cheating others. They say he not only sold things that didn’t belong to him but he sold them twice and left the real owner and two purchasers to argue over it. He was clever and always claimed he had ... Read more

The Lost City

On September 8, 1881, the Port Orford Post ran the following story…. “There have recently been discovered near Floras Creek in this county, what appear to be the ruins of an ancient city, built of cut stone. The site of the numerous buildings of the ages gone by are indicated by mounds, in and under ... Read more

The Vault

by Howard Newhouse It was a calm, dog day, just after school started in 1944, when this 16 year old lad hiked down the hill from his home in Wedderburn to the Wedderburn Store. My dad, Sewell Newhouse, had an office located in the west end of the old building which had been built by ... Read more

The Lost Mine of Nugget Tom

In 1871 “Nugget Tom” had a small gold claim in Star Gulch near the headwaters of the Sixes River in Curry County. For a long time he had been wondering if there wasn’t a ledge up above him that all his placer gold had come from. If there was, and he could find it, he ... Read more

Arch Rock

A Tradition Tale From Curry County Echoes: Volumn 1 1973-1974 Arch Rock is located approximately thirteen miles south of Gold Beach and one quarter miles from shore. Its prominence has made it a hallmark of Curry County, and it appears on the letterhead and on contemporary county stationery. The Tolowa Indian tribe in Northern California ... Read more

The Shootout

Stay Away From Her, Or Else! * During the early part of August, 1896, H. W. Fountain, a sewing machine salesman, left Marshfield, Oregon and headed south. He arrived in Wedderburn-Gold Beach and tried to sell some sewing machines before heading on to Crescent City, California. He only intended to stay a few days but ... Read more

Biography: Captain Edward Ord

From the Diary of Captain Edward Ord On March 26, 1856, a military unit under the command of Captain Edward Ord, left the mouth of the Rogue River to locate and destroy the “Mack-a-noo-tenay” Indian village known to be up the Rogue River. The group consisted of the 55 men of “B” Company, 3rd Artillery, ... Read more

Biography: Hathaway Jones Stories

Hathaway and the Balky Mule I swam a river with my mule one fall to go hunting in one of my favorite spots. I must have picked a good day because I bagged two five point bucks within an hour. I just got them cleaned up when I heard a noise. I turned around and ... Read more

Biography: The Wakeman’s

The Wakeman Family by Edith Wakeman Jones (1975) Wakeman is an English name which has been traced back to the Norman Conquest in 1066. It was originally to words, “wake” and “man.” A wake man had the task of keeping watch over the clan and alerting them if danger was near. The Wakeman name came ... Read more

Biography: Frank Colvin, An Early Mail Route

In the early 1900’s, all the mail was carried by horseback. Frank Colvin once carried the mail from Gold Beach to the Irma Post Office, about twenty-two miles south. “I went to the Gold Beach Post Office at 6:00 a.m. and Charles Dewey, postmaster, swore me in and signed me up as a substitute mail ... Read more

Biography: Hooter Scooter Prairie

by Edith Wakeman Jones, Constantine Smith & Reinhold Rissio Constantine Smith was the first homesteader in the area near the headwaters of Indian Creek. He and Reinhold Riissio homesteaded the adjoining property to the north and the east. Smith had trouble pronouncing Riissio’s name, so he dubbed him “Hooter Scooter” and the name has endured. ... Read more

Biography: Hattie Hogue

Hattie Hogue was born on July 10th, 1900, at Woodville, Oregon, to Frank and Mattie Gilmore. Woodville is now known as Rogue River. Hattie had three sisters, Minnie Kirkpatrick Hall, Ada Johnston and Pauline Deo. On April 3, 1919, she was married to Charles “Shenie” Hogue in Portland, Oregon. They had two sons, Donald, born ... Read more

Biography: Ruby Purdin ~ 1898-1998

RUBY MORGAN PURDIN’S grandfather, Wesley Morgan, left a plantation in Mississippi and moved to Horse Creek, California, after the Civil war. Ruby was born April 9, 1898, to Wesley and Grace Bratt Morgan in Horse Creek, twenty-eight miles down the Klamath river from Yreka. Ruby lived there with her parents and two brothers, Ernest, born ... Read more

Biography: D. M. “Bullhide” Moore

D. M. Moore was born in Ophir, Oregon, February 12, 1886, the sixth son of D. L. and Mary Cook Moore. His parents crossed the plains and settled on a ranch in the Willamette valley in 1880. A few years later they came to Curry County, where Moore engaged in logging on the Rogue River ... Read more

Biography: Hugo Mayer

Hugo Mayer was an unnaturalized immigrant that was born in Suhl, Germany, in 1884. He came to the United States in 1904, arriving in New York and continuing on to California. He went to the Klamath River country and got a partner and the two of them came to the illinois River in 1906. They ... Read more

Biography: Geisel Family

History of the Geisel Monument and the Last Hanging in Curry County John and Christina Geisel were married in May 6, 1842 in Butler County, Ohio. Before making there way west the lived in Kentucky and Indiana, and finally Oregon. In 1854 they settled about 6 miles north of the mouth of the Rogue River ... Read more

Biography: Gust Scheidau

The Man and The River by Dot Gray Curry County Reporter – Rogue Coast May 21, 1997 Flowing waters, whether they come from a natural hot mineral spring, a lovely waterfall, a placid lake or rushing river, have always had a healing effect on humans. People are drawn to water, turbulent or tranquil. Souls are ... Read more