Gold Beach
Ore - ROOMS |
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Gold
Beach |
To start with The Inn of
the Beachcomber is located in Gold Beach Oregon on a 4.00
acre site that starts on Hwy 101 (Ellensburg Avenue) and slops
gently to the Pacific Ocean. Gold Beach is the county seat
for Curry County and the town rises fairly quickly from the
beach to the coastal range. Gold Beach is not necessarily
what I would call really close to any big city. Gold Beach
is about four hours from Eugene, over three from Medford and
six hours from Portland. I made it to Gold Beach in eight
hours from downtown San Francisco. I think that means that
you have to either be coming to Gold Beach because you want
to get away to a really unique and special place (a place
not seen by most all of the world) or you’ve stumbled
upon it on the way through Redwoods National Park along the
southern Oregon coast. If you combine Gold Beach’s location
with the simple fact that Gold Beach is surrounded by the
ocean and forest lands, there are not a lot of places to build
things here. The result you end up with is there’s not
a lot of people in Gold Beach. Back when Zane Grey had his
wilderness cabin up the Rogue in the 20’s that was not
that big of a deal. Back then there were lots of places that
were nice that didn’t have lots of people. Today the
reality of beginning in a really beautiful place with pretty
good weather most of the year and not a lot of people in the
year 2007 is pretty special. |
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After spending some time
in Gold Beach I knew it was not your regular coast town. The
thing about Gold Beach is, I think there are less people in
town now than when timber was king in the early seventies,
it’s like the way coast towns were in the old days before
they became tourist towns. If you’re looking for a trendy
coast town like Cambria, Cannon Beach or Carmel you’ll
be finished with Gold Beach pretty quickly. Gold Beach is
still inhabited by the kind of people that have been here
for a while. The kind of people that Henry Fonda and Paul
Newman, portrayed in the 1964 Ken Kesey (One Flew over the
Cuckoos Nest) classic Sometimes a Great Notion. The novel
and movie depicted a hard working logging family living in
a logging community on the Oregon Coast. Those kind of real
people who go up in the woods to earn a day’s wages
still can be found living today in Gold Beach. Gold Beach
is changing but it’s still the place where the “Famous”
Rogue River meets the Pacific Ocean. The Rogue has always
been the kind of place that draws in those that love nature
raw and simple. In short Gold Beach is a lot about what used
to be great, i.e. the great outdoors and nature, until progress
got in the way of the rest of the world. Yes it’s true
not a lot has changed in Gold Beach while a lot has changed
in the rest of the world. We have a Dairy Queen and that’s
it for formula food. The lack of change in Gold Beach is one
of the reasons it seams Gold Beach is like a place father
time forgot to check in on while he changed everything else.
This is good and bad. If you don’t want to see your
neighbors it’s good. If you want a Star Bucks Grande
Verde it’s bad, my personal preference is to just order
a large coffee with cream that taste great (Dutch Brothers)
so I’d have to say it’s all good. |
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The place
time forgot |
As I mentioned before Gold
Beach has two miles of beach front property and most of it
is used for stuff that’s been here for a while like
the airport and fairgrounds. I think the last beach front
subdivision was platted along the beachfront in Gold Beach
proper. The large amount of public uses has resulted in a
lack of development and a beach with not a lot of folks even
during the peak of the summer tourist season. When you combine
that with what’s happening to the beach Gold Beach is
really different. The Port of Gold Beach was constructed in
the early sixties at the mouth of the Rouge River which has
a Federal designation as a Wild and Scenic River.
Because
of the lack of dams on the river a large amount of sediment
needs to be dredged each year by the Army Corps of Engineers.
This dredging, and the construction of the jetty, has caused
the beach to grow over 350 feet the last forty years. Actually
the geologist said he didn’t know why the beach keeps
growing but this all seems to make sense. That fact is the
beach has grown and that is different from most of the beaches.
The beach has grown through the process of the creation of
a stable dune and the growth of beach grass. When you go for
a stroll on the beach its’ like stepping back in time
and strolling in a simpler uncomplicated era, not really any
people and hardly much development. My first thought were
scenes from the summer of 42 set in Nantucket Island in 1942.
The Summer of 42 was actually filmed five hours south of Gold
Beach in the Fort Bragg Mendocino area. In short one of the
special charms of Gold Beach is the pristine and uncrowded
beach. |