The Lower Umpqua - Oregon Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Sign about the Lower Umpqua history at the Winchester Bay Overlook on U.S. Hwy. 101
Marker Name: The Lower Umpqua
Marker Text: Native American villages occupied the mouths of many coastal streams, including the Umpqua River, long before European explorers, fur trappers, and emigrant settlers arrived. The Lower Umpqua or Kalawatset people lived here. Their homeland extended east to the summit of the Coast Range, north to Siltcoos Lake, and south to Tenmile Creek. The Kalawatset lived in harmony with the land, catching and gathering the region’s abundant food resources.
First Explorers
European exploration along Oregon’s Coast began with the Spanish in the mid-1500s. The first documented crossing of the Umpqua bar occurred in 1791 when the English brig Jenny sailed in under the command of James Baker. By the mid-1800s merchant vessels regularly crossed this treacherous bar bringing supplies to several communities along the Umpqua River. Today, jetties stretch seaward breaking waves and stabilizing shifting sand, while buoys and markers guide vessels safely into port.
Jedediah Smith
The Hudson’s Bay Company’s Alexander R. McCleod explored the lower Umpqua searching for furs in 1826. McCleod’s party included botanist David Douglas for whom the Douglas-fir is named. Jedediah Smith, an American mountain man, explored this region in 1828. The Smith River tributary of the Umpqua, bears his name today.
Herman Winchester
Winchester Bay is named for Herman Winchester, a member of an expedition that came from San Francisco in 1850 to establish townsites and foster settlement in western Oregon. For several years a town called West Umpqua, located near today’s Winchester Bay, was the largest settlement on the river.

Please upload a favorite photograph you took of the waymark. Although visiting this waymark in person is the only thing required of you to receive credit for your visit, taking the time to add this information is greatly appreciated.

Be creative.