North Bend

On a peninsula formed by the great bend in the Coos River as it flows to the Pacific Ocean, North Bend (Coos County) thrives on commercial fisheries, lumber, manufacturing, and tourism. The community also is the gateway to the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Coos Bay is North Bend's sister city, and leads to the fishing village of Charleston.

North Bend's history dates to the 1850s, when there were sawmills and a handful of houses. A lumberman, Louis Simpson, settled and named the town. Simpson's father started the town's original sawmill and expanded with machine shops and foundry, a woolen mill, a furniture factory, brewery, and two shipyards, which turned out a steady stream of wooden schooners that took Simpson lumber to San Francisco and other distant markets. North Bend was incorporated in 1903.

For a FREE vacation guide to Southern Oregon, contact Southern Oregon Visitors Association.

There also is a North Bend, Nebraska.