The Coquille River drains a mountainous watershed of about 6.8 million acres (2.7 million ha), with at least 26 named tributaries, and flows for about 36 miles (58 km) from the confluence of the North Fork and South Fork to the Pacific Ocean at Bandon, about 26 miles (42 km) north of Port Orford and 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Coos Bay, Oregon. The river is named for the Coquille tribes that once inhabited the region. Bandon sits at a historic ferry landing on the river’s south side. Settled in 1853 as Averill, the community was renamed in 1873 by George Bennet after his hometown of Bandon, Ireland. Though the Coquille River boasts the largest watershed in Oregon’s Coast Range, its estuary is modest—covering about 400 acres (162 ha) of tidelands and wetlands. Despite historic diking and filling of wetlands, creeks, and sloughs, the lower river remains a key rearing habitat for coho and Chinook salmon. Southwestern Oregon’s rugged coast features a marine terrace 0.5 to 4 miles (1 to 6 km) wide that gives way abruptly to the deeply incised Coast Range. The bedrock along the southern coast comprises complexly folded, faulted and variably metamorphosed Mesozoic terranes that record a history of oceanic, volcanic arc, and continental margin sedimentation, magmatism and terrane accretion during the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous. This geologic record offers insights into the region’s dynamic tectonic history. Inboard of the active Cascadia subduction zone—where oceanic crust is obliquely subducted beneath the North American plate—these terranes attest to plate-boundary quakes as large as magnitude 9. The Coquille estuary preserves a 6,700-year record of earthquakes and tsunamis that repeatedly lowered tidal marshes and forests to tidal-flat elevations. Tsunamis inundated the estuary and deposited sand as far as 6 miles (10 km) inland, while quakes occurred on average every 570 to 590 years, with intervals ranging from a few hundred to over 1,000 years. These episodic events have profoundly reshaped the estuary and adjacent coastal lands over millennia.

Archaeological evidence shows the Coquille River’s coastal areas were occupied 8,000 years ago and inland 11,000 years ago. Coquille ancestors lived along riverbanks from Camas Mountain to Whiskey Run Creek and along the coast to Floras Lake and Quatomah Creek. They split by language: the upper spoke Tututni, an Athapaskan tongue; the lower, Miluk, a Coosan language. Fish traps on the lower river date to at least 1,000 years ago. The Coquille fished in tidewaters and estuaries with weirs and basket traps and collected shellfish. Some lived in lean-to cedar-plank dwellings; others built wooden homes on poles with willow frames topped with sod or grass. They formed villages of 20 to 80 people led by a headman, with settlements scattered along the riverbanks and near the mouth, sustained by abundant ocean, river and land resources. By 1700, coastal tribes received Euro-American trade goods and encountered explorers as ships scouted the Oregon coast for sea otter furs. The first European contact, with the Coquille known as the Nasomah, occurred in 1792 during Captain George Vancouver’s voyage. No further contact took place until 1826, when Alexander R. McLeod of the Hudson’s Bay Company explored the Rogue River for beaver furs. In 1826–1827, McLeod’s troupe visited repeatedly, and the tribes soon suffered devastating losses from introduced diseases. Conflicts intensified as settlers disrupted traditional land use. A ferry crossing at the river’s mouth spurred a settlement in the early 1850s. In 1851, soldiers from Port Orford attacked a Coquille village; two years later, gold on Whiskey Run Creek attracted 1,000 miners to Randolph. By 1854, tensions led to a massacre of the Nasomah, and in 1856 the US Army forced the Coquille and other coastal tribes north to what became the Siletz Reservation.

The Coquille River was a navigable link to Coast Range timber stands, though its mouth’s bar hindered ships. In 1880, Congress funded a jetty on the south side, creating a deep channel that boosted vessel traffic. In 1896, the Coquille River Lighthouse was built on Rackleff Rock at the end of the Bandon spit on the north side. Fitted with a fourth-order Fresnel lens and an oil lamp visible for about 12 miles, the lighthouse was linked by a footbridge to the mainland, where the keeper’s dwelling, barn, and cistern were located. Over time, the rock became part of the north jetty’s bulwark. In 1936, a wildfire devastated much of Bandon, but the lighthouse—on the opposite bank—escaped the blaze. Reportedly, the lightkeepers turned the beacon toward Bandon to guide fleeing residents. Soon after, the town went bankrupt as shipping declined. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1939, and neglect and vandalism eventually led to the removal of the keeper’s house and other structures. Between 1962 and 1985, Bullards Beach State Park was acquired from several owners, including the U S Bureau of Land Management. Early settler Robert Bullard had established a store, post office, and ferry at the river’s mouth, lending his name to the park. The original 11 acres of the light station reserve were incorporated into the park, with the state assuming responsibility for the lighthouse. In 1976, Oregon State Parks and the US Army Corps of Engineers undertook a joint restoration: they repaired the roof, replaced bricks, and repainted the structure before reopening it to the public. In 1991, as part of Bandon’s centennial, a solar-powered light was installed. More recently, restorations were completed on the lantern room, the Fresnel lens, exterior stucco, and the foghorn. Read more here and here. Explore more of Coquille River Light and Bandon here: