Umpqua River flows generally west-northwest for 111 miles (179 km), draining a watershed of 2.4 million acres (1 million ha), from the Cascade Mountains through the Coast Range to Winchester Bay in the Oregon Dunes, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Coos Bay and 5.5 miles (9 km) southwest of Reedsport, Oregon. In 1825, the British botanist David Douglas reputedly named the river after the Umpqua tribe, who lived along its lower reaches. However, the tribe called it ‘koh′ eetch′,’ a term referring to a landscape feature rather than a settlement. Winchester Bay was named for Winchester, Paine, and Company, an early land development firm from San Francisco; in the Lower Umpqua language, the bay was called ‘kow-ah′ lich.’ In the Umpqua River valley, the Coast Range primarily consists of Middle Eocene rocks of the Tyee Formation—a thick sequence of fine-grained marine sandstone and siltstone deposited by north-flowing turbidity currents. These sandstones are derived from granites formed in the Late Jurassic, most likely from the Idaho batholith, which suggests that the Oregon Coast Range depositional basin originally lay much farther east—closer to present-day Idaho—before moving westward. The Tyee Formation extends to the coast. The lower reaches of the river were deeply entrenched during the Pleistocene, when sea level was lower, and are now filled with more than 130 feet (40 m) of fine-grained fluvial and estuarine deposits. The coastal fringe of the Lower Umpqua is overlain by Quaternary windblown dune sand composed primarily of feldspar and minor quartz. The Oregon Dunes extend 54 miles (87 km) from Heceta Head in the north to Cape Arago in the south, covering roughly 40,000 acres (16,187 ha) and penetrating inland for over 3 miles (5 km). The youngest dunes, formed within the last 7,000 years, are closest to the ocean; in contrast, the higher dunes to the east formed over 20,000 years ago, and some of the highest dune crests were last active over 100,000 years ago. Analyses of individual sand grains indicate that the Umpqua River is the primary source of the dunes, with smaller contributions from the Siuslaw and Coos Rivers.

Archaeological evidence indicates that indigenous peoples settled in the Umpqua region at least 9,000 years ago. The watershed has long been home to several tribes, including the Yoncalla Kalapuyans, Southern Molala, Upper Umpqua, Cow Creek Umpqua and Lower Umpqua—also known as the Kuitsh, closely related to the Siuslaw. The Kuitsh maintained winter villages around Winchester Bay at the Umpqua River’s mouth. Their seasonal round involved hunting and gathering: they fished for salmon and gathered berries, elk, deer, camas bulbs, fern roots and shellfish. They occasionally hunted seals and sea lions; stranded whales were butchered for blubber and oil, though they did not engage in open-ocean whaling. Pre-contact population estimates vary. Early fur trappers counted some 3,000 to 4,000 people in the Umpqua Valley and 500 along the coast. The first recorded European contact came in the late 1700s when fur trappers aboard the Columbia Redidiva reached the Umpqua estuary—although Spanish galleons had sailed the Oregon coast at least a century earlier. Epidemics then triggered a rapid decline among the Lower Umpqua. In the 1820s the Hudson’s Bay Company launched intensive beaver trapping and regular trade in the watershed. In 1836 it built Fort Umpqua, about 36 miles (58 km) east of the river mouth, and trade with fur trappers introduced brass kettles, needles and thread, beads, clothing and blankets to the Umpqua people. After the United States formed the Oregon Territory in 1848, the Hudson’s Bay Company abandoned the fort in 1853. To encourage settlement, Congress passed the Donation Land Claim Act, granting 640 acres to each married couple. The 1852 gold rush brought several thousand miners into the Rogue, Illinois and Umpqua valleys, escalating conflicts with local tribes. In 1856 the Lower Umpqua were forcibly removed to the Coast Indian Reservation. The region became part of Oregon when the state was admitted in 1859.

Winchester Bay in the Umpqua River estuary was planned as a major shipping port for the region’s land development and timber industries and was soon chosen as one of six lighthouse sites. Shifting sand bars and turbulent currents at the river mouth endangered ships and necessitated a navigational aid. The first lighthouse, built along the river channel, was completed in 1857 but collapsed in October 1863 after seasonal flooding and an unstable sand embankment eroded its foundation. A new lighthouse began construction in 1892 and was completed in 1894. Built at an elevation of 100 feet and 0.5 miles from the river and ocean, it used a clockwork mechanism to rotate a unique 1st-order Fresnel lens projecting red and white beams. In 1916, the Secretary of War permitted construction of a jetty at the river mouth to mitigate hazards. Jetty work on the north side began in 1923 and finished in 1927, followed by a south jetty in 1935. The light was automated in 1966, and in 1983 the rotation mechanism’s wheels wore out after 89 years of continuous operation. The US Coast Guard restored the original mechanism in 1985, returning the lens to service. In 2010, Douglas County assumed ownership of the lighthouse and leased the Fresnel lens from the Coast Guard. The light remains in operation, and its 1st-order lens is one of the few still in use. Between 1930 and 1951, land for Umpqua Lighthouse State Park was acquired—much of it donated by Douglas County, with additional parcels purchased from the US Government and private owners. In 1951, Menasha Wooden Ware Company donated just over 100 acres, and in 1972, with the creation of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area on the surrounding Siuslaw National Forest, an exchange with the US Forest Service completed the park. The park preserves the forested basin of Lake Marie and an extensive ocean frontage with adjoining sand dunes. Read more here and here. Explore more of the Umpqua River and Winchester Bay here: