North Bend Oregon and the Lumber Business

The town of North Bend is located just north of Coos Bay and is home to a large lumber industry. We noticed that one of the largest firms is the Menasha Corporation, which Rick found interesting since he was born in Neenah/Menasha, Wisconsin, which is an area known for paper production.

 The number of logs in the wood yard was amazing, with a virtual mountain of logs set up. There were acres and acres of logs stacked here awaiting milling or pulp operations.

 The size of these logs are huge and we were impressed with the operation as they moved, inventoried and prepared for operations.

 This area has been known for lumbering for many years, with steam powered skids being used to haul logs through the woods. This unit was used from 1905 to 1950, which was quite a useful life for equipment under heavy use.

Just north of the Menasha Corp. lot is the Conde B. McCullough Memorial Bridge, one of the longest bridges in Oregon. 

 We stopped at a special bridge display and learned that the bridge just celebrated its 75th birthday. The bridge provides 150' of clearance over the river and allows large freighters to dock to pick up lumber and other cargo.

We also learned about how this amazing bridge was built. First, wood forms were built and then concrete was poured to make the huge arches that make up most of the bridge. The steel cantilever center section is almost 800' of the 5,300' long bridge.