I was born in the town of North Bend, Oregon. The original name of the town was Yarrow. I grew up just blocks from the Simpsons Park in a house at the end of Montana Avenue. Just beyond our home was the shore of the bay. During the Columbus Day Storm of 62 the surge came up as far as our sea wall and some of the waves were blown against our home. My dad was an ambulance driver and was working throughout the storm. Fond memories of my childhood.

This is the best documentary of the shipbuilding history of Coos Bay North Bend. Amazing.

love it ive sailed in and out of coos bay 2 times and i live in reedsport oregon did not realize coos bay area built all them nice ships

Mister, you sure build a fine model!

I stumbled across this video.... what a gem - very fascinating - what historical treasure you've bestowed upon us. Bloody shame the schools and PBS does not bless far more with this information. Great work. I enjoy our small sailing boats although I stayed a night on the Balclutha in the SF harbor, however these are a class to themselves.

It's so sad when a beautiful 3, 4, and 5 masts ship is lost. Thank you for posting this video of some not so well known ships. They will be missed.

Fascinating story.Much history to be learned.

Thanks again for all your hard work on this project and town.

Coos Bay has been my home since 1946 and with the exception of 22 years in the navy it still is. Thank you for your video. As a retired photographer I would like to point out that glass plate negatives were just that, glass plate negatives. It is great that you were able to save so many of them. None of this was taught in history classes at Marshfield High School. Too bad, because it would give out kids a better understanding of the community. RLB USN (ret)

Wow. What a find. Seriously what an amazing story. And to save it on such narrow luck! What it would have been like to be around when these tall ships sailed

Ship's interiors are in what I am interested. Photos of the exteriors are easy to find but living spaces are RARE. Please do a documentary on interior spaces of ships.

15:00 By absolute chance your video started playing because I had to leave the room for a while and a few videos continued to "auto play" and suddenly I see a painting of the wall hanging ship I have on my wall!!! Mine is a molded plastic sculpture from 1962 painted in gold and I've always wondered what ship it might be. The rolled up sail and the shape of the flags and the rigging all match. I'm so glad that this video played today. And my TV hangs directly beside the ship hanging on the wall. Thank you for valuing history. -✌🏼

I was born in Coos Bay, OR 1984. My roots remain but my desires are outbound. Thank you for this video! 😊

Loved this. Steve's work is breathtaking.

Thank you for your diligence and Patience. I'ved learned so much in a proud moment of positive Energies of history. I'm glad to know this gained wonderful knowledge. 💪🎇

What a surprise ! My grandfather,Oscar Oberg,,shown with his oldest so ,Carl was skipper of the Admiral while his family was growing up.I have pictures of my mother and her five siblings playing aboard on the stacks of lumber higher than their heads.They spent several summers making the coastal run. Thankyou

Unbelievable industry and production, almost incomprehensible, all done by hand, no power tools. Man I'd probably kill to have one of those models! I'll be learning more. I got aboard the USS Constitution in Boston I was impressed haha ( they captured me and forced me to be part of the crew haha I wish!)

Boats are a lot like people, they either sink, or run aground. Spectacular history lesson.

Impressive history research. Well done

The sailing vessel mentioned in the video Tropic Bird is featured in a story told in the book Captain Scaggs (by Peter B Kyne). It is a humorous book based in SF Bay in the early 1900's about a steamboat captain and his crew.

Thanks, and what a great job you did. I want yo sail the world and love tall ships. I just moved to oregon from wyoming and bought a wood fishing vessel called the Legend. Built in Canada and launched in 1961 built of oak and port orford cedar. Look forward to more of your shows

I am just getting into building large realistic ship models and came across your videos. I am sure you heard this many many times before but I just have to add in my HUGE THANK YOU for finding and sharing this information. Outstanding Steve just nothing shy of Outstanding. Best Wishes your way

Thank you this is amazing history you saved awesome presentation 👍👍

my neck is tingling how wonderful, i love our history so exciting. congratulations well done!!!

Interesting and worthwhile!

An amazing history, for sure.

I have had the best experience of the last 2 years, Well done, Sir.

Great video! I'll watch the rest! Thanks!

An Absolute Spectacular video!

splendid! splendid!!

You are simply amazing Steve. You masterfully bring this area's history into the light of the present.

Thankyou. Fascinating.

Wonderful, this is awesome

Steve thanks for this post. Its just great ;o) You might find a flood of back and white photos posted in the news groups tall ship that I have collected for 10 years. I am a submariner and you need this to keep it alive. I love to sail in bad weather the most!

Fantastic history thank you 🙏

Thank you

What an intro! Fabulus find. Coos Bay,....who would have thought...?

Beautiful models.

WELL DONE.

Good to see you again, some day I will post the rest of my ship build videos and stop starting new projects, hope all is well in your dock or harbor. Atb Lawrence

How cool this is

I live on Kruse ave here in Coos Bay, I'm sure it's named after John Kruse, their not another Kruse in the county, it started out as a wooden road next to the Coal Bank slough. I noticed on the list of ships, his last ship had his name and Bank as the builders, the slough leads back to some coal mines, the rocks I heard was used to make the jetty, You can't head north from North Bend with out crossing the McCullough Bridge, my family name.

I think I may have more info on who Originally got the glass negatives from the print shop . He was told to throw them in the trash and as a young man he took them home to Airport heights and they have traveled 2200 miles then back to the Bay .

Best of the best

I've been searching in vain to find a documentary I saw as a young guy back in the 80's. The movie doc follows one of the last tall ships to perform commercial fishing I believe. While the documentary was narrated in English I'm pretty sure the crew were Danish/Norwegian/Finnish/or Swedish. I remember that food was not plentiful and the crew ate a LOT of raw fish. I remember that I watched sailors just kinda rip a head off and chomp down a whole uncooked herring towards the end of the documentary. I'm not certain, but I vaguely remember the movie having to do with the end of wind-powered fishing on schooners and clippers instead of new industrialized methods and Diesel engines. It was the last of its generation to continue fishing into the 1970's. Does anyone remember this movie? I want to say it was a documentary on either HBO or Showtime in the mid to late 1980's. Anyone?

Very interesting. I wasn't aware of John Kruse, am unsure the relationship if any with K.V. Kruse. I know K.V. Kruse had a brother, the two of them having started out in Denmark, and worked in San Francisco for a time. Kruse and Banks was established in 1905. Knud Vladimar Kruse was our great grandfather. My Dad had letters from his grand uncle who lived at that time in South America. We have many photos.

If you enjoyed this, you might like to read Henry Dana's earlier account of sailing on the West Coast in "Two Years before the Mast".

I wonder why the Portland went to New Zealand loaded with lumber. All that way across the Pacific when NZ had so much of its own lumber anyway. You'd hate to run into a hurricane with that lot on board.

Was John Kruse related to the Kruse Family in Roseburg? Like Jeff Kruse, is he related?

Thank you for posting this valuable information. I am a NW native and this is the first time in all my years, that I have ever heard of these vessels! A real piece of history that got no mention what so ever in school. Sad, I suppose teaching socialism was more important than American History even back then.....

Just plain great! I would suggest that glass negatives were not daguerreotype, usually printed on metal. And please pronounce Coos with an "s" --- not "z" --- sorry to nit pick, but what amazing work you have done.

Imagine cutting a mast with a broad axe?

Used to have bonfires on basendorf beach

spruce, oregon spars and yes pin were always above bulwarks, reason, you canna make fast with pins underwater

Tall Ships of Coos Bay c.1856 - 1920

I was raised on Libby Homestead

At the 6 minute mark you call Coos Bay in 1854 "Unsettled" and pristine. Wrong - Coos Bay (which comes from the Coosan languages, Kuukuus or Kuukwis, our name for the region and it means 'south') was ringed with dozens and dozens of villages, and many villages and fish camp sites up Coos River, and people had been living here for thousands of years.

Hey Steve, Your final remark, "...that ships of sail built on the Pacific Northwest were possibly the finest wooden ships of sail ever built!". I respect your patriotism, but you seem to forget (and I know John Kruse was Danish), that in Denmark, the towns of Marstal, Ring Andersen Shipyard in Svendborg and Thuroe, for sure match the beauty, the tall ships of the Northwest represent - in my opinion.

I respectfully submit that the name of this bay is Coos (said like moose or loose, please) Bay, not Cooz bay. It is a proper name and not subject to spelling/pronunciation rules. Thank you from a native of Coos (cooss) County.

I had a dream vision about this place when I was a kid, long before I knew it existed. Me and some immigrants were hiding under the dock. Fearing our lives. We went underwater and held our breath while someone walked by. I remember everything vividly still. Recently this year I realized why and what was going on there. I was triggered because of my brother-in-law who works at the casino. I think they trafficked humans too😢

"Chased off by hostile indians" yes the people who lived there, I'm sure they sorted that problem the following year.

Not sure your source but we’re all related.

well, timber was plentiful, guess they used White Oak, for structural members, spruce, oregon sparsYes pins were always high, you cannot make fast with pins under water

Fantastic info, good work! Though one of the first lines about Asa getting chased off by hostile Indians and going back to settle the area later perpetuates a pervasive incorrect notion that a place isn’t settled unless it’s done by white people. Who chased him off in the first place?

Hi Steve Remember me? Becky fr staples in cb? HELLO!!

One of the greatest failures of the United States education is to not teach about the amazing early naval history of our country.

Slow down, too fast.

Fantastic history thank you 🙏