Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/363

Rh with a competent garrison now retained at Port Orford did much to overawe the warring Indian element, and peace for a period was the result all along the coast.

A new and better fate in 1853 now awaited the little settlement in the unexpected turn of fortune in its uncertain destiny. Gold was discovered in the beach sands and for thirty miles up and down the sea shore the glittering sands were worked out by excited throngs. Coming from California mines and new settlements on Coos Bay and interior Oregon, soon thousands of these hungry gold seekers were washing out from ten to twenty dollars per day by every kind of crude device and handmade structure.

Port Orford, like a fabled dream of Utopia, at once grew into city proportions in a few weeks time. Ships by steam and sail came into port with passengers, mail, stores and supplies to maintain the gathering hosts. By 1854 and 1855 there were 6 hotels, 9 retail stores with one wholesale firm, mechanical shops, 2 meat markets, 2 drug stores, with bakeries, bowling alleys, billiard parlors, saloons and places of amusement on different streets, and with tents spread out in every direction.

A. H. Thrift, of the Randolph mines, in careful estimates made, computed ten millions of dollars as taken from the beach sands along the coast, and one million alone from the Randolph deposits, during the course of the mining season. To these should be added the coarse gold mining in the coastal interior, such as Coquille River, Salmon Mountain, Johnson Diggings, and the Sixes mines, which largely influenced Port Orford prosperity.

This growth made building material necessary, and in the immense white cedar forests so near the town, sawmills were soon attracted. The first one of size was by