I am doing things a little bit differently this week, as all three of my historic pictures will be part of the story of one of Bandon's oldest businesses, the Capps Motor Co.
The first picture shows Capps Garage before the fire of 1936. It is the building on the east side of Oregon Avenue, which was the main highway into town in those days. Today it leads down the hill past Holy Trinity Catholic Church and joins First Street across from the Port of Bandon's marketplace building. If you look closely you can see the overhang which covered the gasoline tanks in front of the big concrete two-story structure. West of Capps Garage is The Golden Rule, which after the fire relocated on Second Street in the building that is now the Continuum Center.
In an article in Western World, dated Jan. 21, 1937, which would be just a few months after the fire, an article tells how important the Capps Garage was that night.
"On the night of the big fire hundreds of cars drove up to the service station of Mayor Ed Capps to fill up with gas, preparatory to their contemplated flight to safety. All evening long, car after car stopped and without hesitation, the faithful attendants at the station pumped out the gas. The drain on the storage tank was greater than that of the ordinary Saturday night so a call to the Standard Oil Co. plant brought Manager Hal M. Howe with a truckload of gas to replenish the fastly diminishing supply.
"As fast as the gas was being emptied into the storage tank the pumps were drawing it out. And so on into the night. Flames from the raging forest fire drew nearer and nearer, pump attendants worked faster and faster. All the time the tank truck stood by, furnishing the supply that made it possible for many families to flee from the oncoming inferno and thereby probably saving the lives of many who might have been caught in the path of the oncoming tide.
"Finally, when the great tongues of hell were reaching over the hill and dipped into the roof of the Capps building, the heat became so intense that all were forced to abandon their stations.
"The following morning, after the crumbled mass of concrete and iron that had been the Capps Motor Co. plant had cooled off sufficiently to warrant inspection, there was the charred and twisted remains of the Standard Oil tank truck that had so heroically stood by the night before.
Ed Capps, owner of the company, first established the business in Bandon in 1922, and soon after took over the Ford agency.
The large concrete building, which was described in a 1951 article as being located at Bandon Avenue and Wall Street (the street which ran under the hill below the Catholic church but has long since been vacated), was considered a safe haven for cars and household goods by many citizens during the fire, but the intense heat destroyed it, along with most other concrete structures of that time.
Willis Baker, for example, who was in charge of the Oregon State fish hatchery east of town, brought his family possessions to the Capps building; it burned. His home survived.
Immediately after the fire, Capps built the service station and garage (which you see in the second picture) across Second Street from his new building, which had its grand opening in August of 1951. The old service station was torn down in March of 1969.
You have to look a bit to find the Capps Motor Co. building that Capps erected in 1951. This picture was taken in 1959, and you can see Erdman's City Market (Meats and Groceries), Lloyd's Cafe (small space in those days before owners bought the Erdman's building and expanded into the space it occupies today), Pastime Tavern (now Sweets & Treats), Boone's Hardware and the complex, which Merritt J. Senter and other businesses occupied over the years, and is now owned by Lynn Davies and her daughter, Jessica Brink. Across Chicago you can see the large Capps Motor Co. building, which is now owned by Kirk and Elizabeth Day and occupied by Washed Ashore, Broken Anchor and a real estate office. If you look closely, you can see new vehicles in the Capps showroom. Just to the east is the Bandon Theater, which was later torn down.
The article in the Aug. 2, 1951, issue of Western World describes the new Capps building in glowing terms.
"The new building is among the most modern automotive plants in Coos County, including spacious showroom, service department, special body repair and painting rooms, huge parts department, office and new equipment.
"Capps has been one of the leading businessmen of Bandon for nearly 30 years. He was mayor of Bandon at the time of the fire and afterwards, and his large investment in the modern new automotive plant is seen as indicative of his continuing faith in Bandon's future."
The article was written by my grandfather, L. D. Felsheim, who worked closely with Mayor Capps in helping Bandon to rebuild as owner of the Western World.
Talk about frightening. An incident that occurred Saturday on the North Oregon coast near Tillamook could have been a lot worse. A rockslide trapped as many as a dozen people at the Oceanside Tunnel Saturday morning, forcing an emergency plan to rescue them before an incoming tide arrived.
The rockslide occurred at 10:45 a.m. at the south opening, and it was necessary to rescue people trapped on the north side of the tunnel. They were rescued one by one through a three-foot opening at the Oceanside beach. The rescue operation took about 25 minutes, and all were required to wear hard hats as rocks were continuing to fall. A spokesman for the Netarts Fire and Rescue said some people climbed the cliff to get out.
Oregon State Parks closed the tunnel access until further notice.
An article in The Oregonian is extremely disturbing, and shows the extremes to which people are taking their concerns.
"About 50 right-wing protesters converged on the Silverton home of a state workplace safety regulator on Sunday to protest a large fine levied against a Salem gym owner."
The police chief said there were no problems or issues. He said they stayed on the sidewalks and off private property.
I saw a Facebook post this week on the Bandon, Oregon Facebook page urging people to join in a similar protest in front of the home of the OSHA director Michael Wood.
I suggested that there might be other ways to express your concern rather than intimidating a state official, who was carrying out the mandates of Oregon Governor Kate Brown.
I was on a call last week where Wood and other state officials were talking about Covid 19 and the escalating number of cases. I found him to be a caring concerned person, and I can't come to grips with the idea that he, his family and his neighbors need to be subjected to this kind of intimidation.
A group from the other "camp" recently converged on the home of Portland's new city commissioner, broke out a window and set fire to property because he would not vote to further defund the Portland Police Department.
I understand the frustration and desperation of small businesses across the state, who are having a hard time coming to grips with the inconsistencies of the rules that are coming out of the governor's office.
I don't care which side you're on. This kind of tactic is never the answer.
Meanwhile if you want a stark illustration of how the Coronavirus is spiraling out of control in the United States, look at these 2020 monthly case numbers compiled by NBC News:
March, 188,200; April, 883,199; May, 723,166; June, 845,736; July, 1,926,970; August, 1,479,756; September, 1,215,901; October, 1,940,522; and November (as of 9 a.m. Nov. 30), 4,252,822.
Sharon Ward Moy just posted on Facebook that Geraldine Cox (now Gerrie Fuller), a member of the class of 1964, is hospitalized in Kentucky with Covid. She reports that is it terrible and that she is struggling to breathe.
We certainly wish her a full recovery.
See the rest here: