Station Port Orford, Oregon
Coast Guard Station #318
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Location:
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On Nelly's Cove, Oregon, 6 1/4 miles south southwest of Cape Blanco Light.
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Date of Conveyance:
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1932
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Station Built:
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1934
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Fate:
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Decommissioned in 1970 and used for the next six years by Oregon State University. In 1976 the site is taken over by the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department. The Point Orford Heritage Society, in conjunction with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, restored the station and in 2000 it opened as a museum.
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Remarks:
In 1936 the station participated in a rescue of note when Nils Nilsson, Chief Boatswain’s Mate (L) in charge, received information that a 12 year old boy was marooned on a small rock near Battle Rock, unable to get ashore, and was in danger of being washed off the rock, as this particular rock was submerged in high water. Station crew immediately proceeded in privately owned car and upon arriving at the scene found the boy on the rock 100 feet from shore. The waves were washing over the rock. Surfman Earl L. Corlies succeeded in swimming to the rock with a line and life preserver, and after securing line and life jacket to the boy, accompanied him to the shore. The swim to the rock was very dangerous due to the great number of rocks in the vicinity and heavy undertow.
The station is now a museum operated by the Point Orford Heritage Society. Please visit their website at the following URL: www.portorfordlifeboatstation.org
Keepers:
CBM (L) Nils Nilsson was officer-in-charge in 1936.
Sources:
Station History File, CG Historian’s Office.
“Port Orford.” U.S. Coast Guard Magazine Vol. 9, No. 10 (Aug 1936), p. 21.
Dennis L. Noble & Michael S. Raynes. “Register of the Stations and Keepers of the U.S. Life-Saving Service.” Unpublished manuscript, compiled circa 1977, CG Historian’s Office collection.
Ralph Shanks, Wick York & Lisa Woo Shanks. The U.S. Life-Saving Service: Heroes, Rescues and Architecture of the Early Coast Guard. Petaluma, CA: Costaño Books, 1996.
U.S. Treasury Department: Coast Guard. Register of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers and Cadets and Ships and Stations of the United States Coast Guard, July 1, 1941. Washington, DC: USGPO, 1941.