The second article from my Pacific coast trip. While I had great fun on the coast of California, and visited many a purveyor of antiques, nothing otherwise eventful took place. I will attest that the North coast of California (north of San Francisco) is more beautiful than our famed Central coast and good driving fun as well.
After a night at Smith River, really the last place in California along Highway 1, I rolled across the Oregon border and into Brookings. From what I saw there isn’t a great deal of Galooting or antiquing to be found there.
If you are familiar with the coastal route in Oregon, there are many shops selling various local craftsman made wood items. These range from timber benches, chainsaw sculptures and bowls to all sorts of furniture and small carvings. These appear targeted significantly at tourists but from what I’m told, have a strong local market as well.
I should note that for several years of my childhood I lived a few hundred yards from a sawmill, with mountains of logs awaiting the mighty bandsaw. So a woodpile doesn’t immediately impress me, but does make one feel at home.
One particular location also promised unfinished wood in addition to the usual crafts. At my stop I was quite astonished at their selection. This mill with no name(map link) had an impressive selection of wood. They had recently recovered from a storm and power outage so their stock was disorganized even by their [apparent] semi-anarchic standards. All local wood that they milled themselves. Lots of quarter and half trunks as well as containers of slabs and unfinished boards of all dimensions. However, nothing was labeled which made it difficult for me.
Of course I took a sedan on this trip and had little room for a wood pile. Similarly, I wasn’t looking to haul wood another several hundred miles. I gravitated to their pile of small boards, bowl blanks, etc. I took away a small pile that included two nice burls awaiting some project in the future. The owners are friendly and a fair deal was reached.
If you live anywhere near there (Bandon area) or will be traveling through, I recommend a stop to peruse their stockpile. Link to Google map.
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