Auto Camps to Motor Lodges and Motels on Oregon Coast | History Part 2
Published 02/20/21 at 6:26 AM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff
(Oregon Coast) – When tourism first kicked into life on this coastline, it was a rough experience of primitive camping. No glitzy comforts for even this time period. No room with a view. For almost everyone, it was simple tents that you could rent: hotel rooms were rare for about the first forty years and then only for the upper class.
(Above: the Greenville Auto Camp in North Bend, 1949; courtesy Coos History Museum)
That encapsulates part one of this series on the rugged first three decades of Oregon coast tourism: the evolution of staying overnight on the beach from about 1880 through 1920. Part two picks up in the 1910s, when small cottages were beginning their rise on plots of land sold to the vacationing middle class. More hotels had been built along with some inns and multi-roomed lodges, and as the 1920s rolled around, something new came with the better roads being built.