Gold Beach, Oregon

Gold Beach (Tolowa: yan-shu’-chit, yan-shuu-chit’-dvn) is a city in Oregon in the United States. It is the county seat of Curry County. It is on the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 census, 2,341 lived there.

History
The community was first named Ellensburg in the 1850s. The name was changed to Gold Beach after a beach near the mouth of the Rogue River where hundreds of mines extracted gold. An Ellensburgh post office was created in 1853. It changed to Ellensburg in 1877. On 1890, it changed to Gold Beach.

Boats carrying mail were based in Gold Beach. They have been taking mail up the river to Agness since 1895. 

Gold Beach had been a community since the middle of the 19th century. It has been the county seat since 1859. Its incorporation charter only dates to 1945.

In June 2020, the Mayor (Karl Popoff) resigned from a local nonprofit after saying "Black lives don't matter to Black Lives Matter people ... you can shove your racism bandwagon." Popoff had been mayor for 16 years at that time. He apologized for his tone but stood by the content of his message. He said "Those three words hit me the wrong way", speaking of Black Lives Matter. Most of city councilors voted to censure the mayor and to stop funding for his projects. One coucilor said "He doesn’t know what he wrote was wrong."

References

Category:1853 establishments in Oregon Territory
Category:Cities in Curry County, Oregon
Category:County seats in Oregon