Sitkum, Oregon

Sitkum, Oregon
Civilian Conservation Corps' Camp Sitkum, 1933
Civilian Conservation Corps' Camp Sitkum, 1933
Sitkum is located in Oregon
Sitkum
Sitkum
Location within the state of Oregon
Sitkum is located in the United States
Sitkum
Sitkum
Sitkum (the United States)
Coordinates: 43°08′53″N 123°51′40″W / 43.14806°N 123.86111°W / 43.14806; -123.86111
CountryUnited States
StateOregon
CountyCoos
Elevation722 ft (220 m)
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (PDT)

Sitkum is an unincorporated community in Coos County, Oregon, United States.[1] It is about 27 miles north of Remote in the Southern Oregon Coast Range near the East Fork Coquille River.[2] Sitkum is served by the Myrtle Point post office.

A tavern or roadhouse was established as a stagecoach stop near a point halfway between Roseburg and Coos City on the Coos Bay Wagon Road about 1872 or 1873.[3][4] A competitor put up another halfway house nearby and the name Sitkum, a Chinook Jargon word for "half", was selected for the place.[3] Sitkum post office took its name from the tavern.[3] It ran from 1873 to 1964, with one intermission.[3] The Halfway House at Sitkum was a combination restaurant, tavern, rooming house, post office and telegraph station where travelers stopped while horses were changed.[4] There is little left of the community today, and the Sitkum School was converted into a residence.[4] The former teacher's house and the gym still exist on the grounds.[4]

  1. ^ a b "Sitkum". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. November 28, 1980. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  2. ^ Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer (7th ed.). Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. 2008. p. 52. ISBN 0-89933-347-8.
  3. ^ a b c d McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 883. ISBN 978-0875952772.
  4. ^ a b c d Friedman, Ralph (1990). In Search of Western Oregon (2nd ed.). Caldwell, Idaho: The Caxton Printers, Ltd. pp. 225–226. ISBN 0-87004-332-3.