Chitwood is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Lincoln County,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States. Chitwood lies on U.S. Route 20 between Toledo to the west and Eddyville to the east. The

Yaquina River The Yaquina River ( ) is a stream, long, on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains an area of the Central Oregon Coast Range west of the Willamette Valley near Newport. It rises in the mountains west of Corvallis along the ...

flows through Chitwood. Historically, Chitwood was a station on the railway line between Corvallis and Toledo. It was named for Joshua Chitwood, who lived nearby during construction of the railway, 1881–85. The line was originally known as the Yaquina Route of the Oregon Pacific Railroad, linking the former port city of Yaquina to Corvallis and Albany. After the Oregon Pacific failed financially, fell into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver – a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights" – especia ...

, and went through 17 years of financial and legal complications, in 1907 it became a branch line of the

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names ...

. The post office in Chitwood opened in 1887 and closed in 1945. Lincoln County built Chitwood Bridge, a

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

, at Chitwood in 1926. Scheduled for demolition, it was instead improved in 1984 through a federally funded restoration project. The

Howe truss A Howe truss is a truss bridge consisting of chords, verticals, and diagonals whose vertical members are in tension and whose diagonal members are in compression. The Howe truss was invented by William Howe in 1840, and was widely used as a brid ...

bridge is long.

References

Unincorporated communities in Lincoln County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{LincolnCountyOR-geo-stub