Pawn was a historic

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 Lane County in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

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 ...

. It lay at the headwaters of the North Fork Siuslaw River, where Sam Creek and West Branch join to form the river in the Siuslaw National Forest of the Central Oregon Coast Range. Downstream is the unincorporated community of

Minerva Minerva (; ; ) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is also a goddess of warfare, though with a focus on strategic warfare, rather than the violence of gods such as Mars. Be ...

, and further downstream, near the mouth of the river on the Siuslaw River is the city of

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. Pawn had a post office from 1915 to 1933. Four area residents combined the first letters of their last names—Poole, Ackerley, Worthington, and Nolen—to manufacture the post office name. One of them, Monroe Poole, was the first postmaster. Mail reached Pawn by horse or wagon, sometimes transferred from a boat further downstream. Before roads connected Pawn to Florence, the community had its own school for children in grades 1 through 8. Older children boarded in Florence, where they went to high school. A 21st-century forest trail in the same general vicinity is named after the community. Pawn Trail, managed by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It administers the nation's 154 United States National Forest, national forests and 20 United States Natio ...

, forms a loop through an

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

. The trail, open all year, is about from Florence, mostly via forest roads.

References

Unincorporated communities in Lane County, Oregon Ghost towns in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{LaneCountyOR-geo-stub