Alsea () is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

in Benton 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 sove ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

. It is on

Oregon Route 34 Oregon Route 34 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Oregon that runs between the city of Waldport on the Oregon Coast and the city of Lebanon in the western part of the state. OR 34 traverses the Alsea Highway No. 27 from Waldpor ...

and the

Alsea River The Alsea River flows from Alsea, an unincorporated community in the coastal mountains of the U.S. state of Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean near the city of Waldport. It begins at the confluence of the North Fork Alsea River and the South Fork Als ...

. For statistical purposes, the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy An economy is an area of th ...

has defined Alsea as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, su ...

(CDP). The census definition of the area may not precisely correspond to local understanding of the area with the same name. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 165.

Demographics

History

Alsea was named for the Alsea River, whose name was a corruption of "Alsi" (also spelled "Ulseah" and "Alsiias") the name of a Native American tribe, now known as the Alsea, that lived at the mouth of the river. The Alsea area was settled by

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (20 ...

early as 1855, when the name "Alseya Settlement" appeared on the Surveyor general's map. Alsea post office was established in 1871. In the early 1850s settlers moved from the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east ...

into the Alsea area to take up

donation land claim The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Pr ...

s. While logging was once the primary industry in Alsea, it is now known as a place for fishing on the Alsea River, particularly for

steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia an ...

, and a favorite stopping point on a well-traveled cycling loop.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

system, Alsea has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

School

Alsea High School, home of the Alsea Wolverines, is a charter school that serves k-12 and has a population of 460 students.

Covered bridge

Near Alsea is Hayden Bridge, a historic

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 ...

listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1979. The bridge carries Hayden Road over the river from an intersection with Route 34 about west of Alsea.

Notable people

Thomas Benton Slate Thomas Benton Slate (December 2, 1880 – November 26, 1980) was an American inventor and businessman. Slate was born in Tangent, Oregon, to Nathaniel Porter Slate and Alice Slate.dry ice Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. It is commonly used for temporary refrigeration as CO2 does not have a liquid state at normal atmospheric pressure and sublimates directly from the solid state to the gas state. It is used primarily ...

, and later financed construction of an all-aluminum hulled airship, ''The City of Glendale'', completed in 1929 but never flown.

References

External links

Alsea School DistrictHistoric photos of Alsea from Salem Public LibraryHistoric photos of Hayden Covered Bridge
* {{Authority control Census-designated places in Benton County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Benton County, Oregon Alsea River 1871 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1871 Census-designated places in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon