Alsea ( ) 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 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 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 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, Oregon, Waldport on the Oregon Coast and the city of Lebanon, Oregon, Lebanon in the western part of the state. OR 34 traverses the Als ...

and the

Alsea River The Alsea River flows from Alsea, Oregon, Alsea, an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in the coastal mountains of the U.S. state of Oregon, to the Pacific Ocean near the city of Waldport, Oregon, Waldport. It begins at the confluenc ...

. For statistical purposes, the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

has defined Alsea as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), 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 counte ...

(CDP). The census definition of the area may not precisely correspond to the local understanding of the area with the same name. As of the 2023 Census population estimates, the population was 220.

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 The Alsea are a Native American tribe of Western Oregon. They are (since 1856), confederated with other Tribes on the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, and are members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. Their origin story says that the Yaquina, A ...

, 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 ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...

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 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, the ...

into the Alsea area to take up donation land claims. While

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckssteelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the Fish migration#Classification, anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or Columbia River redband trout (''O. m. gairdneri'', also called redband steelhead). Steelhead are native to cold-wa ...

, 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 divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Alsea has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

Demographics

School

Alsea Charter School, including Alsea High School, is a charter school that serves K-12 and has an enrollment of 321 students as of 2024.

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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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 Sublimation (phase transition), sublimes directly from the solid state to the gas ...

, and later financed the 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 Oregon placenames of Native American origin