Solving the Mystery of Coalca Landing (Abandoned Oregon State Park) 

I love it when someone can take a subject of no interest to me and create a great investigative-documentary piece that engrosses me. Here I am late at night watching this beautifully produced RU-vid about something far away that I'd never heard of.

I purchased a former park in southern Oregon. The land had been leased to Jackson county for a dollar a year. Even then , people drank alcohol there. It became a haven for drunks. Hundreds of people, learned to swim there. And kids jumped off the beautiful rock formations, into the cool deep river. I had jumped off those same rocks as a kid. I could not bare that park to fall into disrepair. I have been running the property as a private park, for 7 years. I get by with a little help from my friends.

What a bizarre coincidence, RU-vid suggested this video to me, and I remember this park very vividly from when I was a young kid. My mother would take me here, and I would walk around the park and explore the riverside trails. I distinctly remember those giant empty buildings and asking my mom what those buildings had been for. She said they were part of a sawmill operation from a long time ago. I distinctly remember her parking at the NE corner of the park, and reading her book in the car, while I went exploring. It was very nice to see this documentary, it brought back good memories of my now deceased mother, and a piece of my childhood I had long forgotten. Thank you for this!

I have no idea how I got here. But the fact that I watched this ENTIRE video about a park I've never heard of; in a state I've never visited; and a subject about its closure that I normally wouldn't be concerned about, says TONS about the quality of your work and your excellent delivery. You, sir, are an amazing RU-vid content creator!

Did you happen to call Oregon State Parks? Also, when you contacted us (Willamette Riverkeeper) we had no idea your question was related to a video/documentary. We could have provided quite a bit of context in regard to the Greenway and Water Trail. Ultimately, the issue with Coalca has more to do with the Railroad than anything else. In order to have vehicle access, there needs to be a closing gate given the tracks are right by the entrance. The Railroad does not want to pay for that, and it is cost prohibitive for OPRD to do that as well. All the same, you got some nice historical nuggets in there which is cool.

Probably the biggest issue is that when the one house was built in the early 1990's they took over the railroad crossing, updated it and made it private. But looking at Clackamas County property records the crossing was not theirs to take. The property line for the Doerenberger Plant clearly shows that the crossing falls within their property (and therefore belongs to the state). Based on aerials it was used as a back entrance for logging trucks turning off 99E. Older houses south of the plant used the same crossing and simply drove across the dirt. So "someone" in Clackamas County Planning really blew it when they approved the zoning permit (between 1990-1994) for this house to be built and allowed them (or the county) to improve a rail crossing that was not theirs at all. Southern Pacific Railroad was not the best at ROW maintenance in the early 1990's due to their financial condition. Union Pacific took over SP in 1996 and they do manage their property lines very closely. They no doubt pulled the original surveys and records and found that the crossing is "illegal" because it was taken from the state improperly and therefore not registered with the Oregon DOT. I would say this is a very good reason no one wants to deal with Coalca Landing. It has a complicated legal problem on property easements. If you really want to dig, I would pull the records for the Clackamas County Committee of Zoning Appeals and see how that original property owner was able to swing that approval. Either the county surveyor or the private one they hired must have gotten paid a bundle.

As an indigenous person to Oregon, thank you so much for including the tribal story & history. That’s a real traditional story about star crossed lovers

As a lifelong Oregonian, these videos are among the most compelling and stimulating glimpses into contemporary Oregon history I've ever come across. Great work.

It's people like this guy that will carry humanity, remembering the forgotten, and having that curiosity to learn our history.

I passed by this place for my whole life and never knew this. Recently moving to Montana has got me all wrapped up in Native uses of land we now live on. This was a freaking AWESOME doc man! Thanks for doing this.

"Most people just figured it was easier to go to one of those spots." That is the value of a place like Coalca. The best places are the ones that are hardest to get to. Fewer people, more quiet, more solitude. It's too bad it closed. I hate going places where there are always crowded. The hardest places to get to are always the best places to visit.

I grew up in canby and remember this park when there were still remnants of the mill. Specifically, there was a sawdust burner still there. We always watched for the balancing rock every single time we drove up hwy 99. At one point we had family friends that lived on this location in a trailer and we visited them periodically. Really nice to see this video. It took me down memory lane. Thank you

Incredible, thank you for making this. The details about doernbecher were fascinating-even having grown up in Portland, I only knew the name from the hospital.

Do you have a Patreon? These Oregon documentaries that you've been making are really fantastic and it would be nice to be able to help support continuing to make them. I live in Milwaukie and it's great learning about our state!

A 30min video about a tiny park on the other side of the country that I will never visit, will I watch it? YES! Did I end up being glued to my screen the whole time? YES!!! Why? Because Peter makes great stuff.

I have zero interest in a random closed park on the Willamette River, but I just watched a 30 minute deep dive into its history and closure. Great work, and it's so awesome to see the growth of your editing skills. Keep these videos coming, your channel definitely deserves to grow!

Nice video Peter! This is Will (and thank you for mentioning me and my photos in your video) who used to take care of it a decade ago. There was a huge lack of funding then as well as now and after about a year I was overwhelmed with the amount of work needed and I was the only one doing it. So it was permanently closed. Now in the past few years, after purchasing a house and living in Canby, I often think about adopting this park again. It has great potential. After Coalca Landing, I became an annual US Forest Service volunteer/ Mt Hood National Forest in the Clackamas River Ranger District in Estacada and subsequently adopted three Forest Service campgrounds as well as performed recreational duties throughout the district.

I grew up here but spent my early adult life in the Navy so some of your videos are answering questions about things that happened while I was gone. Like Pixieland. This one got me searching for information about the Doernbecher buildings. You said that they closed in the 50's yet I remember my Dad working there in the mid 60's. Turned out after some research and talking to family he worked at Barkers Furniture in the same building and they didn't close their doors until 1979 according to the Federal Register. So thanks for giving me the interest in finding out a piece of history. I see several other videos of yours I plan on viewing that will answer some of my old questions.

Peter Dibble does an incredible job making these short documentaries! Fantastic.

I grew up in Portland and my family lives in Oregon city now, though Im in Medford. Its fascinating to see so much local history in this video. I had no idea that building on I84 used to be a furniture company even though Ive seen it hundreds of times

Peter, thanks for the video, you did a great job of taking us through the history in an interesting way. If you don't mind, just a couple of suggestions. First, you can take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) to request any documents that OPRD has on this or any other property in their system. They will charge you a fee to produce the documents and will likely drag their feet on getting the work done, but it is available. Second, it's good to keep in mind that OPRD is the current expression of what was an expansion of the State Highway Commission, now the Department of Transportation, authorization by the State Legislature in 1921 to allow the Highway Commission to acquire lands within 300 ft. of the center line of the highway for parks and parking areas for the travelling public. This was expanded in 1925 to allow for the acquisition of lands for camping and recreation. This came on the heals of the entire Oregon Coast being designated a state highway, which then was the basis for the Oregon Coast to be designated a public park. There is no mention of Coalca Landing as a state park in the book by L.C. Merriam JR. and David Talbot, published by OPRD in1992. I wouldn't be surprised if this parcel of land wasn't acquired by the state as part of the right of way expansion or via the county through tax foreclosure. In either case, it may have never been purchased with the intent of making it a park in it's own right, but rather as a part of the WR Greenway as you proposed. I'm doubtful about the lack of legal right of way because that would have been appurtenant to the land for the operation of the mill. As I have seen in other cases, the adjoining landowner that is also using the right of way is likely promoting this idea without any substance. (see earlier comment from "spuwho"). I would also encourage you to explore how OPRD is funded and to make mention of this in your future videos. 7.5% of all net lottery revenues are dedicated to OPRD (although they are currently required to pass 12.5% of that amount on to local park systems). This provides a very stable funding source for the department. Roughly half of the agency's biennial budget is funded from these lottery revenues, the remaining half comes from park user fees (think camping, parking, etc.). OPRD is not supported with state income tax revenues other than some planned debt service beginning on bond issuance for park facilities maintenance and upgrades.

As a young lad living in 1950s Cottage Grove, my family visited the 'balancing rock' area more than once. In retrospect, I am personally glad that itself was not turned into a park. It looks like you had fun putting your research together. Well done.

Wow I've driven past this so many times without any idea. The production and depth of investigation in this video cannot be overstated! It's unbelievable this is free content!

This park is awesome. Oregon has misplaced it's priorities regarding similar parks saying they do not meet the needs of enough people. You are correct there are similar small parks around the state and they are actually closed, it's just nobody from the state or local government maintains them. Many are maintained by those who go there.

this was great. it's always fascinating how things close down, since there's always more to uncover in a story than just "Oh, it shut down."

Never even been to Oregon but I found this documentary to be incredibly enjoyable. Keep up the great work and research

FASCINATING! Very well produced. I used to live nearby, and kayaked up to those rocky islands in the river next to the former park. And my son climbed up to the Balancing Rock a few years ago. I never knew ANY of this stuff, until a FB friend posted your video on FaceBook. Well done.

I think it would be pretty cool to see you explore the details of the SS Davy Crocket. I remember as a teen getting onto the freeway off of SE 192nd over in Camas, WA and glancing over to catch sight of something down in the river I had never noticed before. I went onto google maps later that day and saw a ship in that spot and was rather surprised since I haven't seen ships like that this far east of the sea on the Columbia. One day I went down to the old Evergreen Highway and drove to where 192nd would intersect the road were it not for a cliff there and I parked and hiked through a small green belt to get to the river. Sure enough, there was an old liberty ship just abandoned and not looking in great shape. I remember being fascinated with how it got there and how I had never seen it before. I couldn't find a lot of information about it at the time. I believe it was owned by Kiewit for a time and then I think it was sold to someone who wanted to scrap it. It just kind of remained a mystery to me for years. Later I tried to find more information about it and suddenly there was since the news was reported on how scrappers had been ripping the ship apart and polluting a bunch in the process and it ended up costing a fair bit of money to reclaim the site. Here is an artical that mentions some of these things, but I would imagine there is a lot more to it. www.camaspostrecord.com/news/2011/feb/08/crews-continue-cleanup-oil-ss-davy-crockett/ And here is where it roughly was in the river : www.google.com/maps/@45.5830678,-122.4740007,357m/data=!3m1!1e3 Regardless of if you pick this story up, I appreciate all the great content you are making. I love learning more about this area!

I remember planting trees here! It must have been like 15+ years ago. I can't remember if it was a boy scouts thing or something else. Its funny because despite driving by it probably hundreds of times the park and that experice was always fuzzy, and I wondered if it was just a weird dream.

People like you should be managing our Parks & Greenways.

When we lived in the west, my wife and I would love driving all over Oregon enjoying the many lovely parks. So, I had to watch this, and 30 minutes later you have told a beautifully paced and intriguing story of history and mystery revealed. Thank you.

I am not sure why, but this video, about a park (I never knew exsisted) being closed makes me deeply sad and feel a sense of loss of a long lost friend. I truly hope Oregonians will begin to prioritize our states natural areas with vigor and funding, before its too late. Thanks for the effort that went into making this video!

It is incredible the amount of work you put into this. Not only do i have absolutely 0 interest in the entire area Coalca is in, but I live quite literally about as far as you can from Portland and still be in the lower 48. Yet you've captivated and intrigued me with the beautiful visuals and incredible depth of your story.

I love finding and investigating relics of times past! Nice video! 👍👍

I'm very grateful I just found your channel, I drove down 99 today and passed this without even knowing! That area from Oregon City to Canby has so many abandoned structures.

Thank You for the aerial view of the park. Have lived in Canby since 1980 and have used the park in the past. If you notice the two rail road tracks near the entrance(one is a side track),the trains would leave disconnected cars for hours there(blocking the entrance road access) and made it an inconvenient to get stuck there over the years.(just ask the property owners south of the park)

This is a masterpiece of niche local history research. Thank you so much!

I live in the UK, a very very small country compared to the vastness of the USA. The idea of an abandoned public park is inconceivable here, and that many people living nearby know little/nothing about it is astonishing. A totally fascinating story, great research. I've subscribed, really glad to have found your channel & looking forward to watching more of your content.

The coverage of your research and insights into Coalca Landing is well done and interesting, even to a non-resident who doesn't have the wherewithal to visit. Thank you for taking the time to use your skills in this manner.

Thank you so much for this very informative content. I'm definitely subscribing. I appreciate your investigative heart and calming voice.

Impressively researched and written, bringing just enough touches of history, mystery and scholarly respect for a location that is obscure. Thanks for making this a fascinating 30 minute journey. I live on the other side of the world from Coalca Landing, in all likelihood I'll never see it in person. This documentary made it possible for me to travel there just for awhile and immerse myself in its waters, to breathing in the cold, crisp air of its forgotten lakeside.

Really nicely done, well researched and beautifully presented from the heart. Thank you so much for creating a permanent historical legacy for this park.

You put REAL work into this. Great job. Not finished watching but so far I've seen excellent research and visuals.

This required a lot of time and effort, as have your other postings I have seen and shared. OPB should should broadcast this and the rest of this work of yours. The production values thru your work is very good. Thanks for sharing!

Beautiful native American historic area. Would love to see it restored with an emphasis on the history of the rock as well!

Absolutely amazing the level of research! Being only a few miles from my house I remember seeing the state sign driving by but never stopped! Thank you for This can’t wait for the next one!

I've seen a few of your post and think they are amazing. Your description and view of these things bring alot of memories back to me of when I was a kid. Thank you!

You went down a rabbit hole with some real depth here- Thank you for this thorough journalism!

There is an abandoned state campground a few miles from where I live in wa. State on the skykomish river. The only evidence is the overgrown in road , and the steel bar supports of a swing set, must have been a small play area. I get very strong vibes there, and very positive and joyous. It's really cool.

Very well done sir! I'm a geek for stories like this. I live 2000 miles away but have worked in Oregon and it is a beautiful place.

I have been binging all of your vides over this Sunday. Thank you for the unique content

I just found this you tube and I loved learning this. I find remote history like this fascinating!

Absolutely fascinating. Having grown up in Canby and spending several decades there, I never knew about this park. Let alone the history of that area. I've learned so much. Thank you!

As usual, a fantastic video. Thanks for putting the effort into this :) You rock! I love park history, I collect (read: hoard) historic park maps from British Columbia. Maybe I'll have to do some dives into park histories again.

Please make more of these types of videos. This was both educational and entertaining. Thank you for your efforts and for sharing this with us!

I lived nearby as a teenager 1969-1971 and visited Rock Island and Coalca Landing from the river, and sometimes on my motorbike. I always wanted to climb up to the balanced rock. Thanks for the great video. I spent time on the log rafts and heard the trains coupling at night.

Thank you for making this. This is a lost gem and led to my favorite fishing spot. I went a few year ago to see it was closed. saw the bathroom was still in decent condition but locked obviously. the trail was overgrown again with brambles and i havent been back yet with a machete to get back into the trail. led us to those rock islands you see further towards the falls. also the biggest steamer explosion and death toll happened just up the river near the falls. the steamer ship was maybe two weeks old

Wow. I’ve been to Oregon once and now I’m fully invested in reopening this tiny little park. Thanks for the great docu

Thank you for this thoughtful view of one small natural area and the making of this gem of a documentary.

Great job! I am going to check out some of your other work. I have learned alot from you and quite a bit from the comments of other people. It's awesome to see so much love for our beautiful state

Excellent video! I've been by a few little waysides like this here in Minnesota. It some ways, it reminds me of Lookout Park, an abandoned scenic overlook next to Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie. Lookout Park was built in 1938 as a work relief project, and has typical architecture of Depression-era roadside parks. Rustic stone walls a few feet high surround a small gravel parking area, and one end has a stone frame for a sign that used to explain the history and importance of the place. And as the name suggests, it has wonderful views of the Minnesota River Valley below. At the time, Flying Cloud Drive in front of it carried US 169 & 212, and was the main road into Minneapolis from the southwest. But over time, highway traffic grew enough to make the turnoff hazardous. Flying Cloud Airport (a small general-aviation airport) opened nearby, and grew across the road from it. And Eden Prairie grew into a Twin Cities suburb with its own park system. At some point (1970s or 80s?), the Minnesota Dept of Transportation closed the park and left it to ruin. And freeway projects in the 1990s and 2000s rerouted first 169 and then 212 elsewhere, leaving Flying Cloud Drive as a southern extension of County Road 61 from about 2009 on. However, all is not lost. Flying Cloud Airport owns the property to protect a runway approach. The city of Eden Prairie designated the overlook as a city heritage site in the 2000s. And as of 2021, much of the brush has been cleared out, and new signs posted by Hennepin County say restoration is in progress. Though I'm not sure if that means prairie grass restoration, or the overlook itself, or both; I'll have to stop by in person (and not just Street View 🙂) to find out.

Very interesting part of Oregon history. I had never heard of this previously. Thank you for the in-depth research that you worked hard to get. IYou are a natural presenter as well. This video, IMHO is on par with any PBS documentary I have watched over the years. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Well done my friend. Thank you for putting in the work.

Thank you for taking the time to research this very interesting part of Oregon History. I appreciate these types of projects.

I can’t believe you don’t have more subscribers. Your videos are absolutely top notch. I love local history like this. If you’ve got any SW Washington stories, I’d love to see those, too!

I love your channel. I'm a Portlander, born and raised, and I've never heard of this place. I'm really tempted to take a little hiking trip down there now, as soon as the weather warms up.

Excellent video and a nice look into a small obscure park and mystery. The quality and depth of your videos in topics, research, scripting, and production continue to impress me. Stumbling across them I would never assume they were from such a young channel, keep up the great work Peter!

I absolutely love these videos. This is the kind of stuff I find fascinating. Amazing work

This is crazy I never knew there was a park there. Going to have to pay attention next time I drive by. Thanks for the video!

I am a born and raised Oregonian, and my grandchildren are 3rd generation Oregonian.....Still I knew absolutely NOTHING about this park!! Thank you, for schooling this born and raised Oregonian, about our Oregon history!!

I used to go to this park all the time with my friends. It was beautiful, nobody else really knew about it and the old buildings on-site were fascinating from a historian's perspective. Thank you so much for putting this video together. I've wanted to know this history for 20 years now.

I love this! I’m Oregon born and raised as well as currently live in Gresham. I’m impressed with this documentary.

Very interesting video. I've seen photos of the pillar but I assumed it collapsed years ago. I never knew that the big self storage facility was the Doernbecher Furniture Co. I pass by it almost every day. Oregon has so much fascinating and obscure history.

Lived in canby for years probably went by this area Tons of times and never knew! I’ve even gone fishing right around there off rock island. Love the video, very comprehensive!!

Only a year late but seriously impressed by all the research this needed. awesome

I really love the things you teach us about Oregon. Thank you for all of your wonderful work and research, Peter.

Congratulations on another fascinating video on neglected local history! 👏 The quality of your videos is outstanding. I'm curious about your background in video production and your goals for the channel. Maybe at some point you could provide some context in the "about" section of the channel, or do a welcome video for channel subscribers. I am often amazed by the depth of information available on RU-vid, and your channel is an excellent example.

Excellent piece of research and a well put-together video. You are to be commended. Pennsylvania likes the job you did. ☺

This is what I love about RU-vid finding videos about obscure topics and they turn out to be great and you learn something new.

You make really terrific videos, i just found your channel a couple hours ago and i've watched all 13 of your videos, i love em, they're very well made and presented and i can't wait for more to come, keep up the great work, quality like this tends to grow fast, great work.

I have lived in OC for 57 years and didn't know this existed!! My father worked at Publishers Paper until the early 2000"s when he passed, so 33 years. I have close relatives who live along 99e, in Canemah ,a couple miles south of the park. It amazes me what can be found right underneath our noses. I do remember the old freeway between canby and Portland, though. Last time I drove by, you can see remnants of the freeway on the road that the recycling center and Home Depot is on. (Forgot the name, maybe old Hwy 99e??) Anyway, thankyou for this wonderfully informative and well crafted video. I love looking at the history of the area, and my life too!!

Bruh that's literally right near where I grew up. It feels weird seeing places I've been to hundreds of times on a map in a youtube video...

Very well done and enjoyable video. I love to go on a mystery-solving quest! Keep up the good work!

Excellently researched and narrated. Interesting to know about these unknown places. Thanks for this upload.

Hey thank you very much for this video. I seen that place for many years and been there a few times myself my friends and I would go there and smoke hookah on the picnic tables back in the mid-2000s. It's pretty cool though that you were able to dig up so much good stuff and share it thank you

Wonderful piece Peter. You are a fanastic story teller and I look forward to exploring more of your content. That said, how did you NOT visit the park and get some footage of it today?

Just want add my voice to those who appreciate the work you put into this, a truly noble effort. Thank you.

Excellent work, there are not many 30 min videos like this I'll watch all the way through. Keep doing what you're doing

Excellent work!: detailed research, clear writing, articulate narration, stellar production, skillful editing...all driven by curiosity and intelligence. Subscribe I will!

Another great video by Peter! I really love your Oregon/Portland history stuff. One idea for a future video - I was at the downtown Portland library and spotted some photos from the Northwest Portland area before it became industrialized, with a promenade and ornate structures that seem to have all been replaced with warehouses, shipping ports, and factories. It would be really cool to learn more about this and whether there are any remnants of that past left standing.

Very well done piece. I appreciate your enthusiasm and exhaustive research. Your piece shows the extent of efforts in creating this documentary.

I hope more videos like this are produced! Really high quality on an obscure but very interesting topic! Amazing.

As a native Oregonian, we heard about this area in elementary school, but I never did attempt to go check it out until I was an adult. One of my boyfriends would take me “hiking” and bass fishing over there and it is beautiful!! ❤️❤️❤️ As an avid outdoorsman, he had a way of finding all of the hidden gem spots!! 😉

Given the information presented, I have a theory. Lack of upkeep meant that the property owner who shares a driveway got mad. This possibly could have been vandalism or it could have been an encampment for the unhoused. They either sued the parks department or talked to them to have them close the park. Since the driveway situation is probably an illegal easement, they would have had the power to close the park without working with the parks department (because they could restrict access to their driveway). Thus, the fate of the park was sealed. In California, we have a very similar situation with our Pacific coast parks. Many are only accessible from private drives, and wealthy land-owners do not like the public accessing these parks. Many have successfully sued to prevent being forced to allow public access.

I’ve viewed two of your documentaries Peter and have enjoyed them immensely. Keep up the great work Peter.

Wow. Great work. Seriously, I live on the East Coast, never heard of this place, and you kept me intrigued and entertained by the story for the entire half hour. Thanks so much.

Another great video Peter. I definitely remember that threatened State Parks closure from the nineties. I had forgotten all about it, and looking at that list we really dodged a bullet. Oceanside Beach, Pistol River, and Cape Arago being closed? I can't imagine.

Nice video, my grandpa's family had one of those farms along the Willamette that was taken by imminent domain for that Willamette river park idea.. still never made a park on that part, its just been rented out as farmland for the past 40-50 years. I didn't know the plan for the park was so big, so it was neat to learn that.

I live in MN and just randomly came across your video. It spiked my curiosity so I clicked on it. What a cool and interesting story! You did a wonderful job of investigating what happened there! Very interesting! Very fun to watch!

This was a beautiful sojourn through history. Thank you so much for your enjoyable exploration of a little-known treasure of Oregon.