Block 1 of the Averill Addition played an important role in the early commercial development of Bandon, Oregon, a town located on Oregon's south coast. Retail establishments located on the block supplied the local residents with a variety of merchandise for the period of 1886-1914. During this period Bandon served as the export-import center for the Coquille River area. Ships maintained a regular schedule between Bandon and San Francisco, California, Bandon's primary trading partner. A fire in 1914 destroyed all but one major structure on Block 1 of the Averill Addition. Partially rebuilt, structures on the block were once again destroyed in a second fire in 1936, which ravaged the entire downtown district. Microfilmed copies of the Bandon Recorder, Bandon's first newspaper, provided first-hand accounts of events during the early years of Bandon's growth, and were supplemented by regional histories. Primary sources for this project included census reports, Coos County deed records, oral interviews, maps, and historic photographs. The purpose of this report is to explain Euro-American occupancy of Block 1 of the Averill Addition as a supplement to an archaeological investigation conducted on the block in 1988. A description of the historic artifacts recovered from Site 35CS43 (Block 1 of the Averill Addition) concludes the report and indicates the types of items that remained on the site after 100 years of Euro-American occupancy. / Graduation date: 1993

Several archaeological examinations have taken place at site 35CS43 in the modern town of Bandon, on Oregon's southern coast. The site has proven to be complex, including evidence of past use as both a cemetery and living site with specialized areas for the harvest and processing of estuarine resources. The site includes huge quantities of shell found in concentrated refuse heaps or middens. Samples of this shell have been taken over the course of excavations and stored for later consideration and analysis, the results of which should lend to greater theory concerning aboriginal subsistence and culture of the occupants of the lower Coquille river estuary. In this analysis of shell material from 35CS43, several previous shell analyses on the Oregon coast are summarized. A shell sample drawn in 1990 is then quantified and analyzed. Finally, information presented is formulated into a model for future excavations and shell analyses. To understand the shore it is not enough to catalogue its life. Understanding comes only when, standing on a beach, we can sense the long rhythms of earth and sea that sculpted its land forms and produced the rock and sand of which it is composed; when we can sense with the eye and ear of the mind the surge of life beating always at its shore blindly pick up an empty shell and say 'This is a murex.' or 'That is an angel wing.'. True understanding demands intuitive comprehension of the whole life of the creature that once inhabited this empty shell: how it survived amid surf and storms, what were its enemies; how it found food and reproduced its kind, what were its relations to the particular sea world in which it lived. / Graduation date: 1994

The Bandon Marsh is a large marsh restoration project located in southwest Oregon. The land has been previously used for dairy farms and much of the marsh was used for cattle grazing. The goal of the restoration is to recreate a natural habitat for shorebirds and fish. The purpose of this thesis is to gather and analyze data on the geology of the marsh and both ground and surface water quality to evaluate its ability to support biology. The US Fish and Wildlife Service began restoration on the Bandon marsh in 2005. Research on the Ni-les'tun Unit began in that same year with Geoprobe coring, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), piezometer well installation, and surface water analysis. Twelve cores were taken with the Geoprobe in 2006 and later analyzed for this thesis. A total of 50 GPR lines were run across the marsh ranging from ~25 m to 1,200 m in length for a total of about 9,700 meters (9.7 km). The ten piezometer wells were sampled to collect groundwater pH, oxidation-reduction potential, salinity, temperature, and well water elevation. Twelve channel sampling sites were chosen to be sampled in three field runs taking place in winter 2011, summer 2011, and winter 2012. The summer 2011 and winter 2012 sampling runs were done after tide gates had been removed from the marsh. The Geoprobe core samples were retrieved for extensive lab analysis. Analyses included; bulk density, porosity, permeability, and grain size studies. Lab results revealed a low permeability fine grained upper sedimentary unit ranging from ~0.5 to ~2.5 meters depth with a coarser grained higher permeability lower unit. GPR lines were analyzed for groundwater surface depths and buried channel cut and fill features (Peterson et. al., 2004). GPR results showed a fairly shallow groundwater surface around 0.5 meters in the north down to 2.0 meters in the south. The piezometer wells showed a seasonal variation in well water elevation with higher elevations in the winter and lower in the summer. Well water chemistry showed both seasonal and spatial variations. Values for pH and dissolved oxygen were lower in the north side of the marsh and higher in the south side, and pH was higher in the summer than in the winter. Wells that were more proximal (within ~400 m) to the Coquille River Estuary showed higher conductivity (salinity) values than those that were more distal (greater than ~400 m). Channel sampling results showed similar trends as the groundwater results. The lower pH values tended to be in the north side of the marsh as well as lower dissolved oxygen values. Again, there was a spatial variability in conductivity with the higher values found closer to the Coquille River. Conductivity in the channel water showed a great seasonal variability with the highest values occurring in the summer time and much lower values in the winter. As expected, channel water increased about 10°C on average from winter to summer. The results of all of these observations and analyses are combined to put together a generalized flow model showing the different water inputs into the channel waters on the Ni-les'tun Unit. Once these inputs were derived, conclusions can be made on the quality of the water and its ability to support small aquatic life.