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Brookings, Oregon
City
Brookings Harbor and the mouth of the Chetco River
Motto: Where flowers meet the sea
Location in Oregon
Country	United States
State	Oregon
County	Curry
Incorporated	1951
Government
• Mayor	Larry Anderson
Area
• Total	2.8 sq mi (7.3 km)
• Land	2.8 sq mi (7.2 km)
• Water	0.04 sq mi (0.1 km)
Elevation	129 ft (39.32 m)
Population
• Total	6,336
• Density	1,951.6/sq mi (753.8/km)
	U.S. Census
Time zone	UTC-8 (Pacific)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-7 (Pacific)
ZIP code	97415
Area code(s)	458 and 541
FIPS code	41-08650Template:GR
GNIS feature ID	1138655Template:GR
Website	www.brookings.or.us

Brookings is a city in Curry County, Oregon, United States. It was named after John E. Brookings, president of the Brookings Lumber and Box Company, which founded the city in 1908. As of the 2010 census the population was 6,336. The total population of the Brookings area is over 13,000, which includes Harbor (a census-designated place), and others. There have been numerous proposals to annex the nearby unincorporated areas into Brookings; while most attempts failed over the years, one large area north of town owned by Borax has succeeded. This development has the potential to add approximately 1000 homes over the next 20 years, although developers expect many of them to be occupied only seasonally.

Due to its location, Brookings is subject to winter (and less frequently summer) temperatures considered unusually warm for the Oregon Coast. Temperatures can reach 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit (21 to 27 degrees Celsius) throughout the year. This is due in part to the marine influences from its location on the Pacific Ocean, but mostly from its situation at the foot of the Klamath Mountains, whose winds compress and warm the air flowing onto Brookings. This is called the Brookings effect or Chetco effect. Heavy rain is common in the winter. Heavy fog is common in the summer.

The current marketing "brand" for the community, through the Brookings-Harbor Chamber of Commerce, is "The Pulse of America's Wild Rivers Coast". America's Wild Rivers Coast is a regional marketing brand for Curry County, Oregon, and Del Norte County, California.

History

Founding

In 1906, the Brookings Timber Company hired William James Ward, a graduate in civil engineering and forestry, to come to the southern Oregon Coast and survey its lumbering potential. After timber cruising the Chetco and Pistol River areas for several years, he recommended that the Brookings people begin extensive lumbering operations here and secure a townsite for a mill and shipping center.

While John E. Brookings was responsible for the founding of Brookings as a company town, it was his cousin Robert S. Brookings, who was responsible for its actual design. The latter Brookings hired Bernard Maybeck, an architect based in San Francisco who was later involved in the Panama-Pacific Exposition, to lay out the plat of the townsite.

World War II

On September 9, 1942, Mount Emily, near Brookings, became the first site in the continental United States to suffer aerial bombardment in wartime. A Japanese floatplane piloted by Nobuo Fujita launched from submarine I-25 was loaded with incendiary bombs and sent to start massive fires in the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest. The attack caused only minor damage. Fujita would be invited back to Brookings in 1962 and he presented the town his family's 400-year old samurai sword in friendship after the Japanese government was given assurances that he would not be tried as a war criminal. Brookings made him an honorary citizen several days before his death in 1997.

1980s

Since the 1980s, Brookings has attracted retirees, largely from California, who have come to form a sizeable minority of the population. Their political influence is felt in routinely voting against new taxes. It is also home for a number of people who commute to jobs in California—mostly at nearby Pelican Bay State Prison.

2011 Tsunami

The Port of Brookings Harbor was severely damaged by tidal surges from a tsunami on March 11, 2011. The largest surge was estimated to be nearly 8 feet (2.4 m). Boats were damaged, sunk, set adrift and swept out to sea after many docks were torn away and pilings broken. The tsunami was caused by the 9.0 M_W Tōhoku earthquake offshore of the east coast of Honshu Island, Japan. The damage was estimated at US$25 million to $30 million.

Geography and climate

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.8 square miles (7.3 km), of which, 2.8 square miles (7.3 km) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.10 km) of it (1.06%) is water.Template:GR

Data taken from: http://www.oregoncoast.net

Brookings has cool, very wet winters and mild, fairly dry summers with average rainfall in July and August of less than 1 inch (25 mm) per month. There are an average of only 2.0 days with high temperatures of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and an average of 7.5 days with low temperatures of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. The record high temperature was 108.2 °F (42.3 °C) on July 9, 2008. The record low temperature was 18 °F (−8 °C).

The wettest year in Brookings was 1996 with 123.90 inches (3,147 mm) and the driest year was 1976 with 43.34 inches (1,101 mm). The most rainfall in one month was 36.90 inches (937 mm) in December 1996. The most rainfall in 24 hours was 8.79 inches (223 mm) on March 18, 1932. Snow is rare in Brookings, averaging only 0.7 inches (18 mm) per year, but 10.0 inches (250 mm) fell in January 1916.

Demographics

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 5,447 people, 2,309 households, and 1,484 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,951.6 people per square mile (753.8/km²). There were 2,614 housing units at an average density of 936.6 per square mile (361.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.55% White, 0.20% African American, 2.40% Native American, 1.29% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 1.43% from other races, and 4.00% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.74% of the population.

There were 2,309 households out of which 27.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.3% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.83.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.8% under the age of 18, 5.7% from 18 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 23.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 90.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $31,656, and the median income for a family was $36,846. Males had a median income of $33,073 versus $22,591 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,010. About 9.1% of families and 11.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.1% of those under age 18 and 9.5% of those age 65 or over.

Arts and culture

Annual cultural events

Since 2006, the Winter Art & Chocolate Festival has been held at the Brookings-Harbor High School, featuring local and regional artists and chocolatiers the second weekend in February.

The Brookings Harbor Festival of the Arts began in 1993. It takes place the third weekend in August on the boardwalk at the Port of Brookings Harbor.

Education

Brookings is home to four primary and secondary schools and a community college satellite campus.

Public schools

• Brookings-Harbor School District
  • Brookings-Harbor High School
  • Azalea Middle School
  • Kalmiopsis Elementary School

Private school

• Brookings Harbor Christian School

Community college

• Southwestern Oregon Community College

Media

Newspaper

• Curry Coastal Pilot

Television

• KBSC-LP

Radio

• KURY AM
• KURY-FM
• KHSR FM (Crescent City, California)
• KSEP-FM (Brookings Seventh-day Adventist Church)

Infrastructure

Transportation

Air

• Brookings Airport

Bus

• Curry Public Transit
  • The Coastal Express connects Brookings to North Bend and Smith River, California
• Public Oregon INtercity Transit
  • The POINT connects Brookings to Klamath Falls

Port

• Port of Brookings Harbor

Notable people

• Elmo Williams (1913–), film and television editor, director, producer, and executive

References

1. http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_PL_GCTPL2.ST10&prodType=table
2. Welcome! | Brookings-Harbor Chamber Of Commerce
3. Home Page - America's Wild Rivers Coast
4. . www.currypilot.com (login required)
5. McCoy, Esther (1960). Five California Architects. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation. p. 46.
6. Oregon State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State
7. ^ Manning, Jeff (March 12, 2011). "Brookings port destruction by tsunami is a blow Curry County cannot afford". The Oregonian. Retrieved March 13, 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthor= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
8. ^ Rice, Arwyn; Graves, Scott (March 12, 2011). "Tidal surges pummel port, sink boats". Curry Coastal Pilot. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
9. Rasmussen, Randy L. (March 11, 2011). "Southern Oregon tsunami damage". The Oregonian. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
10. "USGS analysis as of 2011-03-12". Retrieved March 13, 2011
11. Climate Summary for Brookings, Oregon. Oregon Climate Services, Oregon State University. Retrieved 2008-January 28.
12. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?or1055
13. http://www.brookingssda.org/

External links

• Oregon Blue Book entry for Brookings
• Brookings Chamber of Commerce

42°03′27″N 124°17′11″W / 42.057474°N 124.286415°W / 42.057474; -124.286415

v t e Municipalities and communities of Curry County, Oregon, United States
County seat: Gold Beach
Cities	Brookings Gold Beach Port Orford
CDPs	Harbor Langlois Nesika Beach Pistol River Wedderburn
Other communities	Agness Bagnell Ferry Carpenterville Denmark Hunter Creek Illahe Marial Ophir Plum Trees Sixes
Ghost town	Frankport
Indian reservation	Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Reservation‡
Footnotes	‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties
Oregon portal United States portal

• Cities in Oregon
• Populated coastal places in Oregon
• Company towns in Oregon
• Populated places in Curry County, Oregon
• Micropolitan areas of Oregon
• Port cities in Oregon
• Brookings, Oregon
• Populated places established in 1908