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A stretch of tumbling white water five miles long, the Cascades of the Columbia River were the single greatest barrier to inland river trade and travel in the Pacific Northwest. One solution, the Cascade Locks and Canal, took nearly 18 painstaking years to construct. From 1878 to 1896, hundreds of laborers blasted, chipped, and hauled over 800,000 cubic yards of rock and debris from the riverbed, carved and laid masonry, and welded steel to create the locks. After their completion, thousands of trips, millions of dollars in freight, and hundreds of thousands of passengers made their way through the locks. Made redundant in 1938 by the completion of the Bonneville Dam, the remnants of the structure are still visible today in Cascade Locks, Oregon.

European settlement of Coos County began with a shipwreck. The Captain Lincoln wrecked on the north spit of the Coos Bay in January 1852. The crewmen built a temporary camp out of the ship's sails and named it "Camp Cast-Away." This was the first white settlement in the area. The men eventually traveled overland to Port Orford, where they told other settlers about the Coos Bay and its many natural resources. By December 1853, Coos County was established by the territorial legislature, and several towns were founded; the history of the area had been completely altered by a single shipwreck.

Historically, mariners considered the Oregon coast one of the most dangerous in the world. In 1852, explorers discovered gold in the rivers and along the beaches in Curry County, which is located in the southwestern corner of the state. Subsequent settlement concentrated on the coast. With few roads, water transportation was crucial for early settlers. The area contained many potential dangers to ships, including unpredictable weather, frequent fog, and submerged rocks and reefs. There have been many shipwrecks in the area like that of the tanker Larry Doheny, which was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II. Curry County is home to Cape Blanco, the second most westerly point in the continental United States, and Port Orford, the only open-water port on the Oregon coast (and one of only six "dolly" ports in the world). Modern technology and port improvements have reduced the number of shipwrecks, but accidents still occur.