Editing Coos County, Oregon (section)

==Economy==
[[File:Coos County aerial.jpg|right|thumb|The [[Southwest Oregon Regional Airport]] in [[North Bend, Oregon|North Bend]]]]
Deposits of gold initially attracted people to the county in the nineteenth century. Between 1890 and 1910, large amounts of [[coal]] were mined in the county and shipped to [[California]]; production decreased after [[Petroleum|oil]] was discovered in that state, and no coal mines in the county have been in production since 1950. These coal fields have been explored for natural gas since 1938, although [[CDX Gas]], a company based in [[Texas]] announced in 2003 that they would be drilling two test wells later that year.

A project to build a {{convert|60|mi|km|adj=on}} natural gas pipeline between the cities of Roseburg and Coos Bay, which would attract new industry to the Coos Bay area, was begun in 1999 when voters approved a local bond measure to raise as much as $27 million, with the state of Oregon providing $24 million. The pipeline construction began in June 2003 and was finished in 2004.

Currently, forest products, tourism, fishing and agriculture dominate the Coos County economy. The service industry is replacing the former lumber-driven economy. [[Bandon Dunes Golf Resort]], north of Bandon and south of Coos Bay, attracts tourists and golfers from around the world. Boating, dairy farming, [[Umbellularia|myrtlewood]] manufacturing, shipbuilding and repair and agriculture specialty products, including [[cranberry|cranberries]], also play an important role. Untapped rich deposits of iron ore and lead await development.

The [[Jordan Cove Energy Project]] is a project that was met with resistance since 2010 by farm owners and other land owners, tribal natives, and some commercial entities who did not want their land being used or taken without their permission, with [[eminent domain]]. The project was cancelled in late 2021.

A current project underway in Coos County, undertaken by Oregon Resources Corporation (ORC), uses modern strip-mining techniques to extract [[chromite]], [[zircon]], and [[garnet]] from local sands.<ref>{{cite web|title=About|publisher=Oregon Resources|url=http://oregon-resources.com/about-2/about-us/|year=2011|access-date=May 21, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522001352/http://oregon-resources.com/about-2/about-us/|archive-date=May 22, 2015}}</ref> The tailings after processing will be returned and re-contoured to replicate pre-mining conditions, and the affected area will be reforested. Job numbers are not listed on the company website but an annual payroll of $3.5 million is listed in the economic impact portion of the FAQ.<ref>{{cite web|title=FAQ|publisher=Oregon Resources|url=http://oregon-resources.com/FAQ|year=2011|access-date=May 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522043847/http://oregon-resources.com/faq/|archive-date=May 22, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Oregon [[League of Women Voters]] cited similar numbers from ORC, wholly owned by Industrial Mineral Corporation of Australia; the operation was projected to create 70 to 80 jobs with a salary of $46,000 per year.<ref name="League of Women Voters">{{cite web|title=Coastal and Nearshore Oregon Study|url=http://www.lwvor.org/issues/about-study-reports/study-report-library/coastal-and-nearshore-oregon-study/#Chromite|publisher=League of Women Voters of Oregon|year=2012|access-date=May 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522061655/http://www.lwvor.org/issues/about-study-reports/study-report-library/coastal-and-nearshore-oregon-study/#Chromite|archive-date=May 22, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Efforts to block the project because of health and environmental concerns did not succeed.<ref name="League of Women Voters"/>

There are several port districts in the county: [[Port of Coos Bay]] founded in 1909, [[Port of Coquille River]] founded in 1912, and [[Port of Bandon]] founded in 1913. Coos Bay is considered the best natural harbor between [[San Francisco Bay]] and the [[Puget Sound]], and the Port of Coos Bay was the largest forest products shipper in the world until late 2005 when raw log exports via transport ship were suspended.