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ENLARGE
Bob and Becky House stand outside Bob’s Market in Wells Creek near Scottsburg Tuesday. The store was established by Bob’s father in 1950.
So you know ...
• While she was a student at Elkton High School, Amy Stauffer worked as a waitress at the Wells Creek Inn restaurant next door to Bob’s Market. She remembers the arrangement the restaurant had with Tom and Bob House. Occasionally, someone passing through, often on foot on the highway, would need a good meal. Tom would send the person to the restaurant to be courteously well fed. Later, Tom would come in to restaurant and pick up the bill.
“When someone needs something, they really need it,” Tom says. “If they are hungry and need a good meal, that’s not the time to argue.”
Quiet generosity — yet another invaluable gift to the community.
• Scottsburg was laid out in the summer of 1850 by Levi Scott, who gave the town his name. Since ships could bring goods up the tidewater of the Umpqua River as far as Scottsburg, the area was rapidly becoming a commercial center. Goods from the ships were offloaded onto freight wagons and pack animals and taken by overland trail to southern Oregon and the Crescent City area.
Jacksonville was a gold mining center and especially relied on the Scottsburg freight deliveries. On return trips, it was mainly agricultural goods that were packed to Scottsburg and then shipped. Residents reported as many as 500 or 600 freight animals near the bustling river’s edge at any given time.
• The first store in Scottsburg was constructed in 1850 using a sail salvaged from the wreck of the ship Bostonian. Many stores followed, but none were as successful or as long-lived as the Hedden Store. Cyrus Hedden founded the store in the early 1850s, eventually leaving it to his son John. On John’s death, his daughter Emma inherited the Hedden Store. She operated the store until her retirement about 1976.
Heddens still live in Scottsburg and the store still stands as a historical place at the intersection of Highway 38 and Scottsburg West Road, near the approach to the bridge across the Umpqua River. For many current Scottsburg residents, the Hedden Store continues to feel like the heart of Scottsburg.
• Bob House the younger has an astounding breadth of knowledge about the history of the Umpqua as well as other parts of Oregon. Standing outside his store, he points to a nearby small mountain and then to a second, smaller mountain across the river.
“See that mountain? It’s the tailings of that mountain,” he said. He points to the first mountain. He turns back to the second mountain. “There was an earthquake and that part fell off. That mountain has logs in it. Geologists come from all over to look it at it and dig in it.”
With a bemused smile, he adds, ”Isn’t that amazing?”
• Bob’s Market’s tall, broad storefront is made up of bright windows. On one side of the windows is a white wall bearing the store sign made of wide cedar planks reading “Bob’s Market est. 1950 Wells Creek”. The sign was made and installed in 1975 by workers at Sunshine Enterprises in Roseburg.
A second one was made and mounted near the highway edge of the parking lot. A trucker re-entering the highway inadvertently pulled the sign off the mounting with his second trailer. The sign was not replaced.
Bob says he needs a new sign and “I better get a hold of those folks” at Sunrise Enterprises. “I really liked them.”
“When someone needs something, they really need it,” Tom says. “If they are hungry and need a good meal, that’s not the time to argue.”
Quiet generosity — yet another invaluable gift to the community.
• Scottsburg was laid out in the summer of 1850 by Levi Scott, who gave the town his name. Since ships could bring goods up the tidewater of the Umpqua River as far as Scottsburg, the area was rapidly becoming a commercial center. Goods from the ships were offloaded onto freight wagons and pack animals and taken by overland trail to southern Oregon and the Crescent City area.
Jacksonville was a gold mining center and especially relied on the Scottsburg freight deliveries. On return trips, it was mainly agricultural goods that were packed to Scottsburg and then shipped. Residents reported as many as 500 or 600 freight animals near the bustling river’s edge at any given time.
• The first store in Scottsburg was constructed in 1850 using a sail salvaged from the wreck of the ship Bostonian. Many stores followed, but none were as successful or as long-lived as the Hedden Store. Cyrus Hedden founded the store in the early 1850s, eventually leaving it to his son John. On John’s death, his daughter Emma inherited the Hedden Store. She operated the store until her retirement about 1976.
Heddens still live in Scottsburg and the store still stands as a historical place at the intersection of Highway 38 and Scottsburg West Road, near the approach to the bridge across the Umpqua River. For many current Scottsburg residents, the Hedden Store continues to feel like the heart of Scottsburg.
• Bob House the younger has an astounding breadth of knowledge about the history of the Umpqua as well as other parts of Oregon. Standing outside his store, he points to a nearby small mountain and then to a second, smaller mountain across the river.
“See that mountain? It’s the tailings of that mountain,” he said. He points to the first mountain. He turns back to the second mountain. “There was an earthquake and that part fell off. That mountain has logs in it. Geologists come from all over to look it at it and dig in it.”
With a bemused smile, he adds, ”Isn’t that amazing?”
• Bob’s Market’s tall, broad storefront is made up of bright windows. On one side of the windows is a white wall bearing the store sign made of wide cedar planks reading “Bob’s Market est. 1950 Wells Creek”. The sign was made and installed in 1975 by workers at Sunshine Enterprises in Roseburg.
A second one was made and mounted near the highway edge of the parking lot. A trucker re-entering the highway inadvertently pulled the sign off the mounting with his second trailer. The sign was not replaced.
Bob says he needs a new sign and “I better get a hold of those folks” at Sunrise Enterprises. “I really liked them.”
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ENLARGE
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Bob House, right, talks with customer Jeff Rich at Bob’s Market in Wells Creek near Scottsburg. Many say the market is the center of the community in the Scottsburg area.
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ENLARGE
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Bob’s Market sits along Highway 38 in Wells Creek. Over the past decades, the store has adjusted to meet the needs of the changing community.
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ENLARGE
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Bob House displays a newspaper ad for the grand opening of Bob’s Market in 1950.
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Midway between Elkton and the coast on Highway 38, squeezed between a river and a mountain, is one of the earliest settled areas in Oregon.
Still tiny and still lying narrowly alongside the Umpqua River near the confluence of Wells Creek are the unincorporated communities of Scottsburg and Wells Creek. They are two miles apart.
Still tiny and still lying narrowly alongside the Umpqua River near the confluence of Wells Creek are the unincorporated communities of Scottsburg and Wells Creek. They are two miles apart.
One key to their survival is Bob’s Market, a fixture even before Bob House and his wife, Marguerite, purchased the store in 1950 — and certainly since.
Bob’s Market, located in Wells Creek, was typical of the era 60 years ago. It was in a building that served many needs for the remote communities. Old photographs now in the possession of Bob House, the son, show a wooden, two-story building with four
small businesses on the ground floor: a grocery store, hardware store, variety store and restaurant. The second floor was split into four apartments.
Bob House was 8 years old (“slingshot age,” Bob says) when his father moved the family to Wells Creek. He and his siblings grew up there, graduating from Elkton High School, marrying, moving away — but not too far — starting families and careers. One night in December 1967, Bob and his wife, Becky, received a phone call at their home in Eugene. The store was on fire.
There was no fire department in the Scottsburg/Wells Creek area. When Bob and Becky arrived at the scene, they found a devastated building.
“It was all ashes. Nothing but ashes. Ashes as high as my knees,” Becky remembered.
In the dark days of December, it must have been hard to imagine rebuilding the store. But with the continuing support of his children, the elder Bob House opened a full-service, modern, glass front store at the same site in the summer of 1968.
Bob’s Market joined the Red and White Market chain, purchasing full-page ads in the Reedsport newspaper, with specials sponsored by the Red and White grocery brand. Bob’s Market was featured in the December 1968, issue of “American Grocer,” with pictures of the proud owners and their up-to-date displays. Prominently featured was a spotless dairy case filled with Umpqua Dairy Products.
Bob’s children continued to help out with the store. The younger Bob, Becky, and their three children moved to the area in 1973, and that couple and Bob’s brother, Tom, and Tom’s wife, Carleen, took over the store. The older Bob and Marguerite retired.
Over the next 35 years, Bob’s Market adjusted to meet the needs of the changing communities. At one time, Bob’s boasted a full-service meat market; now they are well known for their partnership with Taylor Sausage Company of Cave Junction. Taylor’s sausages are in demand and “people buy them by the dozen” at Bob’s Market, many times buying a few for their spouses, says Becky. She doubts all the sausages bought for spouses get all the way home, “the delicious aroma being too tempting.”
Not surprisingly, customers of Bob’s Market are widely varied. Bob knows the truckers appreciate the ease of the pull-through parking area, as well as the parking on the wide shoulder across the road. Tourists, fishermen, hunters and dune riders stop in to buy what supplies tourists, fishermen, hunters, and dune riders typically buy.
About half of Bob’s customers are locals. Both Robin Dollar and Amy Stauffer live in Scottsburg and are happy to save the drive to Reedsport when they need something and Bob’s Market carries it. Amy, whose parents are also lifelong residents of Scottsburg, lives close. She says, “At least half the time I see someone I know” when she visits Bob’s Market. Wells Creek and Scottsburg neighbors catch up with each other while shopping at their local store, keeping in touch, keeping the bonds of their communities healthy.
Bob’s Market supports its community in obvious and not so obvious ways. The business helps stage, and donates to, the annual fundraising school carnival and taco dinner. It participates in the Elkton School Support Group, buys an advertisement every year in the school annual, joins in the Fort Umpqua Days annual event, and offers a place for car washes and bakes sales in the parking lot.
Simply being a good citizen of the small community is not always a public production. Amy Stauffer remembers, as nearly all little kids do, the candy counter at the store. Jolly Ranchers, Airheads and other small, colorful candy marketed to little children are fond memories for her.
One day when she was 7 or 8, Amy came home with Jolly Ranchers for which her mother did not remember paying. Her mother took Amy back to the store, where Amy returned the candy and apologized. She can’t remember now whether she apologized to Bob or Tom, but remembers that both were tall men, and the one she apologized to was “very nice about it.” Lessons learned with kind people are contributions beyond measure.
Tom retired from the store a year ago. He and Carleen pursue their interest in antiques, which continues to show in the family store through a “Collectibles” corner.
Marguerite House is now 94 years old and lives in Florence. Her husband is deceased.
Son Bob House will retire from the Volunteer Fire Department this year, after 28 years of service. One of the original members, he started when the fire department went into service in 1980. Tom and Carleen will remain members, both serving as EMTs.
Becky and Bob continue to work daily in the store that remains the central business district of the area. Their many hours of work contribute to the well-being of the people who live near them, as well as to the people just passing through.
Bob House was 8 years old (“slingshot age,” Bob says) when his father moved the family to Wells Creek. He and his siblings grew up there, graduating from Elkton High School, marrying, moving away — but not too far — starting families and careers. One night in December 1967, Bob and his wife, Becky, received a phone call at their home in Eugene. The store was on fire.
There was no fire department in the Scottsburg/Wells Creek area. When Bob and Becky arrived at the scene, they found a devastated building.
“It was all ashes. Nothing but ashes. Ashes as high as my knees,” Becky remembered.
In the dark days of December, it must have been hard to imagine rebuilding the store. But with the continuing support of his children, the elder Bob House opened a full-service, modern, glass front store at the same site in the summer of 1968.
Bob’s Market joined the Red and White Market chain, purchasing full-page ads in the Reedsport newspaper, with specials sponsored by the Red and White grocery brand. Bob’s Market was featured in the December 1968, issue of “American Grocer,” with pictures of the proud owners and their up-to-date displays. Prominently featured was a spotless dairy case filled with Umpqua Dairy Products.
Bob’s children continued to help out with the store. The younger Bob, Becky, and their three children moved to the area in 1973, and that couple and Bob’s brother, Tom, and Tom’s wife, Carleen, took over the store. The older Bob and Marguerite retired.
Over the next 35 years, Bob’s Market adjusted to meet the needs of the changing communities. At one time, Bob’s boasted a full-service meat market; now they are well known for their partnership with Taylor Sausage Company of Cave Junction. Taylor’s sausages are in demand and “people buy them by the dozen” at Bob’s Market, many times buying a few for their spouses, says Becky. She doubts all the sausages bought for spouses get all the way home, “the delicious aroma being too tempting.”
Not surprisingly, customers of Bob’s Market are widely varied. Bob knows the truckers appreciate the ease of the pull-through parking area, as well as the parking on the wide shoulder across the road. Tourists, fishermen, hunters and dune riders stop in to buy what supplies tourists, fishermen, hunters, and dune riders typically buy.
About half of Bob’s customers are locals. Both Robin Dollar and Amy Stauffer live in Scottsburg and are happy to save the drive to Reedsport when they need something and Bob’s Market carries it. Amy, whose parents are also lifelong residents of Scottsburg, lives close. She says, “At least half the time I see someone I know” when she visits Bob’s Market. Wells Creek and Scottsburg neighbors catch up with each other while shopping at their local store, keeping in touch, keeping the bonds of their communities healthy.
Bob’s Market supports its community in obvious and not so obvious ways. The business helps stage, and donates to, the annual fundraising school carnival and taco dinner. It participates in the Elkton School Support Group, buys an advertisement every year in the school annual, joins in the Fort Umpqua Days annual event, and offers a place for car washes and bakes sales in the parking lot.
Simply being a good citizen of the small community is not always a public production. Amy Stauffer remembers, as nearly all little kids do, the candy counter at the store. Jolly Ranchers, Airheads and other small, colorful candy marketed to little children are fond memories for her.
One day when she was 7 or 8, Amy came home with Jolly Ranchers for which her mother did not remember paying. Her mother took Amy back to the store, where Amy returned the candy and apologized. She can’t remember now whether she apologized to Bob or Tom, but remembers that both were tall men, and the one she apologized to was “very nice about it.” Lessons learned with kind people are contributions beyond measure.
Tom retired from the store a year ago. He and Carleen pursue their interest in antiques, which continues to show in the family store through a “Collectibles” corner.
Marguerite House is now 94 years old and lives in Florence. Her husband is deceased.
Son Bob House will retire from the Volunteer Fire Department this year, after 28 years of service. One of the original members, he started when the fire department went into service in 1980. Tom and Carleen will remain members, both serving as EMTs.
Becky and Bob continue to work daily in the store that remains the central business district of the area. Their many hours of work contribute to the well-being of the people who live near them, as well as to the people just passing through.
