Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad

The Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad (WV&C) was a small 19th-century railway line in the American state of Oregon which sought to cross the Coast Mountain Range to connect the agriculturally oriented Willamette Valley with international shipping at Yaquina Bay. Following three false starts during the ten years after the American Civil War, the railway was launched in July 1874. Work was completed on the valley-to-coast road in 1884. The line is today part of the Southern Pacific system.

From the earliest days in which surplus agricultural production existed in Oregon's Willamette Valley, producers desired a transportation system to allow their output to reach outside market through ocean ports. The size and fruitfulness of the valley seemed vast, including as it did some 3 million acres of land, of which 1 million was well adapted to grain production. The valley's mild climate and fertile soil made commercial production of other crops practicable, if only transportation difficulties could be resolved.

The early settlers of Benton County, Oregon were proactive in seeking to create such a railway line across the Coast Mountain Range running from the county seat of Corvallis to the Pacific port at Yaquina Bay, part of today's Newport through a natural gap in the mountains near Mary's Peak. A trail first established by Native American peoples followed the route, used as well by the European American pioneer settlers who followed them.

Commercialization of the path began in 1863 with the organization of a toll road company called the Wagon Road Company, headed by local doctor J. R. Bayley, to construct and maintain a wagon road through the gap. This toll road company's ranks were expanded in 1865 with additional investors.

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