Drain

History

In 1876, a coach road was established between Drain and Scottsburg. Drain was the starting point for the Drain-Coos Bay stage line, which ran to Scottsburg and then by river steamer to Gardiner and the beach on the south side of the mouth of the Umpqua River. The Drain Normal School was founded in the community in 1883 by the Methodist Church. The state took over the school in 1885 and named it as the Central Oregon State Normal School, before it closed in June 1908.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. Drain is at the crossroads of Oregon Route 99 and Oregon Route 38, at a pass in the Coast Range, on the way west to the Pacific Ocean. Elk Creek and Pass Creek, both tributaries of the Umpqua River, converge in Drain. Pass Creek Bridge, a covered bridge in a park behind the Drain Civic Center, was formerly a road bridge. In 1987, the city moved the structure to the park and opened it to pedestrian traffic only. In 2014, the city completely closed the bridge, made unsafe by rotting support timbers. Drain, like most of western Oregon, has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) with dry summers featuring cool mornings and hot afternoons, and chilly, if not severe, wet winters. Occasionally during the winter a cold air mass from the interior will cross the Cascades to bring very cold weather and frost, although Drain gets very little snow with a mean of , a monthly maximum of in January 1950, and a season maximum of in 1970/1971. The coldest month was January 1930 with a mean of , whilst January 1949 with is the only other subfreezing month. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Drain is on January 22, 1962. Rainfall in winter is usually heavy: the wettest month on record is December 1955 which totalled , whilst the wettest "rain year" since 1903 has been from July 1973 to June 1974 with and the driest from July 1976 to June 1977 with . The most precipitation in a single day has been on January 18, 1951. During the summer months, days are usually hot and clear, whilst nights are cool: in the summer of 2003 only of rain fell over the three months, and in 1951 no measurable precipitation occurred for ninety-five days between May 24 and August 26. When a continental…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• California/Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

  Aphelocoma californica (Vigors, 1839) · Aves
  236
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  228
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  221
• Turkey Vulture

  Cathartes aura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  214
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  201
• Steller's Jay

  Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  192
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  189
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  174

Largest nearby schools

• North Douglas Elementary School
  Elementary · Drain · 223 students · 13.9:1 ratio
• Yoncalla Elementary School
  Elementary · Yoncalla · 160 students · 20:1 ratio
• North Douglas High School
  High · Drain · 123 students · 15.4:1 ratio
• Yoncalla High School
  High · Yoncalla · 95 students · 9.5:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.77 — 2017-09-26
  13 km ESE of Yachats, Oregon
• M 4.14 — 2015-07-04
  16 km ENE of Springfield, Oregon
• M 2.61 — 2015-01-12
  13 km E of Coburg, Oregon
• M 2.59 — 2014-11-12
  14 km E of Coburg, Oregon
• M 2.56 — 2012-09-22
  5 km W of Barview, Oregon
• M 2.5 — 2008-11-19
  4 km WNW of Sweet Home, Oregon