Located south of the D River, Nelscott is the fourth district in Lincoln City's String of (six) Pearls, from north to south.

Excerpt from History of Nelscott District

"In the mid 1920s, North Lincoln County and much of the Oregon coast was transformed from an inaccessible coastline of dense forests and underbrush to a series of small communities and developments. A narrow gravel road tied the newly formed settlements together. Given the primitive state of transportation of the era, this gravel road was considered a highway, specifically the Roosevelt Military Highway.

Today it is commonly known as the Oregon Coast Highway or Highway 101. Nelscott, the subject of this study, was one of thirteen highway-based developments in North Lincoln County to get its start in the 1920s. The impact of the highway on the central Oregon coast was made all the more dramatic by the advent of affordable automobiles. Automobiles had been around for decades prior to the construction of the Oregon Coast Highway, primarily as a wealthy person’s toy. The combination of a cheap car and a new road along the beautiful

Oregon coast proved irresistible to inland residents. Seemingly overnight motoring tourists of all economic classes became the driving force of economic development on the Oregon coast. Prior to highway construction, settlement of North Lincoln County was confined to primarily the isolated waterfront community of Taft, accessible by boats entering the small and treacherous Siletz Bay. Taft was the only North Lincoln

County community whose Euro-American settlement predates the automobile age. It was a small trading and social center for homesteaders and subsistence farmers living nearby in relative isolation on the watersheds of Schooner and Drift Creeks.

When North Lincoln County became accessible by road, there was a rush to
develop new resort communities that catered specifically to the motoring public. Camp Roosevelt (later part of DeLake), Cutler City, DeLake, Depoe Bay, Devils’ Lake Park (later part of Oceanlake), Gleneden Beach, Neotsu, Lincoln Beach, Raymond (later part of Oceanlake), Roads End, Roosevelt –By-The-Sea (later part of DeLake), Taft, and Wecoma were all competing developments within a few miles of Nelscott. All sprang up as they became accessible with highway construction in the 1920s. These developments all shared the same main street, the highway. Nelscott was one of the smaller developments in North Lincoln County."

• Nelscott Community Vision Plan

Chimneys of Nelscott Poster

Pick up a poster at the Urban Renewal office!