Page 60 - SOM Summer 2017

neck of the woods | history

The Sawdust Circuit of Southern Oregon

Erick Mertz

here used to be baseball every Sunday afternoon at the track in more than a half-century’s worth of sporting recreation to the people
Marshfield, Oregon. Fans took morning steamer boats up the of Southern and Southwestern Oregon has disappeared as well, with
Triver on the promise of a well-played game, with picnic and only an unwritten legacy left behind for the curious. But pull back
dancing to follow. the branches long enough to take a look, because the league’s story is
worth the price of admission.
The scene plays out like a Norman Rockwell painting.
Around the turn of the 19th Century, passion for the emerging pastime
The town of Marshfield isn’t there anymore, becoming part of Coos was spreading across the nation like wildfire, and those hearty and hale
Bay, nor is the racetrack. No one travels by steamer boat either. The people from Southern Oregon were no different. Hungry for diver-
Sawdust Circuit, a loosely structured baseball league that provided sion from their tough work lives, these fans struck up a one-of-a-kind

58 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | summer 2017