At a low point during the Great Depression, banks closed. When that happened, people got creative with money. North Bend, Oregon, got really creative. In 1933, they made a tree into wooden coins to use for money. Specifically, they made $1, $2, $5, $10 wooden coins out of myrtlewood.
Other towns were more traditional and printed up pieces of paper and it was called depression script.
The wooden coins were distributed by the city and used until 1934. Their value still holds today in North Bend. They are accepted at face value as money. However, rather than paying for things, most are kept or traded by collectors.
The California-laurel (Umbellularia) is called the Oregon myrtle or myrtlewood in our state. This tree is unusual in that it only grows in California and Oregon. There is a repeated claim that it also grows in the “Holy Land,” but this is not true, according to the Oregon Encyclopedia. Other names for the tree are: pepperwood, spicebush, cinnamon bush, peppernut tree, headache tree, mountain laurel, and balm of heaven.
The easiest way to identify this tree is by it’s pungent smell and olive-size fruit. The fruit turns dark purple when mature. The leaves are 1 to 2 inches wide and 6 inches long; dark green on top; lighter green underneath. The Oregon myrtle can grow as large as 100 feet tall and 5 feet wide. On average, trees are 40 to 50 feet tall. In some areas, they are short and scrappy and look like tangled shrubs.
If you take a leaf and crinkle it, it releases a strong smell of camphor. Take a good sniff and it clears the sinuses. Do not rub your eyes as it will sting. Back when Hudson Bay Company trappers were in this area, they drank tea, made from the leaves, to stay warm.
This hardwood tree transforms anything into art and so it is made into guitars, bowls, clocks, and just about anything you can sell at a gift shop. Considered a premium material, it is also used for furniture, cabinets, veneer, and gun stocks. It was used in 1869 to celebrate the first transcontinental railroad. As part of the ceremony, the gold spike was driven into a railroad tie of polished myrtlewood.
As usual, the indigenous people found a number of uses for this tree for health and lifestyle benefits. It was popular to treat headaches and menstrual cramps, as well as “washing vermin from the head,” and for combating fleas. The leaves were sometimes woven into headwear, for decreasing headaches with style. The Salinan tribe made a hot poultice from the leaves, mixed with cinnamon, nutmeg, and olive oil. This was used to treat seizures and restore consciousness. The Mendocino tribe roasted the nuts and ground them to make meal for bread. The Pomos and Kashayas burned the nuts to make a charcoal-like substance, which was then used for styling mustaches.
Take a trip to Gold beach, Oregon, to see a magical myrtelwood place. Not a shop, with mytlewood products, no this is the art of the wild trees themselves in their natural state. It is earthy, moist, green upon green, and smells strongly of bay leaves.
This is the home of the world’s largest myrtle tree. It is estimated to be about 400 years old. There is an easy marked trail west of Gold Beach, Oregon.
Another interesting location to mingle with these trees is the Coquille Myrtle Grove State Natural Site.
The park has a basic listing, and few pictures. It does say it will “bring out the Huckleberry Finn in you.” The site description mentions a secluded swimming hole, a myrtlewood grove, and a sandy beach along the Coquille River. It warns that sometimes the river gets high and floods the area. This land was set aside for preservation in 1950, thanks to an organization called, Save the Myrtlewoods.