On October 1, 1850, the schooner Bostonian, owned by a Boston merchant named Gardiner, was sent to the Pacific coast in the interest of trade, but it wrecked on the Umpqua River bar. Most of its cargo was salvaged and brought to this site, known for years as Gardiner's City. A sawmill was built in 1864 and another in 1877, and Gardiner became a noted lumber port. Fire destroyed most of the town in 1880, but it was quickly rebuilt and became widely known as the white city by the sea. From 1885 to 1916, the Gardiner Mill Company, with its logging camps and brisk sailing ship trade, made Gardiner one of the busiest towns on the Oregon coast.