I just purchased an old copy of Oregon For the Curious. I remember this great book on our coffee table when I was a kid.

Flipping through the pages reminds me of lots of cool stuff we’ve seen, and still need to see here in our home state.

But then I come to a page covering Hwy 101 near Florence. Right near the entry for Sand Dunes Frontier and just after Woahink lake, there’s a picture of a train steaming its way through the sand.

It appears at some point (up until at least the mid 1980’s) there was a miniature railroad called the Dunes Pacific Railway near Woahink and Siltcoos lakes.

I mean, what a fun and insanely stupid thing to build in the dunes, since railroad tracks do so well on shifting beds of sand and sand is just so good at never coming in contact with greasy parts and grinding those parts to dust.

Other than the name, a photo and a location, there’s no more information on the attraction. Checking online only shows references to this book and nothing else.

Does anyone remember this? Did anyone ride it?  What happened to it?  Inquiring minds want to know!