Port Orford needed an off-season idea.
They chose a Kraken.
This is why I love small towns.
A larger city would have formed a task force, hired an agency and produced a sixty-slide deck called Seasonal Visitor Engagement Strategy.
Port Orford invented a sea monster and started hiding coins.
For one week in October, the southern Oregon Coast town becomes Port Goreford. Businesses paint tentacles on their windows. Visitors collect signed Kraken coins. A treasure chest waits at the Visitor Center. The official lore says the town is doomed unless the Kraken’s treasure is returned by Halloween.
Completely ridiculous.
Also one of the smartest small-business crawls I have seen.
THE WOMAN WHO GAVE PORT ORFORD A SEA MONSTER
Susan Russell of Port Orford Main Street told us the Kraken lore was developed by Helen Stonhill with input from the Main Street board.
Then local businesses and organizations started adding their own pieces.
That part matters.
The event did not stay one organizer’s idea. It escaped into town.
“Port Goreford is a win! Great participation the first year; even more this year.” — Susan Russell, Port Orford Main Street
By year two, roughly thirty businesses were on the map.
Some towns decorate for Halloween.
Port Orford apparently needed a shared fictional emergency.
THE GAME IS DESIGNED TO MAKE YOU WALK THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR
The easiest place to start was the Visitor Center at Battle Rock Wayside Park, but maps were also available at participating businesses.
The clue was painted right on the glass: Kraken tentacles.
You walked in. Asked for a coin. No purchase required.
And this is where the whole thing becomes more interesting than a scavenger hunt.
Main Street was not pretending the coins themselves mattered. The hope was that, once you were inside, you might notice the coffee, the gallery, the seafood, the person standing behind the counter in a town that gets much quieter after summer.
The sea monster was customer acquisition with better branding.
Photo: Kim Foster / Port Orford Main Street.
THE FIRST YEAR, THEY ALMOST RAN OUT OF EVERYTHING
Russell told us they ordered 3,000 coins for the first year.
About fifty were left.
They nearly ran out of reward bags too.
So the second year they ordered more.
There is something wonderfully validating about inventing an imaginary coastal threat and then discovering the public would like additional inventory.
THREE COINS GOT YOU A BAG. EVERY COIN GOT YOU CLOSER TO A PRIZE.
Return three or more signed coins to the Visitor Center and you earned a drawstring sport pack while supplies lasted.
Every returned coin also became an entry in the prize drawings.
The top Treasure Chest package was valued at $1,025.
And the prize list read less like a corporate sponsor sheet and more like the town emptied its pockets onto the table: lodging, Jerry’s Rogue Jets, local seafood, flowers, restaurant certificates, massage, yoga, coffee, art, tours.
Each prize pointed you toward another local person.
Even the reward system kept circulating attention.
THE MERCHANT QUOTES ARE MY FAVORITE PART
“So much fun! Was a delight to see the town locals and new visitors search for the Kraken coins.” — Kathee Woods, Kat’s Corner
“Everyone in town was gathering coins. There was so much excitement in the air.” — Nicki Grimes, Nicki’s Knick-Knacks
These are not profound quotes.
They are better than profound quotes.
They sound like people who watched their quiet town become a game board.
Photo: Kim Foster / Port Orford Main Street.
THIS IS HOW I WOULD DO IT
Do not treat Port Orford like a drive-by.
Start at the Visitor Center. Grab the map. Walk Battle Rock. Let the coins send you into businesses you would not have chosen from Google Maps.
Get seafood. Get coffee. Go into the shop with the tentacle on the window even if you have no idea what they sell.
The entire point is discovery by accident.
WHY THIS ONE STUCK WITH ME
Tourism can make small towns feel like scenery.
You pull over, take the picture, get back in the car and congratulate yourself for seeing the coast.
Port Goreford does the opposite.
It makes you enter.
It gives you a silly reason to ask a stranger a question.
It turns the businesses from backdrop into the actual experience.
The Kraken is fake.
The town it makes you notice is not.
And I think that is why this works so well: sometimes the most honest way to get people to care about a place is to invent something completely ridiculous and use it to introduce them to what was real all along.
Last verified October 2026. Port Goreford is seasonal; dates, participating businesses, prize values and redemption rules should be rechecked for future years.
Sources: Port Orford Main Street direct reporting with PNW Passport; Kim Foster tourism committee follow-up; official Port Goreford event materials.
