Like a beached whale, the 50-foot boat sat on dry land, enduring the sun and rain less than a mile from flowing water.

Moored between piles of tires, abandoned cars and other junk on a lot near Winchester Bay, the Welcome remained there for at least 10 years, displaced and forgotten.

Once used to transport people, milk cans, mail and other goods from Marshfield to Allegany along the Coos River, the Welcome is known  to be the last of the milk boats and the final remnant of more than 100 passenger and freight water crafts that navigated Coos County waters from 1853 to 1948.

But when Springfield resident Ron Eakin purchased the 19 1/2-acre lot (and vessel) more than a year ago, he didn’t know its history. He was getting an unusual dry-docked boat, sure, but one that served as the final water bus of a bygone and bridge-less era for Coos County?

Although he got some offers to sell it for scrap,  Eakin held onto the Welcome. He soon learned its true origins.

“When you find the last of a part of your heritage, you can’t destroy it. It needs to be preserved,” Eakin said. “I’m a native Oregonian, born and bred, and this is part of our heritage.”

The 68-year-old contacted the Coos Historical & Maritime Museum. He learned the gas-propelled vessel was built in 1919 and weighs about 14 tons.

While the milk boat won’t ever be seaworthy again, it will hit the open road Friday. Members of the museum, volunteers and business owners are partnering to send the Welcome on her final voyage home.

Museum board President Jennifer Groth said the vessel will be removed from its spot by two cranes and then placed into a wooden cradle — likely built on site — on a flat-bed truck. A number of community partners will be involved, from Sause Bros. Ocean Towing Co., to West Coast Contractors and Fred Wahl Marine Shipyard, to get the boat moved and stored. The effort to move the Welcome began about six months ago, after museum officials first learned of Eakin’s discovery.

While the move is expected to take place in one morning, there is some concern that the Welcome will fall apart during the process. But no matter how it gets to Front Street — in one piece or pieces — the Welcome likely be displayed in the future.

“It’s not in the best of shape, but it’s certainly something that could be restored,” Groth said.

Once the Welcome returns, the museum’s Maritime Committee will examine it and determine whether restoration is feasible, Groth said. If so, it could be showcased at the museum’s future site on Front Street.

“I don’t think we’d put it in the water,” Groth joked.

There is no timeline for restoration, the board president said, as the museum’s primary focus these days is a fundraising campaign to pay for its new home in Coos Bay.

Groth said she and other museum officials are grateful to Eakin for his find.

“A lot of people in our community have ridden on that boat, because it was one of the last milk boats in the fleet to be used to transport things up and down the river —  whether it be people or goods,” Groth said. “Before there were bridges across the bay, rail service, automobiles —  this is the way people would get around our community.”

According to “Southern Oregon Mosquito Fleet: Stories about Coos County Boats,” by Victor C. West, although automobiles and roads built along rivers and inlets began to take business from watercraft in the late teens and early 1920s, a few managed to stay in operation until about World War II, including The Welcome. Capt. Jesse Ott steered the vessel through its last passenger and freight run from Allegany to Coos Bay on Dec. 11, 1948, the book states.

Eakin said he believes the Welcome eventually was turned into a tugboat by the former owners of his property. They used it in the 1960s and ’70s to install docks and pilings in Winchester Bay. The rest of its recent history is vague.

Only a day away from when the Welcome will be removed, Eakin admitted he’ll be sad to see it go, but knows he made the right move in contributing the vessel to the maritime museum.

Plus, it will be easier to turn his property into an RV park or camping area without a boat in the way.

“It’s going to be a little bit of a loss,” Eakin said. “ I kind of enjoyed it being here but, I’m glad it’s going to find a home where it belongs.”