[5] In 1906, the Brookings Timber Company hired William James Ward, a graduate in civil engineering and forestry, to come to the southern Oregon Coast and survey its lumbering potential.

After timber cruising the Chetco and Pistol River areas for several years, he recommended that the Brookings people begin extensive lumbering operations here and secure a townsite for a mill and shipping center.

The latter Brookings hired Bernard Maybeck, an architect based in San Francisco who was later involved in the Panama–Pacific International Exposition, to lay out the plat of the townsite.

[7] On September 9, 1942, Mount Emily near Brookings became the only site in the mainland United States and the second in the continental territory after the bombing of Dutch Harbor to suffer aerial bombardment during World War II.

The plane was armed with two incendiary bombs on a mission intended to start massive fires in the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest.

[20] The heart of Brookings, with its orientation, is protected from sea breezes coming from the northwest and the warm, dry, down-sloping winds that are funneled down the Coastal Range into the deep Chetco River gorge can reach the coast uninfluenced by the effects of the Pacific.

It has picnic areas, bandshell, snackshack, gazebo, Kidtown playground, disc golf course, softball and soccer fields, and the Capella by the Sea.

[28] Another very popular event in Brookings is the Nature's Coastal Holiday light display which is open each evening from Thanksgiving weekend through Christmas in Azalea Park.

[29] After a long history of feeding the homeless, the City Council moved against St. Timothy's Episcopal Church for operating a soup kitchen.

After a long, drawn-out legal battle, starting in 2021 and culminating in 2024, St. Timothy's Episcopal Church was granted permission by a Federal court to continue to operate the soup kitchen.