As this maritime study winds on and the list of wrecks near the mouth of the Columbia River gets ever longer, it’s becoming harder to keep everything straight. Here’s why:
MENLO — The story all starts with a heritage marker collapsing from disrepair on a turnout on SR 6 across the highway from Tombstone Willie’s in Menlo, in Pacific County. Citizens had been trying to contact people from State Parks to repair or replace the marker for some time. The marker tol…
More than a colorful expression and title of a canceled TV show, “Hell on Wheels” was a momentous chapter in the lives of two of my ancestors and a paramount event in the history of the American West. It came to a close 150 years ago on May 10.
ILWACO — The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum is hosting the exhibit “Coming Home: WWI and the American Legion Centennial.” This special exhibition opens on Saturday, May 18, with an Armed Forces Day celebration organized by the Don R. Grable Post #48, Ilwaco. The exhibition will be on view …
RAYMOND — For more than a century, Raymond was a hubbub of seagoing activity, with ships, sails and sailors. As late as the 1980s, seagoing vessels came into Willapa Harbor to transport wood, wood products, oysters and other local items to customers around the world. That part of the town’s …
In the 1970s, I befriended a Clatskanie man, Russel “Lee” Hall, who had many old-coot yarns about the natural and supernatural things around us. Being a former actor, singer and comedian, he couldn’t resist embellishing his stories with fanciful characters, spirits and all sorts of imaginary beings.
Just now, it’s raining axe handles out there; it’s the weekend of Fisher Poets in Astoria, and I’ve been reading the annual report of the U.S. Life Saving Service from the 1880s. Those Cape Disappointment reports tell of hard work, and a hard life, and a harder death. To begin with, the Life…
RAYMOND — The Northwest Carriage Museum recently added its 53rd horse-drawn vehicle, a 1901 kerosene wagon.
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bind us in special and unexpected ways.
Just after moving to Ocean Park, I became a habitue of its fine library. In my search for local information the staff directed me to regional files where I read everything, including newspapers’ throwaway advertising specials. It was in one of those long-gone circulars that I read about the …
The official U.S. Life Saving Service report of 1883 tells a story about the wreck of the Fernglen which differs considerably from that of Captain Bubb.
When we drive north over the Astoria-Megler Bridge at dusk and look off to our left at the colorful evening sky, the Cape Disappointment Light blinks at us. Its distinctive white-pause-red-pause repeat flash pattern is a characteristic of that light. Each lighthouse has an individual signatu…
RAYMOND — The Amish are famous for their low-tech lifestyles and elegant designs, and now a Pacific County museum has a wonderful example of one of their most iconic objects.
NORTH HEAD — Stone masons continue work on North Head Lighthouse restoration in Cape Disappointment State Park, aided by unusually gentle January weather.
As winter’s weather blows close in offshore, those tumults of wind and rain and waves meet up with the uneven topography of the nearby ocean floor, and watery chaos breaks out. (See Google Earth for the disquieting detail of the Astoria and Willapa/Shoalwater underwater canyons.) Consider th…
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bind us in special and unexpected ways.
A mile offshore of Tillamook Head in the very northwest corner of Oregon, between Seaside and Cannon Beach, squats the 100-foot-high basalt monolith called Tillamook Rock. Back in the days of sailing ships, when navigation instruments were crude and could easily be misread, when inbound ship…
9:30-10 a.m. each day: Meet in the Cafe Room for coffee, tea and “Considering Our History” with Sydney Stevens. Each week Stevens will lead the group in a discussion about the challenges and successes in your historical research. There will also be “Occasional Object Stories” with Tucker Wachsmuth
Scott Rekate remembers a lot about visiting the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. It was dark. Even a little spooky.
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bind us in special and unexpected ways.
MENLO — The story all starts with a heritage marker collapsing from disrepair on a turnout on SR 6 across the highway from Tombstone Willie’s in Menlo, in Pacific County. Citizens had been try…
More than a colorful expression and title of a canceled TV show, “Hell on Wheels” was a momentous chapter in the lives of two of my ancestors and a paramount event in the history of the Americ…
ILWACO — The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum is hosting the exhibit “Coming Home: WWI and the American Legion Centennial.” This special exhibition opens on Saturday, May 18, with an Armed For…
RAYMOND — For more than a century, Raymond was a hubbub of seagoing activity, with ships, sails and sailors. As late as the 1980s, seagoing vessels came into Willapa Harbor to transport wood, …
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featured
In the 1970s, I befriended a Clatskanie man, Russel “Lee” Hall, who had many old-coot yarns about the natural and supernatural things around us. Being a former actor, singer and comedian, he c…
top story
Just now, it’s raining axe handles out there; it’s the weekend of Fisher Poets in Astoria, and I’ve been reading the annual report of the U.S. Life Saving Service from the 1880s. Those Cape Di…
RAYMOND — The Northwest Carriage Museum recently added its 53rd horse-drawn vehicle, a 1901 kerosene wagon.
top story
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Just after moving to Ocean Park, I became a habitue of its fine library. In my search for local information the staff directed me to regional files where I read everything, including newspaper…
The official U.S. Life Saving Service report of 1883 tells a story about the wreck of the Fernglen which differs considerably from that of Captain Bubb.
spotlight
When we drive north over the Astoria-Megler Bridge at dusk and look off to our left at the colorful evening sky, the Cape Disappointment Light blinks at us. Its distinctive white-pause-red-pau…
featured
RAYMOND — The Amish are famous for their low-tech lifestyles and elegant designs, and now a Pacific County museum has a wonderful example of one of their most iconic objects.
spotlight
NORTH HEAD — Stone masons continue work on North Head Lighthouse restoration in Cape Disappointment State Park, aided by unusually gentle January weather.
featured
As winter’s weather blows close in offshore, those tumults of wind and rain and waves meet up with the uneven topography of the nearby ocean floor, and watery chaos breaks out. (See Google Ear…
featured
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
featured
A mile offshore of Tillamook Head in the very northwest corner of Oregon, between Seaside and Cannon Beach, squats the 100-foot-high basalt monolith called Tillamook Rock. Back in the days of …
9:30-10 a.m. each day: Meet in the Cafe Room for coffee, tea and “Considering Our History” with Sydney Stevens. Each week Stevens will lead the group in a discussion about the challenges and s…
Scott Rekate remembers a lot about visiting the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. It was dark. Even a little spooky.
featured
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
There are competing schools of thought as to the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s visions of Mordor in his epic fantasy trilogy, “Lord of the Rings.”
ILWACO — Winter weather brings winter storms and the winter storms of the past brought many ships to ground along the coast of the Long Beach Peninsula. The Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum — …
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Several years ago, as Columbia-Pacific Heritage Museum Curator Barbara Minard and I were talking about the many losses of small fishing boats in those days before motors, she stated, with emph…
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
As the uproar continued about the need to try to control the mouth of the Columbia River — “When are we going to get a jetty?!” — the turmoil was periodically punctuated by yet another wreck. …
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Those of us who enjoy Joanne Rideout’s “Ship Report” on KMUN radio know that wheat is one of the most frequent cargoes filling those freighters we watch sailing outbound. That’s been the case …
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
ILWACO — The economy in Pacific County and the rest of America nearly came to a dead stop at the beginning of the Great Depression, as banks failed and money dried up.
Editor’s Note: In this series, local historian Sydney Stevens examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the past; connections that bi…
Editor’s Note: This is the first of a series by local historian Sydney Stevens which examines the many connections among Pacific County residents — connections with one another and with the pa…
The ship was the Abercorn, bound from England for Portland, Oregon, full of iron rails for a regional railroad. Only a few years old, Glasgow-built of iron, she was a solid vessel, and not sma…
The Beeswax shipwreck, a local mystery born from blocks of beeswax and shards of Chinese porcelain found along the shores of the Nehalem Spit, is the subject of the Oregon Historical Society’s…
Building a four and a half mile-long spine of rocks out into the ocean, so as to direct the River’s outflow and keep sand from piling up in the Columbia Bar, thereby messing up the shipping ch…
Cape D — Washington State Parks and Keepers of the North Head Lighthouse are inviting the public to help celebrate the 120th anniversary of the North Head Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment Sta…
Beginning in 1869 with the vessel Helen Angier and the first direct shipment of wheat from Portland to Liverpool, the “wheat fleet” — many ships over many years — began to materialize off the …
We who reside at the mouth of the Columbia River live in the midst of one of America’s great adventure stories. Between November and March of each year, we may relive the arrival, daring deeds…
When I came to the North Coast, I worked for a time at a bookstore in Long Beach which sold a lot of Jim Gibbs’ book “Pacific Graveyard,” his classic tales of shipwrecks in our nearby waters. …
One of the enjoyable things about reading The Astorian from the 1880s is seeing what was considered news and what we researchers can figure out about the events of the day.
RAYMOND — The Northwest Carriage Museum recently marked the arrival of its 51st horse-drawn vehicle, a road grader dating from the 1890s.
By the second half of the 19th century in the Oregon country, most business was well established up-river in Portland. Astoria had lost its late, brief battle to supplant the inland city as th…
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s Great Republic was a huge side-wheel masterpiece built on Long Island, New York, in 1866. At the time, she was the largest wooden steamship “ever built in …
RAYMOND — The Northwest Carriage Museum in Raymond has announced the arrival of a 1892 Mitchell Farm Wagon. The Mitchell is in original condition, including paint, pin striping and seller logo…
From its inauguration, Astoria’s first newspaper, the Tri-Weekly Astorian, itemized the ship traffic coming and going in the Columbia. In August 1873, it reported:
ILWACO — The 1960s were a decade of change on the Long Beach Peninsula. In 1961, the loss of the fishing vessel Mermaid and the motor lifeboat Triumph became the impetus for the founding of th…
New York-born Joel W. Munson came west in 1853, first to Portland where he got work as a carpenter helping to build a lumber mill down the Columbia River. He next moved to Astoria for several …
Three-quarters of the way through the 1850s, the entrance and exit of the noted entrance to the West’s great river was assisted by bar pilots, buoys, and a lighthouse. Three months after Cape …
ILWACO — What brings thousands of men, women and children to Washington’s sandy coastal beaches every year, braving weather and surf? The buried treasure known as the Pacific razor clam.
Journalists who traveled out west wrote stories that found their way to newspapers back home. One piece in The New York Tribune of August 1855 featured observations about our part of the world:
After sunrise on July 18, 1860, the sky west of the mouth of the Columbia turned back to night, as if a cavern was opening between this and a darker world. Soon, all around, there was an “unea…
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