History

The other day, as I began work on an essay about the first Columbia River Lightship, No. 50, I checked something in Jim Gibbs’s book, “Pacific Graveyard.” That set me to thinking about Gibbs’s…

For those of us who have known the Lower Columbia for the better part of a century, the little settlement of McGowan almost comes into focus as we drive the highway between the Fort Columbia t…

Back in the day, before Bruceport fell in, the settlement enjoyed a brief period of fame as county seat. Not the Pacific County seat, however. From 1854 until 1860, the little town on the east…

Mark Winant

Danish immigrant Heinrich Wiegardt had run away to sea when he was a boy of 13 or 14, sailed the world and, in the early 1870s, arrived in Oysterville to work for the Morgan Oyster Company. He…

Artist Charles Funk is an elder of the Chinook Tribe and is a past member of the Chinook council.

In the early 1960s, the bad boys were drinking beer, not smoking pot or imbibing in psychedelic drugs. On Friday nights, a few of the athletes would sneak a beer or two, after a football game.…

While continuing the research to find approximately how many ships met with trouble on our part of the coast — Oregon and Washington — between 1880 and 1910, I have been alarmed to find two de…

In the spring of 1980 Pacific Northwesterners watched as a Cascade volcano began to yawn and stretch. Perhaps the first thing that caused the Peninsula to take the threat of eruption seriously…

The old settlement east of Scarborough Hill has been called Chenookville, Chenook and sometimes, Chinook, but it is not to be confused with today’s thriving settlement of Chinook west of the t…

Perhaps the pandemic is causing personal introspection, or perhaps, an intermittent stroll down memory lane. Maybe at my age, this is a good thing: the old noggin is still tracking, still reme…

In a seldom-told part of the Chinook treaty story is the role of Robert Shortess (1797-1878). Shortess, an early Oregon pioneer, played a significant role in the acquisition of Oregon Territor…

A rare first-hand account of a frontier court session is provided us by James G. Swan, the earliest historian/anthropologist to live for any length of time on the shores of Shoalwater Bay in t…

From 1818 to 1846, the vast expanse of Oregon Country encompassed the area that now forms part of the present-day Canadian province of British Columbia, all of the U.S. states of Oregon, Washi…

The first agreement between the Lower Chinooks and Washington Hall was signed in 1848 by Hall and by two Chinook chiefs: Elwahco (also known as Elwah or Ellewa) who was the son of Comcomly’s s…

World War I, what was known at the time as the Great War, began in Europe in 1914. In spring of 1917 the United States entered that conflict, and in November 1918 it concluded. As soldiers ret…

West Coast news clippings from the 1880s and 1890s are loaded with nuggets that bring an adventurous — and sometimes dangerous — era to life.

In the late 1980s, when I was proofreader for the Chinook Observer, the editor assigned me to construct a time-line of highlights from back issues. It was to be printed in a 1989 Observer issu…

Although Pacific County’s first city was over almost before it had begun, an astonishing number of the area’s earliest and most influential settlers were introduced to the region as residents …

Upon first learning of the earliest city in Pacific County — a city located on Cape Disappointment — the response is usually, “Really! Where?” That is still my reaction after a lifetime of bei…

The other day I watched the Columbia River, as tall, meringue-tipped wind waves blew from Clatsop spit (and seemingly eternity beyond) northeast to bash themselves against the rocks at Point E…

I rode my motorcycle around Grays River Valley in the days after January’s wild storms died down.

During the past 10 years I have had the unique privilege of talking every day with World War II veterans and their families. Needless to say, I have been told many, many stories. But of all th…

In the 1880s, 1890s, and 1900s, the wheat harvest and timber crops of the region drew sailing ships, like big moths, to the mouth of the Columbia River. Some of those ships piled up on the san…

RAYMOND — Jerry Bowman begins each tour by eagerly creating a perspective for what life was like in the late 1800s. He proceeds to draws visitors into the time period with the infectious manne…

Amateur historians and cocktail fanatics alike can raise a rather ironic glass to toast one of America’s most romanticized law enforcement flops. This fall marks the 100th anniversary of the N…

Early this summer, Judy Little came to Pacific County from her home in California as she does most years. She came to take part in the Chinook First Salmon Ceremony and to pay homage to her an…

I had come to understand and discuss some of the hazards of the mouth of the Columbia River which beset shipping bound to and from the Port of Portland. The fabulous evergreen forests of the C…

We went to the moon 50 years ago.

The village of Chinook on the shore of the Columbia River at its mouth grew up around the wealth of salmon that once swarmed upriver. Since the days before written memory, the first peoples of…

ILWACO — Celebrate Clamshell Railroad Days on July 13 and July 14 at the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum on Lake Street in Ilwaco, with expanded events and old favorites.

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 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, …

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…

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.

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.

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…

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 Ear…