Perhaps The Most Wicked Place On Earth
By eighteen eighty, half of the fish canneries on the lower Columbia River were located in Astoria. The dangerous nature of fishing on the Columbia near the mouth of the river, attracted a sizable and unruly assortment of transient fishermen during the spring salmon seasons.
This, and perhaps because of its Shanghaiing trade, earned Astoria a very rowdy reputation.
This, and perhaps because of its Shanghaiing trade, earned Astoria a very rowdy reputation.
Shanghaiing in Astoria:
Walking around today you would never know it, but the next time you're having a nice quiet pint at Fort George, Buoy Beer, Rogue, or anywhere else along the waterfront, take a look around... the place you're relaxing in was, along with Portland, not too long ago, the most dangerous place in America to go out drinking.
Today Astoria is amongst the states most desirous places, but it secretly harbors an underworld darker than you can possibly imagine...
Ship captains paid bartenders to drug single intoxicated men, that hung out in the waterfront area, in order to lure them into the dark tunnels.
Thousands of them found themselves in the clutches of shanghaiers, and crimps, that either forcibly grabbed them off the streets, or slipped "knockout drops" in their saloon, pool hall, and gambling parlor drinks.
They were hauled out of opium dens, and houses of prostitution, or cleverly dropped through "deadfalls", a trap door in the floor.
The term “Shanghai” was commonly used, as most of the ships involved in this act were destined for Shanghai and the orient in general.
See pictures, Shanghaiing in Astoria
See pictures, Shanghaiing in Astoria
At one time, this great town that we know today as Astoria Oregon, was a river town whose beginnings we often look upon as being nothing more, than a humble Victorian settlement.
But, in the late 19th, and early 20th century, America was home to one of the most dangerous vice filled towns in the world, Astoria Oregon.
120 years ago, this was a Wild West port town, where you could be kidnapped, and sold into slavery; where gambling, drugs, prostitution, and murder were on every street corner.
Astoria had more dark corners than any medieval dungeon, and danger loomed around every one of them.
You could think of the last couple decades of the 1800s, the “golden age of shanghaiing”, in Astoria.
Pick the wrong place to stop for a drink or rent a room for the night — or even just walk down the wrong street at night — and an innocent bystander could wake up the next morning to the vigorous kicks, and curses of a “bucko” second mate, huddled on the deck of a four masted barque, headed for Hong Kong or Shanghai.
One of the worst ports for this practice — a port where almost anyone, doing almost anything, could suddenly find himself at sea — was Astoria.
There was no other place like it, in the entire world.
Let me explain a little more about what shanghaiing is. Shanghaiing
Walking around today you would never know it, but the next time you're having a nice quiet pint at Fort George, Buoy Beer, Rogue, or anywhere else along the waterfront, take a look around... the place you're relaxing in was, along with Portland, not too long ago, the most dangerous place in America to go out drinking.
Today Astoria is amongst the states most desirous places, but it secretly harbors an underworld darker than you can possibly imagine...
Ship captains paid bartenders to drug single intoxicated men, that hung out in the waterfront area, in order to lure them into the dark tunnels.
Thousands of them found themselves in the clutches of shanghaiers, and crimps, that either forcibly grabbed them off the streets, or slipped "knockout drops" in their saloon, pool hall, and gambling parlor drinks.
They were hauled out of opium dens, and houses of prostitution, or cleverly dropped through "deadfalls", a trap door in the floor.
The term “Shanghai” was commonly used, as most of the ships involved in this act were destined for Shanghai and the orient in general.
See pictures, Shanghaiing in Astoria
See pictures, Shanghaiing in Astoria
At one time, this great town that we know today as Astoria Oregon, was a river town whose beginnings we often look upon as being nothing more, than a humble Victorian settlement.
But, in the late 19th, and early 20th century, America was home to one of the most dangerous vice filled towns in the world, Astoria Oregon.
120 years ago, this was a Wild West port town, where you could be kidnapped, and sold into slavery; where gambling, drugs, prostitution, and murder were on every street corner.
Astoria had more dark corners than any medieval dungeon, and danger loomed around every one of them.
You could think of the last couple decades of the 1800s, the “golden age of shanghaiing”, in Astoria.
Pick the wrong place to stop for a drink or rent a room for the night — or even just walk down the wrong street at night — and an innocent bystander could wake up the next morning to the vigorous kicks, and curses of a “bucko” second mate, huddled on the deck of a four masted barque, headed for Hong Kong or Shanghai.
One of the worst ports for this practice — a port where almost anyone, doing almost anything, could suddenly find himself at sea — was Astoria.
There was no other place like it, in the entire world.
Let me explain a little more about what shanghaiing is. Shanghaiing
