Astoria
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Our 1st stop approaching Astoria may be searching for Bald Eagles and other wildlife in the marsh at the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary, if we are approaching from the east - 100 acres of tidal wetlands and old-growth forest at the site of the Lewis and Clark campsite on November 26, 1805 on their way to winter over at Fort Clatsop.
Captain Clark writes..."... we proceeded on through a Deep bend to the South and encamped under a high hill, where we found much difficulty in precureing wood to burn, as it was raining hard, as it had been the greater part of the day ..." [Clark, November 26, 1805]
And Sergeant Ordway writes..."... the day, rainy and cold. we went on passed. Several low marshey Islands which was covered with course grass, and willows the Shore is high land covered thick with pine timber and under brush. we Camped in a thick part of wood ..." [Ordway, November 26, 1805]
Columbia River Bar/ Shipwrecks History:
The Columbia river was first sited in 1775 by the Spanish navigator Bruno de Hezeta (aka Heceta) who mistook the estuary for an inland bay, although its seething currents indicated to him that "it may be the mouth of some great river or some passage to another sea." He did not attempt to enter. Before there were lighthouses on the Peninsula, ships bound for Portland and Astoria navigated their way through the high waves and shifting sandbars, focusing on fluttering white flags and notched trees along the shoreline by day and flickering signal fires by night. These methods were crude at best and, despite heroic efforts, the sea offshore the Long Beach Peninsula (the Columbia River Bar') became known as 'The Graveyard of the Pacific'. More on that in a moment!
The source of Oregon is not Portland, it is Astoria, perhaps the most Oregon place in Oregon.
It's the oldest settlement west of the Rockies, established in 1811 at Fort Astoria, with other historic forts being Fort Clatsop and Fort Stevens. It is dotted with Victorian-era homes and a 1920s Art Deco downtown, set in the backdrop of where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean...
From the barnacled piers of cannery docks to the painted gingerbread of Victorian mansions, this picturesque city on the Columbia River wears its history of fishing and logging with a salty pride.
By 1880, 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 run. This, and perhaps because of its Shanghaiing trade (where ship captains paid bartenders and others to drug single intoxicated men that hung out in the waterfront area in order to lure them into the dark underground tunnels), earned Astoria a very rowdy reputation. It was a wild-west port town which became known as perhaps "The Most Wicked Place On Earth".
30-second History
Clatsop Indians lived here for thousands of years. In 1792, Capt. Robert Gray found the mouth of the River and sailed in with his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. In 1805, Lewis and Clark led their Expedition here and spent the winter at Fort Clatsop, just south of town. Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, dating from the fur trading post set up by John Jacob Astor’s men in 1811. There’s a small park and a partial replica at the site of the original post at 15th and Franklin John Jacob Astor never visited Astoria.
The United States and England went to war in 1812. In 1813 a British warship sailed into the Columbia River to capture the post and take control of the fur trade. Astor’s fur traders beat them to the punch by selling the post to the British NorthWest Company. From 1813 to 1818, the British owned Astoria and it was known as Fort George. In 1818, a treaty with England established joint occupation of the Oregon Country, as it was called then. The boundary was set at the 49th Parallel. The British did not completely abandon Astoria until 1846.
A hundred years ago, Astoria was the second largest city in Oregon with a population of 8,975. The population now is just over 10,000.
It's a town built on disasters:
There is lots to see & do in Astoria.
Astoria Column
Fort Astoria Park
Pier 39
Bumble Bee Cannery
All Options
Click HERE for Astoria EATS
Fort Stevens:
Front-Row Ocean Action-
Fort Clatsop:
Relive the Frontier Feel-
Being the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, Astoria and its surrounding areas has many historic things to see and stop at, including:
For history buffs, Lewis & Clark National Historical Park (VIDEO). The 1805-1806 winter camp of the Corps of Discovery for over 100 days, only 12 without rain. Replica fort (where a timber-beam structure re-creates Fort Clatsop at was is thought to be the original site, using the same type of logs cut the same way, the fort looks, feels and smells as it must have been), visitor center, bookstore, canoe landing and 6-mile Fort to Sea Trail. Discover what life was like for the expedition party. For a one-hour visit, stroll a 0.4-mile loop path from a visitor center to the fort. $5 pp. See pictures, #
Our 1st stop approaching Astoria may be searching for Bald Eagles and other wildlife in the marsh at the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary, if we are approaching from the east - 100 acres of tidal wetlands and old-growth forest at the site of the Lewis and Clark campsite on November 26, 1805 on their way to winter over at Fort Clatsop.
Captain Clark writes..."... we proceeded on through a Deep bend to the South and encamped under a high hill, where we found much difficulty in precureing wood to burn, as it was raining hard, as it had been the greater part of the day ..." [Clark, November 26, 1805]
And Sergeant Ordway writes..."... the day, rainy and cold. we went on passed. Several low marshey Islands which was covered with course grass, and willows the Shore is high land covered thick with pine timber and under brush. we Camped in a thick part of wood ..." [Ordway, November 26, 1805]
Columbia River Bar/ Shipwrecks History:
The Columbia river was first sited in 1775 by the Spanish navigator Bruno de Hezeta (aka Heceta) who mistook the estuary for an inland bay, although its seething currents indicated to him that "it may be the mouth of some great river or some passage to another sea." He did not attempt to enter. Before there were lighthouses on the Peninsula, ships bound for Portland and Astoria navigated their way through the high waves and shifting sandbars, focusing on fluttering white flags and notched trees along the shoreline by day and flickering signal fires by night. These methods were crude at best and, despite heroic efforts, the sea offshore the Long Beach Peninsula (the Columbia River Bar') became known as 'The Graveyard of the Pacific'. More on that in a moment!
The source of Oregon is not Portland, it is Astoria, perhaps the most Oregon place in Oregon.
It's the oldest settlement west of the Rockies, established in 1811 at Fort Astoria, with other historic forts being Fort Clatsop and Fort Stevens. It is dotted with Victorian-era homes and a 1920s Art Deco downtown, set in the backdrop of where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean...
From the barnacled piers of cannery docks to the painted gingerbread of Victorian mansions, this picturesque city on the Columbia River wears its history of fishing and logging with a salty pride.
By 1880, 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 run. This, and perhaps because of its Shanghaiing trade (where ship captains paid bartenders and others to drug single intoxicated men that hung out in the waterfront area in order to lure them into the dark underground tunnels), earned Astoria a very rowdy reputation. It was a wild-west port town which became known as perhaps "The Most Wicked Place On Earth".
30-second History
Clatsop Indians lived here for thousands of years. In 1792, Capt. Robert Gray found the mouth of the River and sailed in with his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. In 1805, Lewis and Clark led their Expedition here and spent the winter at Fort Clatsop, just south of town. Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, dating from the fur trading post set up by John Jacob Astor’s men in 1811. There’s a small park and a partial replica at the site of the original post at 15th and Franklin John Jacob Astor never visited Astoria.
The United States and England went to war in 1812. In 1813 a British warship sailed into the Columbia River to capture the post and take control of the fur trade. Astor’s fur traders beat them to the punch by selling the post to the British NorthWest Company. From 1813 to 1818, the British owned Astoria and it was known as Fort George. In 1818, a treaty with England established joint occupation of the Oregon Country, as it was called then. The boundary was set at the 49th Parallel. The British did not completely abandon Astoria until 1846.
A hundred years ago, Astoria was the second largest city in Oregon with a population of 8,975. The population now is just over 10,000.
It's a town built on disasters:
- With more than 2000 shipwrecks on the north coast, often with whole crews lost, the Columbia River Bar at Astoria accounts for about 300 of those, to became known as 'the World's Most Dangerous Bar' and the "the graveyard of the Pacific".
- Then was the great fire of 1922 which swept through all of downtown, destroying it.
- The 3rd defining disaster was the complete collapse of the tuna-canning and logging industries in the 1980s. It has always been a 'drinking town with a fishing problem'--designed by drunks for drunks. And so it's fitting that the town's economic salvation took place when Astoria rebuilt on beer with the opening of Fort George Brewery in 2004, with many others following.
There is lots to see & do in Astoria.
Astoria Column
Fort Astoria Park
Pier 39
Bumble Bee Cannery
All Options
Click HERE for Astoria EATS
Fort Stevens:
Front-Row Ocean Action-
- Fort Stevens State ParkFort Stevens was named for General Isaac Ingalls Stevens, first Governor of Washington Territory, who died a hero of the Civil War of 1862. The fort was built in 1846 and decommissioned in 1947. Some 3000 acres of sandy waste land known as Clatsop Sand Plains were stabilized here in the 1930’s by the planting of beach grass, shrubs and trees. This park area was donated to the public by Clatsop County in 1955.
The Columbia River to the north was discovered by the American fur trader, Captain Robert Gray in 1792 and was named after his ship. Lewis and Clark, the first Americans to make an overland expedition to the Pacific Coast, camped at Fort Clatsop in 1805-06 four miles east of this point. - For military buffs, Historical Fort Stevens (military: built in 1863; Civil War to WWI to WWII). Site of a Clatsop town noted by Captain Clark. Interpretive center on military life and trails. At this former military fort you can walk through the fort ruins. From there, you can get a good look at the mouth on the Columbia and imagine what crossing the bar has meant to seafaring men over the past 200 years. You can also take a tour underground through a rare gun battery that also served as a World War II command center, ride in the back of a period military transport truck and see the fortifications from a whole new perspective, and get a feel for what the inside of a military jail was like as you walk through one of the last brick constructed guard houses in the country.
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- And see the rusted 1906 shipwreck of the Peter Iredale (pictured right; VIDEO), one of the 2000 shipwrecks of the graveyard of the pacific. Offers a spooky, memorable, sandy photo op. The fort was built to defend the mouth of the Columbia from potential British attack during the ongoing Pig War which started in 1859; and it came under attack from the Japanese during WW2. See pictures - 1. Transcript of the Naval Court findings (Issued in London by the Board of Trade on the 24th December 1906.)
"(No. 7011.) "PETER IREDALE."
FINDING and order of a Naval Court held at the British Vice-Consulate, Astoria, Oregon, on the 12th and 13th days of November, 1906, to investigate the stranding of the British four-masted barque "PETER IREDALE"
The "Peter Iredale" was a sailing vessel, four-masted steel barque, of 1,993 tons registered tonnage, official number 97790, and built at Maryport, England, in 1890, and belonging to the port of Liverpool, owners P. Iredale & Porter.
In appears from the evidence given before the Court that the ship sailed from Salina Cruz, Mexico, on or about the 26th of September, 1906, with 1,000 tons of ballast, and a crew of 27 hands all told, including two stowaways. No incident worthy of mention happened until the look-out sighted the light on Tillamook Rock at 3.20 a.m. on the 25th of October, 1906. The ship’s course was altered to E.N.E. until the vessel was five miles off the light. The course was then altered to sight the Columbia River lightship. This was sighted and recognized, it bearing N.E. In this position, finding the wind was veering to westward, and having lost sight of the light in a thick mist, it was decided to wear ship to avoid the influence of the current setting to the north, and the tide running into the Columbia River. The wind had now hauled to north of west in heavy squalls with rain. Just before striking, while in the act of wearing, an exceedingly heavy west north-west squall struck the vessel, throwing her head off, she taking the ground, and shortly afterwards losing her upper spars. She then drove ashore, with a high south-west sea running, and a fresh westerly gale.
We consider that everything was done by the master to get his ship out of danger, but that the set of the current and the sudden shift of wind drove him so close in that in the act of wearing around to get his ship’s head off shore, she stranded. The Court, having regard to the circumstances above stated, finds as follows:--
That the position of the ship before the shift of wind was not one of danger. She was in the usual cruising ground of the pilot schooner, but unfortunately no pilots were on the station, the pilot boat being in port under repairs.
We consider that prompt action was taken by the master immediately the wind shifted, to get his ship’s head off shore, and by all accounts he was ably seconded by his officers and men. Having carefully considered the evidence, we do find that the master, and his first and second officers, are in no wise to blame for the stranding of the said vessel, and their certificates having accordingly been returned to them.
The Court further desires to put on record their appreciation of the prompt action of the United States life-saving crew at Hammond in having the lifeboat alongside in the heavy surf, and the help given by the captain of the boat when ashore; also of the action of the commander, Col. Walker, U.S.A., and his officers and men, of Fort Stevens for their attention to the wants of the wet and hungry men when at the Fort. And lastly, the Vice-Consul desires to express his satisfaction with the quiet and orderly behaviour of the crew when in Astoria.
Given under our hands at the British Vice-Consulate at Astoria, Oregon, on the thirteenth day of November, A.D. 1906. - Historical Fort Stevens
Fort Clatsop:
Relive the Frontier Feel-
Being the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, Astoria and its surrounding areas has many historic things to see and stop at, including:
For history buffs, Lewis & Clark National Historical Park (VIDEO). The 1805-1806 winter camp of the Corps of Discovery for over 100 days, only 12 without rain. Replica fort (where a timber-beam structure re-creates Fort Clatsop at was is thought to be the original site, using the same type of logs cut the same way, the fort looks, feels and smells as it must have been), visitor center, bookstore, canoe landing and 6-mile Fort to Sea Trail. Discover what life was like for the expedition party. For a one-hour visit, stroll a 0.4-mile loop path from a visitor center to the fort. $5 pp. See pictures, #