Jill's Journal: Now a small town of less than 10,000, Astoria has a fascinating history. It’s located at the mouth of the massive Columbia River where the great river meets the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and Clark spent a winter here first, but it’s named after John Jacob Astor, America’s first millionaire whose American Fur Company founded the town site in 1811 (making 2011 Astoria’s bicentennial year). Astoria was actually the first permanent U.S. settlement on the Pacific Coast, which also makes it the oldest U.S. settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. However, two years after Astor established fur trade at the site, he sold it to the British. A few years later, the Treaty of 1818 gave joint U.S.-British occupancy of the territory west of the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean. It was in the 1840s that American pioneers poured into the area.
Astoria began to grow, in no small part because the Port of Astoria is a deep-water port. This provided easy access to the interior of Oregon Territory. The first U.S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Astoria in 1847.
Oregon became a state in 1859. Eventually, Astoria became the second-largest city in Oregon and industry mostly consisted of fishing, canneries, and lumber. Bumblebee Seafood had its headquarters here until 1974. The now-small town clearly has seen better days, but it’s got a hard-knocking sort of charm and is working hard to reinvent itself as a major tourist destination. When we first arrived, we wondered what all the fuss was about as we’d heard so many great things about the town and it didn’t have immediate appeal. But by the time we left, I think the town had really grown on us.
Here’s a shot overlooking Astoria with the grand Astoria-Megler Bridge in the distance. The bridge connects Oregon to Washington and at 4.1 miles is the longest three-span truss bridge in the world. Completed in 1966, there apparently was a big brouhaha about the need to build such a bridge and it was quickly nicknamed the “Bridge to Nowhere.” The big joke we heard in Astoria is that since it goes to Washington, it really is a bridge to “nowhere,” because if you’re lucky enough to be in Oregon, why in the world would you want to go to Washington? Funny stuff.
If you look hard enough near the port (toward the right of the photo), you can see a cargo ship and a car carrier ship. If you have any idea how gargantuan those ships are, it will give you an idea of just how immense this river truly is.
One of the highlights of the riverfront is “Old 300,” a refurbished 1913 streetcar which serves as the “Riverfront Trolley.” Community volunteers serve as conductors and guides, pointing out the landmarks in town along the 2.6-mile route while adding a healthy dose of humor. In the top shot, the trolley is just underneath the beginning of the Astoria-Megler Bridge.
Standing on 600-foot Coxcomb Hill and rising an additional 125 feet is the Astoria Column. Completed in 1926, the monument was built by the Great Northern Railroad and Vincent Astor, great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. Inside are 164 spiral steps to the viewing platform at the top, where we got superb views of both Oregon and Washington.
The neatest thing about the Astoria Column is the “sgraffito” on its sides. Sgraffito is an old Italian Renaissance art form that combines plaster carving and painting into the structure. The Astoria Column is adorned with the story of Astoria from Lewis and Clark to the arrival of the train. If unwound, the length of the artwork would be over 500 feet.
This house is the main house used in The Goonies! Who didn’t love that movie in the 80s?
Beginning with Clark Gable, who performed at the Astoria Theatre at the very start of his career in 1922, big-name Hollywood has long been part of Astoria. Other than The Goonies, other movies extensively filmed here were Free Willy, The Black Stallion, Short Circuit, Into the Wild, and many, many more. This shot is of John Jacob Astor Elementary School, which served as the site for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kindergarten Cop.
One of the girls’ favorite things in Astoria had to be Tapiola Park. This playground has many of the town’s landmarks in miniature. If you look to the right in the photo, you can see a child-sized replica of the bridge.
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