I lived in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years, but I never visited Astoria, Oregon, located at the mouth of the Columbia River in the northwest corner of the state. In the FiFi days I attended a Sisters on the Fly Northwest Gathering in Long Beach, Washington, a mere 20 miles away, but there wasn’t time to explore farther. When I hit the road in 2015, friends in Portland recommended Astoria, perhaps even as a place to settle down eventually, so I booked some days as I headed south after the Summer of Seattle.

From the Washington side, the town looks picturesque across the Astoria-Megler Bridge (1962-1966), spanning four miles over the Columbia. (The bridge completed Highway 101, now an unbroken link between Canada and Mexico.)

Even though it’s perched on the banks of the river and has over 300 Victorian Era homes, upon closer inspection, at first blush, Astoria doesn’t look like much. Many of the Victorians are cracked and faded and in need of a good paint job, at the very least. There is one main street in town – Commercial Street – and just one block off in any direction there are empty storefronts. East coast friends who only overnighted in town commented that they weren’t impressed. I felt the same way on my first drive around; I certainly didn’t see what has been described as “Little San Francisco.”

Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies. John Jacob Astor‘s fur traders settled it in 1811, so like most Pacific Northwest towns, it was built up in a haphazard, willy-nilly fashion. It was settled only six years after Lewis and Clark finally laid eyes on the Pacific Ocean, wintering at Fort Clatsop nearby before heading back east.

Plentiful crabbing and salmon fishing led to a boom in the late 1800s, when canning became a lucrative industry. Tours are available at the 1885 Queen Anne home of Captain George Flavel, who owed his fortune to a Columbia Bar piloting monopoly.

Sitting atop Coxcomb Hill overlooking the town is the Astoria Column, commemorating the triumphs, conflicts and turning points of the northwest frontier.

It is the final monument in a series of 12 historical markers erected in the early 1900s between Saint Paul, Minnesota and Astoria. It stands 125 feet tall, and 164 steps take you to the top for amazing views. Stop at the gift shop for a $1 balsa wood glider to launch from the top.

To honor Chinese immigrants, in 2011, the town’s 200th anniversary, the Garden of Surging Waves was dedicated downtown, celebrating the Chinese heritage of Astoria and the lower Columbia River Basin.

Maritime Roots

Every February between salmon and crabbing season, workers in all aspects of the fishing industry anchor in Astoria for a three-day celebration, including music and prose – the FisherPoets Gathering.

Seafood is in abundance in Astoria, from fresh fish at Northwest Wild Products,

to albacore tuna fish and chips at the Bowpicker, truly the best fish and chips I’ve ever eaten, a killer bargain at five pieces with steak fries for $11.

The Columbia Bar Pilots

The Columbia River Maritime Museum, under a roof shaped in the form of perilous waves, tells the maritime history of Astoria. The Columbia River is the second largest river by volume in the United States.

During winter storms, waves often reach 20 to 30 feet of the entrance of the bar, which around six to eight times per year is closed to ship traffic in the most severe storms.

The Columbia River Bar Pilots are group of 20 pilots based in Astoria who work this 15-mile section of water by piloting craft across the bar. They are qualified for unlimited tonnage, capable of piloting anything from a nuclear submarine to a 1,000 foot cargo ship.

After crossing the Columbia River bar more than 35,000 times, the pilot boat Peacock is now on display at the museum.

Down at Maritime Memorial Park, in the shadow of the bridge, those who lost their lives in unpredictable waters, including members of the Coast Guard, are remembered, on plaques with designations like “Gillnetter,“ or “Oysterman.“

“A Drinking Town With A Fishing Problem”

For a town of 10,000 people, Astoria has a lot of dive bars, which says a lot about its no-frills, no-nonsense citizenry. Most of the watering holes have been continuously operating since 1920s, with nautical names like the Merry Time, the Chart House, and the Portway. There’s shuffleboard at the Desdemona, and meat bingo at the Worker’s Tavern on Sundays. The Moose Lodge, Elks, and Labor Temple, among others, are still going strong in Astoria.

From Boom To Bust

Pier 39 is the oldest cannery still standing on the Columbia River, but its processing lines haven’t hummed in decades.

In the 1940s, the Columbia River Packers’ Association introduced the Bumblebee brand.

Bumblebee is now canned in San Diego with product from Thailand, but you can grab a coffee at Coffee Girl

and walk through the small, self-guided, free museum recounting those salad days before the canneries closed in the 1980s.

Hollywood came calling in 1985, when the Steven Spielberg/Richard Donner cult classic “The Goonies” was filmed in Astoria.

The old Clatsop County Jail, now the Oregon Film Museum, is worth the $6 price of admission just to see where the opening sequence of the movie was filmed and shop for Goonies merch. Several other movies were filmed in Astoria, including “Free Willy” and “Kindergarten Cop,“ among others.

Skip the Goonies house, purchased by a California transplant in 2001, now covered in tarps to deter lookie-loos. What a shame.

A Microcosm Of The New Northwest

At the Astoria Sunday Market, offering largely arts and crafts wares from over 200 vendors, Commercial Street is open to traffic. A haggard man with unkempt white hair and a long beard, steering a rusted and rattling truck, shook his fists and cursed at the pedestrians in his path – the clash of old and new in Astoria.

After being left to fend for itself for decades, Astoria is experiencing a renaissance of sorts, and not everyone is sure how they feel about it.

The Liberty Theater, opened in 1925 as a vaudeville venue, is gloriously restored. Chef Eric Bechard moved from Portland to open his eatery, Albatross and Co., bustling on a Saturday night.

Craft cocktails are poured at Carruthers,

and small batch liquor is being distilled at Pilot House Distillery.

After eight days in Astoria, I came to appreciate and admire this resilient, hard-working little town with a long, colorful history. The longer I stayed, the more I saw Astoria’s beauty, both in the patina and rust, and in the restored and mended. If you make it to Astoria, stay awhile and, like me, you’ll be back.

Tammy’s Tips

The Astoria Riverfront Trolley, staffed entirely by volunteers, is a restored 1913 trolley fondly nicknamed “The Old 300.“ For $1 ($2 if you would like to hop on and off), a conductor shares area history and highlights on the 2.6-mile long journey from West Mooring Basin to Pier 39. Hint: There are free parking spots behind the trolley stop at the Astoria Riverfront Hotel, which is the beginning of the trolley line. The trolley starts at noon, and you have a much better chance of getting on if you meet it on its first run at the first stop.

Cruise Ships:

Both riverboats and cruise ships dock in Astoria, spewing daytrippers onto its streets. Avoid being in town on those days if you can.

Daytripping South From Astoria

Fort Stevens was the United States’s defense for the mouth of the Columbia River from the Civil War until the end of World War II. I went to Fort Stevens to see the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a ship that went aground in 1906. There were no casualties, and the captain and crew were cleared of all wrongdoing in a reported inquiry. In 1942, it even survived bombardment by a Japanese submarine firing on Fort Stevens.

On a lovely summer day I drove Highway 101 South from Astoria to Tillamook, through the communities of Gearhart, Seaside,

Manzanita, Rockaway Beach,

and Garibaldi.

Cannon Beach, so named when in 1922 a cannon was found on the beach, is filled with picture-perfect gray shingled buildings housing art galleries, restaurants and resorts, and stunning rock formations, including the 235 foot tall Haystack Rock.

Your $5 entrance fee at Ecola State Park gives you a beautiful view of Tillamook Bay and Cannon Beach,

as well as the best view of a lighthouse 1.2 miles offshore which operated from 1880 until 1957.

Dubbed “Terrible Tilly” because of its remoteness and the relentless, crashing waves, it rendered many of the lighthouse keepers mad. To add to its lore, for a short period of time it was a columbarium, housing cremated remains, and urns of ashes are still out there to this day. It is still registered as a cemetery with the state of Oregon.

I headed back to my Astoria home base after visiting the Tillamook Creamery. On June 20, 2018, Tillamook opened a 38,500 square-foot Visitors’ Center, and it was well worth the drive.

Daytripping North From Astoria

Just 20 miles north of Astoria is Cape Disappointment State Park, the oceanside town of Long Beach, Washington, and the Port of Ilwaco, which I wrote about here.