Here is a collection of several fun articles that
we have found about the North West Oregon Area...
A Collection of Self Guided tours produced by the Lower Columbia Preservation Society
As political scientist, historian, and novelist Dr. Jack Miller mentioned at his talk on Saturday November 19, 2022 about the KKK and the Astoria fire of 1922, he stated "for a town of a bit more than 10,000 residents, Astoria has the history of a community of more than half a million residents. The Lower Columbia Preservation Society has produced several self guided tours of our area. Yesterday after Professor Millers talk four of us took the latest self guided tour ASTORIA'S 1922 FIRE TOUR (2021). This was a very well done tour with both an audio track for each stop or you can print it out and read about it also.
This link takes you to several other self guiding tours that have been produced for the community. These include: UNION TOWN HISTORIC PUB CRAWL (2017), EBBA WICKS BROWN BUILDINGS (2017), ASTORIA'S HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOOD, GROCERY STORE BUILDINGS (2018), ASTORIA HISTORIC PUBLIC PARKS TOUR (2018), LOWER COLUMBIA CHURCHES: WASHINGTON (2019), E.E. "IKE" ISAACSON BUILDINGS (2019), ASTORIA'S 1922 FIRE TOUR (2021), ASTORIA IN THE 1800S (2021).
AN ADVENTURE IN HISTORY RADIO SHOW WITH MAC BURNS & ALANA KUJALA SUNDAYS 8:30-9PM KMUN. Each week they explore the history of the Clatsop County. The Clatsop County Historical Society is an educational organization dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of Clatsop County Oregon and the surrounding area. CCHS offers four distinctively different museums all housed in historic buildings in Astoria, OR. Click Here to listen to recent broadcasts.
Jim Turk: Shanghaiier, swindler, drunkard, millionaire The old Portland shanghai scene's 'original gangster' was a mysterious character. Did he really inherit a huge fortune? If not, where did the money come from? Stagecoach robbery? Piracy on the high seas? Anything was possible ....Click Here to read
Route 66 One Tiger to A Hill (1962) colorized.
Tod and Buz in Astoria, Oregon, are working as crewmen on a fishing boat owned by a woman. She is strongly attracted to a disagreeable local fisherman. The man is haunted by a decision he made years before in WWII. When he notices that Tod is interested in the girl a violent all-out feud develops. This episode is one of the most popular in the series. It really looks great in full color. It also shows what Astoria looked like in 1962...Click Here to Watch Video
Untold Union Town The only self-guided, fully immersive tour of Finns, fishing, persistence, innovation, and rebellion in Astoria, Oregon's Union Town. Using your Smart phone or tablet this tour is all online and will give you an hour of great history of the part of Astoria famed for its Finnish saunas...Click Here to read
Here are several Maps of Astoria and surrounding area...Click Here to read
Walking Tour of Astoria covering 9th through 14th streets between the Columbia River and Commercial Street above ground - In 2018 I was working with Jeff Daly on creating historical scripts to be used in his Underground Tours. Part of that was a second tour above ground to supplement the Underground Tour he was creating at the SE corner of 11th and Marine. All though it is not part of the the current Astoria Underground tours, I decided to convert it into a fun self guiding tour. It includes stories about the 1922 fire, the fun days of Crimps and the Shanghaied, Jack the Cat and the Astoria Clowns and man hole covers. Tom Smith ...Click Here to read
Original Scripts for the Astoria Underground Tour - In 2018 some close friends introduced me to Jeff Daly (Click here for his Bio). After retiring as an owner of a television production company and working as a freelancer for a variety of companies, he returned to his childhood town of Astoria to retire and has become a beacon of fun stuff in Astoria. He had rented the underground level below the parking lot on the SE corner of 11th and Marine for many of his projects. He then decided to create an Astoria Underground Tour. Being an amateur historian, I started doing the background research and initial scripts for this new endeavor. I tend to follow more traditional walking tours like John Adams, who does the Ghost Tours up in Victoria BC and Jeff has a more entertainment approach so I ended up going on to other historical endeavors. However, I think some of the original Astoria Underground script that I worked on does have some fun history. So I thought it would be fun to publish it with some of the original pictures for you history buffs out there. It was a work in progress so you may find some incomplete areas ...Click Here to read
John Goodenberger's DOWNTOWN ASTORIA HISTORIC WALKING TOUR DOWNTOWN ASTORIA above ground - John Goodenberger, who is writing the definitive biography of the Flavel Family for the Clatsop County Historical Society, created this tour shortly after the downtown area became a national historical site in 1998. It explain much of the unique history of Astoria. Print it out as it is a great self guiding tour...Click Here to read
Historical Locations Astoria 2006 - Although Astoria was established in 1811, it was not until the 1840s that permanent settlers arrived on the lower Columbia River peninsula. Astoria’s earliest houses were of wood construction. Some were little more than shacks, constructed to provide weather protection until a more permanent structure could be built. Early house designs were based on the Classic Revival, Greek Revival and later Gothic Revival. Most were not architect designed, but based on pattern books and vernacular, or family, tradition. The first houses were built on the forested hill above Ft. George...Click Here to read
British side of the Restoration of Astoria back to the USA - in 1919 KATHARINE ll. JUDSON approached the British Government to research the reason why the territory of Oregon, particularly the Astoria was transferred back to the United States Government even though the members of Astor who settled and built Fort Astoria had ran away from the fort, do to the eminent visit of an English man of war. This short publication shows that one of our former Presidents was able to recover possession of Astoria, when he was secretary of state. Very interesting piece and even more amazing since she was a woman and wanted access to the British history in those days where being a women was tantamount to being a second class citizen... Click Here to read
1998 Downtown Historical site information - In 1998 several Astoria residents filed a request to make all of the area that was impacted by the 1923 fire, including all of the area from the Columbia River to Exchange Street and from Seventh Street to Seventeenth Street. Attached are all of the buildings that are included. As a result only a small number of buildings in that area have been replaced. Also, it has allowed numerous buildings to obtain tax and grant moneys to improve downtown into the famous tourist area it is today... Click Here to read
Beginnings, Construction of the Astoria Column - N. Oregon Coast History – Soaring some 700 feet above the north Oregon coast town, the Astoria Column is one of the most recognizable features of the Pacific Northwest coastline. Sitting on 600-foot-high Coxcomb Hill, the column itself juts upwards another 125 feet, with 164 steps up to the top...Click Here to read
Silas Bryant Smith played a key role in recording the traditions, religions, and customs of the Clatsop people in nineteenth-century Oregon. A prominent historian of the region, he successfully bridged the two traditions, Clatsop and Euro American, that he inherited from his parents. He also won the first Native land claims settlement for a Pacific Northwest tribe... Click Here to read
