Astoria History

Native Peoples of Coastal Oregon

Although there is considerable evidence that humans lived in the Pacific Northwest 15,000 years ago, the first record of human activity in present day Oregon came from archaeologist Luther Cressman's 1938 discovery of sage bark sandals near Fort Rock Cave that places human habitation in Oregon as early as 13,200 years ago. By 8000 B.C. there were settlements across the state, with the majority concentrated along the lower Columbia River, in the western valleys, and around coastal estuaries.

By the 16th century, Oregon was home to many Native American groups, including the Bannock, Chasta, Chinook, Kalapuya, Klamath, Molalla, Nez Perce, Takelma, and Umpqua.

Celilo Falls, a series of rapids on the Columbia River just upstream of present-day The Dalles, Oregon, was a fishing site for natives for several millennia. Native people traveled to Celilo Village from all over the Pacific Northwest and beyond to trade.

The Clatsop peoples inhabited the areas around Astoria in the years before the turn of the 19th Century. Most Clatsops dwelled along the northern Oregon coast from the Columbia River to Tillamook Head near Seaside, while most Nehalem-Tillamook dwelled in villages from Tillamook Head to well south of Tillamook Bay. Yet, the lines between these two people were by no means sharp, geographically or socially.

The Clatsop and Nehalem peoples shared resource harvesting areas, such as the rich berry picking grounds of Clatsop Plains, and visited the same sacred places, such as Saddle Mountain. They gathered together each summer to trade with visiting tribes, socialize, and conduct ceremonies at the large village near Tansey Point, in present-day Hammond, Oregon. In the winter, many gathered together in a mixed Clatsop-Nehalem village near present-day Seaside. Though their languages were different, Clatsops and Nehalems were bilingual and readily borrowed words from each others languages.

Early European Exploration of Oregon

Spanish explorers found a way to explore the Pacific coast as early as 1565, sending vessels northeast from the Philippines, riding the Kuroshio Current in a sweeping circular route across the northern part of the Pacific. These ships would typically not land before reaching Cape Mendocino in California, but some landed or wrecked in what is now Oregon. Nehalem Indian tales recount strangers and the discovery of items like chunks of beeswax and a lidded silver vase, likely connected to the 1707 wreck of the San Francisco Xavier.

In 1775, a Spanish expedition under Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra and Bruno de Heceta explored the coast. While returning south Heceta found the mouth of the Columbia River, but was unable to enter.

James Cook explored the Oregon Coast in 1778 in search of the Northwest Passage. Beginning in the late 1780s many ships from Britain, American, and other countries sailed to the Pacific Northwest to engage in the region's emerging Maritime Fur Trade business. American sea captain Robert Gray entered the Columbia in 1792, and was soon followed by a ship under the command of George Vancouver, a British captain.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled through the region during their expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase. Their Corps of Discovery spent the winter of 1805/06 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure south and west of modern day Astoria, that they built during late November to Christmas Eve in 1805. Clatsop was the name of the local indian tribe. The expedition had hoped a ship would come by to take them back east, but instead they endured a torturous winter of rain and cold, then returned east the way they came.

In 1810, John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company sent the Astor Expedition that founded Fort Astoria as its primary fur-trading post in the Northwest, and in fact the first permanent U.S. settlement on the Pacific coast. It was an extremely important post for American exploration of the continent and was influential in establishing American claims to the land. Fort Astoria was constructed in 1811.

British explorer David Thompson was the first European to navigate the entire length of the Columbia River in 1811. Thompson reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia, arriving two months after the Pacific Fur Company's ship, the Tonquin.

John Jacob Astor

Astoria in the Early 19th Century

The Pacific Fur Company failed, however, and the fort and fur trade were sold to the British in 1813. The house was restored to the U.S. in 1818, though the fur trade would remain under British control until American pioneers following the Oregon Trail began filtering into the port town in the mid-1840s. The Treaty of 1818 established joint U.S.-British occupancy of territory west of the continental divide to the Pacific Ocean. In 1846 the Oregon Treaty ended the Oregon Boundary Dispute; with Britain ceding all right to the mainland south of the 49th parallel north.

Washington Irving, a prominent American writer with a European reputation, was approached by John Jacob Astor to mythologize the three-year reign of his Pacific Fur Company. Astoria, written in 1835 while Irving was Astor's guest, cemented the importance of the region in the American psyche. In Irving's words, the fur traders were "Sinbads of the wilderness," and their venture was a staging point for the spread of American economic power into both the continental interior and into the Pacific.

Washington Irving

The Development of Astoria

As the Oregon Territory grew and became increasingly more settled, Astoria likewise grew as a port city at the mouth of the great river that provided the easiest access to the interior. The first U.S. Post Office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Astoria in 1847. In 1876, the community was incorporated by the state.

Astoria attracted a host of immigrants beginning in the late-19th century: Scandinavian settlers, primarily Finns, and Chinese soon became significant parts of the population. The Finns mostly lived in Uniontown, near the present-day end of the Astoria-Megler Bridge, and took fishing jobs; the Chinese tended to do cannery work, and usually lived either downtown or in bunkhouses near the canneries.

In 1883, and again in 1922, downtown Astoria was devastated by fire, partly because it was mostly wood and entirely raised off the marshy ground on pilings. Even after the first fire, the same format was used, and the second time around the flames spread quickly again, as collapsing streets took out the water system. Frantic citizens resorted to dynamite, blowing up entire buildings to stop the fire from going further.

Astoria has served as a port of entry for over a century and remains the trading center for the lower Columbia basin, although it has long since been eclipsed by Portland and Seattle as an economic hub on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Astoria's economy centered on fishing, fish processing, and lumber.

The Bumble Bee company was established in Astoria in 1899 when seven salmon canners in the city formed the Columbia River Packers Association. The Bumble Bee brand was introduced in 1910. Columbia River Packers later merged with Dole Foods, which in turn was later absorbed by Castle & Cooke.

The Astoria Column--situated in a wooded park and towering above the city's highest point, Coxcomb Hill--was constructed by the Astor family in 1926 to commemorate the region's early history. Built of concrete, the column is patterned after Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy. Depicted on the column's face is a mural that commemorates the westward sweep of discovery and migration.

In 1945, about 30 canneries could be found along the Columbia; however, in 1974 Bumblebee Seafood moved its headquarters out of Astoria, and gradually reduced its presence until 1980, when the company closed its last Astoria cannery. The timber industry likewise declined; Astoria Plywood Mill, the city's largest employer, closed in 1989, and the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway discontinued service in 1996.

From 1921 to 1966, a ferry route across the Columbia River connected Astoria with Pacific County, Washington. In 1966 the Astoria–Megler Bridge was opened; it completed U.S. Route 101 and linked Astoria with Washington on the opposite shore of the Columbia, and replaced the ferries.

Today's Astoria

Today, tourism, Astoria's growing art scene and light manufacturing are the main economic activities of the city. The city has been a port of call for cruise ships since 1982, after the port authority made $10 million in pier improvements to accommodate cruise ships.

To avoid Mexican ports of call during the Swine Flu outbreak of 2009, many cruises were re-routed to include Astoria.