While we’ve driven up the coast through Oregon into Washington before, we hadn’t stopped in the Astoria area before. We learned that the mouth of the Columbia River, where the river empties into the ocean, is very dangerous and is the spot of the worst wave action anywhere in the world! There are lots of shipwrecks in the river and along the coast.

While we’ve driven up the coast through Oregon into Washington before, we hadn’t stopped in the Astoria area before. We learned that the mouth of the Columbia River, where the river empties into the ocean, is very dangerous and is the spot of the worst wave action anywhere in the world! There are lots of shipwrecks in the river and along the coast.

We visited the Maritime Museum in Astoria which had lots of boats and ships, either partial or whole, telling the story of the history of this area. Maps of all the shipwrecks showed how dangerous this area was and still is.

There was a lot of information about the salmon fishing and canning business, which boomed in the 19th century here. There was also a lot of information about the shipping industry along the Columbia River. The day we visited the museum we saw five large container ships moored in the river waiting to head either up or down the river.

We also were able to tour a “Lightship” which is like a lighthouse but uses a ship instead of a building on the land. The lightship was anchored in one stop along the shore and crews came and went on other boats. Each crew was about 10-12 men including a couple of officers and they spent 8 weeks on the ship and then went back to shore for 4 weeks. If the weather didn’t permit a change of the crew on the day expected, the crew just had to suck it up and stay longer.

Here are some pictures Jeff took at the lightship:

While in Astoria, OR, we visited the Fort Clatsop National Historic site. This was the site where Lewis and Clark and their team spent a winter before heading back to the east coast. This was the land of the Clatsop native tribe who befriended Lewis and Clark and helped them during their stay.

The historic site includes a museum where there is information and artifacts about the Lewis and Clark stay in this area and also a replica of the fort where they wintered. It was much smaller than I thought considering there were over 20 men along with Sakagawea and her baby who lived here during a very wet winter. After four months in the area they headed back east to complete their mission.

We watched a nice video in the museum that was narrated by a member of the Clatsop tribe and told the story of the Lewis and Clark stay in this area from a native point of view. It was very interesting. We didn’t take any pictures in the museum (items behind glass don’t usually photo well). Here are some pics of the fort: