THE ASTORIA ARCHIVE · Open this section in the Archive
Learning Paths
A whole learning on Astoria, strand by strand, in the order the place itself sets: the Native nations first, before all of it; then the Chinese American heritage; the expedition; Astor and the fur trade; the Trail's end; and the working heritages. Each strand is records first, narration second, and strands are linked across by their records.
Teaching from these strands? For Teachers keys packets of these records to Oregon's standards, with the sheets and frames to run them.
A student, here on your own work? For Students sets out the starting places by band, the Cases for Kids method in student words, the student sheet, and how to cite what you find.
3 records
First, the first peoples: Clatsop and Chinook country
The written record of this county begins in Clatsop and Chinook country, long before it was a county. The records below are the expedition winter of 1805 to 1806, with the Clatsop and Chinook people in them: the vote at Station Camp, where Sacagawea's opinion and York's were written down beside every man's, and the fort the captains gave to Chief Coboway when they left. The nations tell their own story on their own pages. This page links to those pages and reproduces nothing from tribally governed collections.
Not gathered yet
Chinese American Astoria: the canneries and Chinatown
Chinese Astorians built much of this town: the canneries where most Chinese men worked, the railroads, the sewer system, and the jetties at the river's mouth, and a Chinatown along Bond and Astor Streets that housed that working world. Here is this page's honest state: the verified fact index does not yet hold a dated record for this strand, and this page prints that plainly instead of dressing the gap up. The strand's records at other archives stand below: the Garden of Surging Waves tells the story in the town's own square, and the county research center holds the deep record. The index grows by verification, and this strand is first in line.
4 records
The expedition winter, 1805 to 1806
Lewis and Clark wintered here. The cluster stands on ground a visitor can walk the same afternoon: Fort Clatsop, the salt camp at Seaside where a detachment boiled seawater all January, and Station Camp and Dismal Nitch across the river, where the party voted on where to spend the winter. The journals themselves read free in full at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in the Moulton edition; the link to them stands below.
2 records
Astor, the fur trade, and the first town
John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company planted a trading post on the south bank of the Columbia in April 1811 and named it for him: the first American owned settlement on the Pacific coast, built on the beaver trade. By 1847 the town held the first United States post office west of the Rockies, a measure of how far a letter had to travel to reach it.
Not gathered yet
The Oregon Trail ends at the river
The overland migration's story ends at this river's mouth, and the county's families carry it in their own lines. The verified index holds no dated record for this strand yet. Its records are held by the county research center and the Astoria Public Library's local history desk, in the collections below.
4 records
The Finnish and Scandinavian working world
Astoria's Finnish community built Suomi Hall in 1883, moved it down the hill about 1910 and tripled it in size, and published two newspapers: Toveri from 1907, and Toveritar from 1911, a weekly written for working women when few papers anywhere spoke to them directly. The Scandinavian and Finnish union and labor world runs through these records, and the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival still gathers the county every June; its record stands with the annuals below.
2 records
The fishermen and the cannery shore
In 1896 the river's fishermen struck together, and the next year opened a cannery of their own. The first Regatta honored fishermen home from Alaska. The cannery shore's own voice survives in oral histories like Peter A. Huhtala's, held by the Oregon Historical Society. The fleet's festivals, living and dormant, stand with the annuals below.
Not gathered yet
Farms, forests, and the fair
Agriculture, the managed forest, the fire lookouts, the CCC era, and the 4-H and county fair world are named strands of this county's past. The fair itself, running since 1905, stands with the annuals below. The verified index is still gathering this strand's dated records; the county research center holds those records in the meantime.
3 records
The bridge, and the ferry it ended
The Astoria-Megler Bridge opened to traffic in the summer of 1966, ending the ferry era, after a public fight that called it the bridge to nowhere. It was the longest continuous truss bridge in North America, and its tolls came off on Christmas Eve 1993, more than two years early. Its opening date carries this index's most famous disagreement, printed open in the record itself.
1 record
The Flavels and their houses
Captain George Flavel, the river's best known bar pilot, built the house on the hill that still carries his family's name, and the family's long story, rise and fall, became town legend. The house's building year is this index's lesson in reading sources: two good local sources give two different years, and the record prints both.