This is a work in progress, but here are my notes from historians, museums, many locals, and the internet. More will be added as we learn.
The Chinook Natives
The Chinook Nation, a testament to the power of unity and resilience, is a collective of five Chinook-speaking tribes residing near the mouth of the Columbia. The Clatsop, on the south shore of the Great River, and the Lower Chinook, on the north coast at the river’s mouth, could easily canoe a few miles east to visit their cousins, the Wahkiakum, and the Cathlamet, aided by the tide. Today, the Chinook Nation encompasses all five tribal groups, a living testament to the strength and endurance of their community.
The Clatsop Natives
The Clatsop Natives, the original inhabitants of the Astoria, Gearhart, Seaside, and Cannon Beach areas in Oregon, were a tribe rich in unique cultural practices. They lived along the northwestern coast of present-day Oregon, covering about 1,100 square miles. Their homeland, with its dense forests, fertile coastal plains, and abundant wildlife, was a testament to their harmonious relationship with nature. Fourteen Clatsop villages are known to have existed in the region. Indian artifacts and skeletal remains remain unearthed in and around Seaside, a reminder of their vibrant past. The Clatsop Indians were known as “canoe people” and buried their dead in canoes loaded with personal effects. They were also recognized as Clatsop Flatheads due to their unique practice of binding infants’ foreheads, resulting in a flattening effect on the frontal skull.
The Chinook identified Saddle Mountain as their place of origin before the Changer came and made things the way they are today. In those ancient times, Too-Lux, “old man South Wind”, traveled up the coast to the Great River, Yakaitl-Wimakl, and caught a whale to ease his hunger. The whale transformed into Thunderbird who tended a nest with five eggs. An ogress who followed Thunderbird to his nest pushed 5 eggs down the mountainside and when they cracked open, they became the 5 local tribes: Clatsop, Chinook, Kathlamet, Klatskanie and lower Tillamook These were the first Chinook people and many of their descendants remain near Saddle Mountain at the mouth of the Columbia River to this day.
1787 The U.S. government passes the Northwest Ordinance, opening lands for American settlement and development as far west as French Louisiana.:
1788 -English fur trader John Meares named the northern side of the Columbia River Cape Disappointment entrance because he was disappointed in not finding the river.
1792 – Captain Robert Gray crossed the Columbia Bar, becoming the first known explorer of European descent to enter the river – which was named after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva
1805 Lewis and Clark arrive at the mouth of the Columbia River
1811 Members of the Pacific Fur Company, owned by John Jacob Astor, arrived in March of 1811 and established Fort Astoria, which would later become the town of Astoria. This town was the first primary and permanent settlement in the Pacific Northwest.
1813 Britain buys Astoria and changes the name to Fort George
1818, The U.S. received Astoria back. However, it remained under British control until the American pioneers who followed the Oregon Trail came and settled in the Astoria area in 1840
1844 First street lights(coal/Gas) and Clatsop County is created
1846 – The Oregon Treaty finally resolved the boundary dispute. Britain gained control over Vancouver Island north of the 49th parallel, while the United States obtained the lands south of the 49th parallel.
- Astoria, which began as a small settlement, grew rapidly. As a bustling port city, it attracted immigrants from the East Coast of America, Finland, Norway, and China, each bringing their unique cultures and traditions, enriching the city’s vibrant tapestry of diversity.
1847 Astoria proudly became home to the first U.S. post office in the American Northwest.
1848 – Astoria becomes part of the United States
1856 – Desdemona crashed
1856 The town Astoria was incorporated
1849 – Oregon became the 33rd state admitted to the Union
1850 – First NW built steamboat launches in Astoria
1851 – Federal treaty with Clatsop Natives tribe is signed
1865 -Astoria Pioneer Cemetery I Astoria was deeded) graves from the older “Astoria Cemetery” (in block 55 above the Catholic church) at 1465 Grand Ave- St. Mary and “occupying Block #120, bounded by Duane, Exchange, 16th and 17th Streets and partly under 16th street.”
1869 Knights of Labor was created– Made the 8-hour rule ended child labor; however, they stood for the Chinese Exclusion Act
1870 – salmon canning boomed
1875 – To pay death benefits to the widows, gill-netters formed The Columbia River Fishermen’s Beneficial Aid Society
1877 Great Railroad Strike
1880 – there were 2,317 Chinese in Clatsop County, a third of the population. Nearly all worked in Astoria’s canneries, built on wooden pilings over the water. During salmon season, which lasted from April 1 to August 1, cannery workers toiled 11 hours a day and slept in crowded wooden bunkhouses provided by their employers.
1882 – The Immigration Act, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, went into place
1883 – Astoria burnt to the ground. This fire started in the Clatsop Mill at now 13th and Exchange Street. Built along the shore with planer shavings and trash discarded below it, it was an “accident waiting to happen,” or was it because of the riots from the removal of the Chinese?
At that time, downtown Astoria was built on pilings, with no fire hydrants or buckets available. By the time it was extinguished, this fire had destroyed all the structures on Commercial Street between 14th and 17th. Damage totaled $2 million.
1886 Flavel House (museum) was built
1866 – 1st fish cannery sprouted along the Columbia River
1874 – Astoria got its first cannery
1886 – Formed American Federation of Labor (AFL).
1889-1890 Pandemic hit – Russian Flu
1890 Crimping and Shanghaied in Astoria
1895-1948 – Horse Seining in Oregon
1888 – Street lights were installed
1899 – Warrenton was officially incorporated, named in honor of D.K. Warren, a prominent local commerce and development figure. Today’s population is approx. 7,000 people.
1899-1901 Knappton Cannery became a quarantine station (bubonic plague, yellow fever, smallpox, and typhus
1902-1934 Desdemona Lighthouse
1904 – Battery Russell is one of nine batteries at Fort Stevens and was active for forty years, from 1904 to 1944. Fort Stevens was in service for 84 years, from the Civil War to WWII. The fort is named after Major General David Russell, who fought in the Civil War.
1904—Astoria City Hall, now the Heritage Museum, was built in 1904. It was saved in the 1922 fire because the YMCA was next door, and the firefighters used the pool water to put the fire out.
1906 – The English sailing vessel the Peter Iredale ran aground on the beach at Fort Stevens during a storm in 1906
1915 – Crimping and Shanghaied in Astoria ended in 1915. Shanghaiing began to decline by the end of the 19th century following a series of legislations aimed towards combating crimps, such as requiring a sailor to sign in the presence of a federal shipping commissioner and prohibiting the practice of seamen taking advances on wages.
1915 – The Coast Guard was established
1914-1918 – World War 1
1920 – Astoria’s population peaked in 1920 at about 14,000. Since then, while Oregon’s population has more than quadrupled, Astoria’s has fallen steadily, and today it has fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
1921- The first Klan organizers (Kleagles) arrived in Oregon from the South in early 1921. Maj. Luther I. Powell, a gregarious Louisianan, swore in the first Oregon Klansmen in Medford while his fellow Kleagles recruited in Portland, Eugene, Salem, Astoria, Hood River, Pendleton, and other communities. Oregon’s population was white, Protestant, and native-born, which met the KKK’s male membership requirements.
Oregon and Indiana were the top two states in membership of the Klain, over 1K in membership in 1921 Astoria – population of the town was less than 14K anti-Catholic
Oregon banned blacks in its state constitution, a provision still there until 1926. These laws discouraged racial minorities from living within the state’s borders. So, the black population was small and limited mainly to Portland; there were a few Jews and some Japanese farmers.
1920-beginning of Prohibition – the Klan wanted Prohibition enforced.
1922 – The Klan pushed a statewide initiative in 1922 to ban all private schools, especially Catholic schools.
1922 – Astoria Great Fire
1924 Astoria Labor Temple was built- oldest Union Hall on the Pacific NW
1924 Huge Klan Rally in the Daily Astorian: that year, the town hosted a Klan convention, and more than 10,000 Klansmen and their supporters came to town.
1926 – Astoria Column was completed
1929 – Stock market crash setting the stage for the great depression
1930’s Great Depression
1930 People grew tired of the KKK’s intimidation tactics and occasional vigilante behavior. By the early 1930s, the Great Depression came, and Prohibition was overturned. As the KKK diminished
1930 – Albacore tuna appears off the Oregon coast, and a new canning industry is born, taking over salmon.
1931 Coast Highway 101 is built
1933 – Prohibition Ended
1934- Present – Desdemona Club
1939-1945 – World War 2 – The Column was shut down and used by the military, and the port became a naval hub. Stevens was fired upon by a Japanese sub early in the war, but we never shot back
1941 – The last Chinatown buildings on Bond Street were torn down
1943 – The first Immigration Act, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act, ended
1961 – Canneries in Astoria unite under one name – Bumble Bee Tuna
1966 – The Astoria-Megler Bridge opened
1971 – Oregon’s Bottle Bill was introduced 1971 as the first bottle bill in the U.S.
1980 – The last tuna canneries closed, Timber Wars that pitted loggers against newly minted environmental activists with the Spotted Owl, losing 690,000 acres of growth forest to protect the Spotted Owl. Astoria’s economic focus became tourism.
1982 – Kroger/ Fred Meyer and Safeway switched to plastic bags, laying off many workers in the paper mills
In the early ’80s, a string of highly successful movies were filmed here (see Filming Goonies in Astoria), later including Kindergarten Cop, Short Circuit, and later on Free Willy and The Ring, among others. Please go to the Oregon Film Museum to learn more (the old Jail with the Goonie jeep in front)
1985 – The Goonies movie was produced
1990 – Kindergarten Cop was filmed.
1993 – Free Willy Movie was produced
1993 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3
1995 – Friends of Astoria Column restored the column to its earlier monument from 1926
1995 – Astoria River Walk was being built – The timber industry continued into the early 1990s, and the city’s waterfront revitalization effort opened the first trail section in 1995.
1986 – Short Circuit movie was made
1987 – Benji the Hunted was released
2000- Michael Foster created the “Underground Building,” now known as the Tiny Town Underground
2005 – The Ring Two was released
2012—The City of Astoria constructed the Garden of Surging Waves, a memorial commemorating the Chinese contributions to Astoria’s history.
2022 – Astoria Nordic Heritage Park is open 24 hours a day at 1590-1592 Marine Drive at the entrance to downtown Astoria.
2023 – Pumping your gas became legal, lifting a ban on self-service in the state dating back to 1951.