Oregon
Astoria
Set near the mouth of the Columbia River, ASTORIA was founded as a private commercial venture by the millionaire John Jacob Astor in 1811. The idea was to gather furs here from all over the Northwest and then export them to Asia, where demand verged on the feverish. In the event, “Fort Astoria” survived for just a painful year and a half, beset by natural disasters and internal feuding, before it was sold to the British: Washington Irving made the best of the saga in his novel Astoria. A small replica of the old fort stands at 15th and Exchange, but nowadays Astoria is really a working port, with enough history and ornate Victorian architecture to attract a few visitors, but little of the hype of communities to the south. wpe67.jpg (39967 bytes)
Arriving from Portland, the main road into Astoria, Marine Drive, runs parallel with the waterfront – crammed with saloons and brothels in the nineteenth century, many equipped with built-in trap doors for “shanghaiing” drunken customers, who might wake up halfway across the Pacific. The situation got so out of hand at one point that workers at quayside canneries carried guns to get themselves safely through the night shift. Things are much tamer now, but exhibits from Astoria’s seafaring past are on display at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, 1792 Marine Drive (daily 9.30am–5pm; $5).

From Marine Drive, numbered streets climb towards the fancy Victorian mansions of the uptown area. Beyond, on top of Coxcomb Hill, is the Astoria Column, coated with a mural depicting the town’s early history, and offering superb views. The concrete replica of a Native American burial canoe near the base of the column is a memorial to Chief Comcomly of the Chinook. He was on amiable terms with the first settlers, one of whom married his daughter, until he caught his son-in-law hoeing potatoes (women’s work in the chief’s opinion). Comcomly’s son, on the other hand, is said to have proposed to Jane Barnes, a barmaid from Portsmouth who arrived on an English ship in 1814 to become, Astorians claim, the first white woman in the Northwest. Jane turned him down, which wrought havoc with local race relations, but for many years local taverns still nominated honorary barmaids to take part in Jane Barnes Day.

A few miles southwest of town is Fort Clatsop (daily: summer 8am–6pm; rest of year 8am–5pm; $2 in summer, otherwise free), a reconstruction of the stockade-cum-winter quarters Lewis and Clark built here in 1808. The visitor center has an outstanding display on the explorers’ expedition and is set deep in the forest by the ocean. Further west, also off US-101, Fort Stevens State Park, with its trails, camping and miles of beaches, occupies the tapering peninsula that nudges into the mouth of the Columbia. Fortifications were first put up at Fort Stevens to guard against Confederate raiders during the Civil War, though Battery Russell, the most significant military relic, was part of its World War II defenses. The fort was shelled one night by a passing Japanese submarine, which makes it, incredibly, the only military installation on the mainland US to have been fired on by a foreign power since 1812.

Practicalities
Pierce Pacific Stages (tel 503/338-6757) operates a once-daily bus service from Portland to Astoria (and subsequently Seaside and Cannon Beach). The visitor center, at 111 W Marine Drive (summer daily 8am–6pm; winter Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 1–5pm; tel 503/325-6311), is near the base of the US-101 bridge over the Columbia. You can camp at Fort Stevens State Park, or stay in one of the mundane motels along Marine Drive, but the town’s most distinctive offerings are its B&Bs, the pick of which occupy splendidly refurbished Victorian mansions. Franklin St Station, 1140 Franklin St (tel 503/325-4314 or 1-800/448-1098; $60–80), has seven guestrooms and balconies overlooking the town. Rosebriar Hotel, 636 14th St (tel 503/325-7427 or 1-800/487-0224; $45–60), is a renovated 1902 convent with excellent views of the Columbia River.

Downtown has its share of good places to eat. Columbian Cafe, 1114 Marine Drive (tel 503/325-2233), offers gourmet seafood and vegetarian meals, plus a good-value daily special. Shark Rock Cafe, 1092 Marine Drive (tel 503/325-7720), packs in a loyal crowd with its imaginative menu; while the Home Spirit Baking Company, 1585 Exchange (tel 503/325-6846), serves hearthstone-baked sourdough and homemade ice cream in a lovely Victorian home.