THE TIDEWATER REACH

Poem by Robert Michael Pyle

Photograph by Judy VanderMaten

Field Note by Hal Calbom

River Pubs: On Duffy’s Deck

Only crows to be heard. Merganser duckling, long bill ring-tipped pale neck and belly down, strange to be all by itself, out there paddling in the milky way of knotweed petals, nebulae of cottonwood leaves, riding the uptide flow.

Yellow-striped jumping spider leaps to my knee. Steller’s jay vaults the river, which loops around the gravel bar under alders and elms, ninebark and knotweed, then slingshots down to the bay, on this 90-degree afternoon. Wait till winter! When the river roars through here, almost up to the deck, and I take my pint inside, into dim orange light and endless Irish tapes.

But for now, out here on Duffy’s deck, with the crows, the mergs, the jays, as the day drops through 80, to 70, and less, perfection seems possible.

Yet still my pint runs out.

Skeletons

The ocean approaches to the Columbia — and indeed to much of the entire Pacific Northwest coast — are well-known in folklore as the mighty Pacific’s graveyard. Unpredictable weather conditions, fog and coastal characteristics such as shifting sandbars, tidal rips, rocky reefs and shorelines have claimed more than 2,000 vessels and 700 lives near the Columbia Bar alone. Although major wrecks have declined since the 1920s, several lives are still lost annually. The lethal combination of fog, wind, storm, current and wave wreaked havoc through the middle of the twentieth century, leaving wrecks made famous in regional history and skeletons still visible today.

On this page we excerpt poems, pictures and field notes from our own “Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures,” The Tidewater Reach, by Gray’s River resident and renowned naturalist Robert Michael Pyle, and Cathlamet photographer Judy VanderMaten.

The two dreamed for years of a collaborative project, finally realized when Columbia River Reader Press published color and black and white editions of The Tidewater Reach in 2020, and a third, hybrid edition in 2021, all presenting “a different way of seeing” our beloved Columbia River.

For information on ordering, see page 2.

Teagues’ Interiors has been honored to work with many community members in your homes and offices and serve you from our store front — helping with color and design, draperies, accessories and art since 1988. Thank you for supporting our small business in Downtown Longview through four locations and Covid!

Sincerely,

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