Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures By Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten.
EYEWITNESS TO ASTORIA
Gabriel Franchére
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WORDS AND WOOD
Pacific Northwest Woodcuts and Haiku by Debby Neely •Boxed, Gift Edition with tasseled bookmark $35
• Trade paperback B/W $25 DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL
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Ido a lot of sparring with Spellcheck. And I fear what AI might come up with next.
I don’t recall posting a job opening for a personal assistant-nemesis to ride herd on my diction, syntax, and usage, let alone my spelling.
My computer even went rogue late in the production process for this issue and began recording and typesetting — into an article — our office conversation, all on its own!
And I can live with corrections, if need be. Corrections keep us human. They remind us that words — and yes, even facts — can be subject to interpretation.
The Schaufus Snafu
Sometimes, even the miscues generate their own stories.
Or at least some humble laughter.
Consider what has now become known around here as the “Great Schaufus Snafu.”
Last month we ran a Christmas story by Hans Schaufus, a public-spirited fellow, torch-carrier for the Longview Outdoor Gallery, and friend of the Reader. The entertaining piece added holiday cheer to the paper.
Publisher/Editor: Susan P. Piper
Columnists and contributors:
Merrilee Bauman
Hal Calbom
Nancy Chennault
Tiffany Dicjkinson
Alice Dietz
Brandon Ford
Joseph Govednik
Tom Lee
Michael Perry
Ned Piper
Robert Michael Pyle
Marc Roland
Alan Rose
Greg Smith
Andre Stepankowsky
Debra Tweedy
Judy VanderMaten
Editorial/Proofreading Assistants: Merrilee Bauman, Michael Perry, Marilyn Perry, Susan Nordin, Tiffany Dickinson, Ned Piper
Advertising Manager: Ned Piper, 360-749-2632
Columbia River Reader, llc 1333 14th Ave, Longview, WA 98632
It also generated a record of sorts for the Corrections Department. In this single issue, we managed not only to misspell Hans’s last name in three different places, but we also creatively spelled it differently each of the three times.
Our intrepid Michael Perry, Lewis and Clark historian, pointed out that William Clark spelled “mosquitos” more than 17 different ways (without getting it correct even once) and his reputation remains intact.
Apologies, Hans! From now on, consider us on a first-name basis.
Well-Chosen Words
We’d like to extend special thanks to our own Debra Tweedy, Quips and Quotes editor, who’s retiring to Utah to be nearer family.
Her surveys of sources and mixing of subjects have been masterful, and we will miss her monthly contributions.
Quote lovers, we welcome your applications, but be aware of the need for correct attributions, the rigors of an enforced monthly deadline, and the ever-vigilant proofreaders and spell checkers, human and otherwise.
Take a Haiku
And finally, while we’re talking words this month: If brevity is the soul of wit, then haiku is the soul of brevity.
’Tis the season for our annual Gary Meyers Memorial HaikuFest. Stop. Think. Meditate. Breathe. Write 17 syllables in three lines: five, seven, five.
Join in the fun of this super-popular tradition highlighting the first quarter of each year. See HaikuFest guidelines on page 4.
Happy haikuing!
P.S. And, by the way, readers, advertisers, contributers, and team members all: We’re still celebrating our 21st year, and THIS issue is the 250th since launching CRR in April 2004, following in the footsteps of Randy Sanders. We are still thriving, thanks to all of you!
Fred Baxter walking Longview’s Old West
– William Shakespeare “Hamlet”
GARY MEYERS MEMORIAL HaikuFest 2026
CRR’s HAIKUFEST honors the name and spirit of founder Gary Myers. The HaikuFest is now inviting entries in three categories: Traditional, Pop, and Youth (under age 18).
Submit up to five previously-unpublished haiku with three lines of five, seven and five syllables. Judges will place special emphasis on: regional themes, flora and fauna; our Columbia River heritage and traditions; and the essence of “the good life” we evoke in CRR’s own mission statement.
Please submit your haiku via email to: Publisher@crreader.com , noting “Haikufest” in the subject line; or via US mail to CRR HaikuFest, 1333 14th Ave. Longview, WA 98632. Students under age 18, please indicate age and school you attend.
Submissions deadline: Must be postmarked or received via email by 12:00 Midnight PST, March 1st, 2026.
Selections chosen by the judges will be announced and published in the March 15 CRR. Haiku submitted become the property of CRR.
Samples from HaikuFest 2025 for inspiration
Morning rays descend lights dancing on the waters a splash of diamonds
Sharon Ashford, Longview,Wash.
Humpback moans softly he leaps out of the water waves crash over him
Kelvin Rose, age 12, Sprouting Seeds School, Battle Ground, Wash. Wind on the river Neptune’s galloping horses Waves mimic their manes Sullema Zerr, Puget Island, Wash.
AValentine’s Day or Oscar Watch Party idea?
t a cocktail party recently, I engaged in a conversation with a fellow guest. When he discovered I was the Man in the Kitchen, he was anxious to describe Javanese food after having just returned from Indonesia. I think he wanted to be in my column, once he learned I’m writing for a newspaper. He gave me his name three times.
Our conversation sparked my interest in learning more about Javanese food, which sounded unique and exotic.
I remember macramé, mood rings and fondue. But I had never heard of the so-called Javanese Dinner, which my friends told me was popular during the 1970s. I guess I wasn’t invited to those parties. When they tried to describe the Javanese Dinner to me, I must admit it sounded kind of weird, but I was game to try it as a kind of “moveable feast.”
For those who don’t already know about it, I can now recommend the Javanese Dinner as a fun way to feed any size crowd without much fuss ahead of time in the kitchen. Maybe you will want to stage one — again, or for the first time – this winter.
cont page 14
Devoted to your care.
While change is constant, PeaceHealth remains committed to your well-being — today, tomorrow, always.
peacehealth.org
DINNER PARTY TIME !
VALENTINE’S DAY FEB 14
ACADEMY AWARDS MAR 15th 4–7pm
Looking UP
January 17th – February 17th
The Evening Sky
By Greg Smith
By Greg Smith
Drone swarm to possibly explore Mars
MOON PHASES:
New Moon, Sunday, Jan 18th
1st Quarter, Sunday, Nov. 25th
Full Moon: Sunday, Feb. 1st 3rd Quarter, Monday, Feb. 9th
New Moon:Tuesday Feb. 17th
END OF TWILIGHT:
When the brightest stars start to come out. Allow about an hour more to see a lot of stars.
Sunday, Jan. 18th • 5:32pm
Sunday, Jan. 25th • 5:40pm
Friday, Jan. 30th • 5:47pm
Monday, Feb. 2nd • 5:50pm
Monday, Feb. 9th • 6:00pm
Monday, Feb. 16th • 6:11pm
SUNSET
Saturday, Jan. 17th • 4:57pm
Saturday, Jan. 24th • 5:06pm
Monday, Feb. 2nd • 5:20pm
Monday, Feb. 9th • 5:30pm
Monday, Feb. 16th • 5:41pm
A clear sky is needed.
Jupiter Is high in the eastern sky, in the constellation of Gemini. The end of January will find Saturn low in the western sky around 8pm. Orion will be midway through the southern sky by 8:30pm, early enough to view in binoculars and telescopes. It might be just a quick trip outside if it’s really cold weather.
The Morning Sky
A cloudless eastern horizon sky is required.
Though it is still winter in mid-February, summer constellations are starting to rise in the morning before sunrise. There is hope for warmer weather on the way. Mars is on the other side of the sun from us now, so, it’s not visible at all.
Night Sky Spectacle
A clear dark sky is a must.
January brings out the full Winter Hexagon. The seven bright stars of winter are Rigel in Orion, Sirius in Canis Major, Procyon in Canis Minor, Pollux and Castor in Gemini, Capella in Auriga, and Aldebaran in Taurus..
NASA is looking at a new concept of exploring Mars. A company called AeroVironment is proposing a new way to deploy robotic drones there. Instead of being attached to a lander, they would be deployed while still in the atmosphere of Mars. They would be slowly lowered by a parachute or retro rockets, like the rover Perseverance was. They would descend autonomously and fly away from the descent vehicle on independent exploration missions, reporting back to a rover that could be directed to a site that looked promising.
The six helicopters could be individually programed to look for certain critical objectives. They would quickly and simultaneously explore a large area of the Martian surface.
The mission is called Skyfall, as the six would “fall” out of the sky. These would operate independently, making a network of explorers. Their primary mission would be to find a safe, resource-rich landing site for the first human mission to Mars. They would have radar to find flat areas so a human landing craft would not tip over on touchdown. They would also have ground-penetrating radar to look for subsurface water ice. The ice is critical — for science, in finding past microbial life, and for generating rocket fuel for a return trip to Earth by breaking water into oxygen and hydrogen.
The helicopters could also fly into “skylights,” subsurface holes that have been found on Mars and which might be a place for radiation-protected shelters for human explorers. They could also explore cliff faces to record the geologic history of Mars.
If funding is secured, the mission could take place as soon as 2028. Mars is in the proper position every 26 months. If the program can start very soon, then the 2028 date can be reached. If not, the next window is 2030-31.
Longview resident Greg Smith is past president of Friends of Galileo. Meet him and other club members at monthly meetings in Longview. For more info about FOG, visit friendsofgalileo.com.
ROLAND ON WINE
A“Dry January”
Should alcohol get a time-out?
by Marc Roland
s we begin a new year, we Pacific Northwesterners know how to brace for a damp start. Moss on the roof, puddles in the street, and frost in the are reminders we need to hunker down for a long winter’s night. Nancy and I alway start talking about our goals and hopes for the new year about now. We also will be thinking about the opportunities to improve ourselves.
This trend of self-improvement is often framed as a way to get healthier, but it is also driven by the idea of becoming a more productive and optimized person. This is fine, but I always question the idea that my life can be summed up by my utility to society. I’m pretty sure it is more than that. What about a goal to be happy?
This brings me to the “Dry January” movement, a named campaign started in the UK in 2013. It was created and formalized by the charity, Alcohol Change UK, after Emily Robinson abstained from alcohol in January 2011 and noticed personal benefits.
“Dry” was further boosted by the World Health Organization’s position that no level of alcohol use is safe, and that even moderate drinking has links to cancer and other diseases. Dry January proponents argue that a single month without alcohol can redefine habits and reduce overall consumption. Most folks don’t talk about it, but it has caught on and it’s a real “thing.”
So let’s talk about it. First, it’s not anti-wine. It is meant to be a reset — a way to adjust our relationship with alcohol. That’s a good thing. But is it the best way for a reset? Here are some things to consider as you think about going ‘Dry.’ I will admit there are some benefits for total abstinence, but I think there is a better way.
There is growing debate that Dry January may do more harm than good because it sends an “all-or-nothing” message about alcohol risk. This binary view lacks nuance, and may ignore the other possible risks and benefits of intentional drinking.
The liquor industry every year publishes opinion pieces that argue full abstinence can backfire psychologically, increasing cravings and leading to overindulgence after January. My research suggests
Longview resident and former Kelso teacher Marc Roland started making wine in 2008 in his garage. He and his wife, Nancy, now operate Roland Wines at 1106 Florida Street in Longview’s new “barrel district.” For wine tasting hours, call 360-846-7304.
NOTES FROM MY LIVES
Pby Andre Stepankowsky
A Toast to (the passing of) the holidays
Welcome back to time of routine
erhaps you should drink your best bottle of holiday champagne on January 2.
Don’t get me wrong. Although I can be a bit Scrooge-like when setting up our Christmas trees, I do love the camaraderie and merry making of the holiday season.
But it’s always good to get back into the daily groove. Work and regimen are, after all, what give our lives direction and meaning — as well as preventing even further expansion of our waist sizes. If life were a perpetual holiday, I think most of us would soon become badly bloated and mad with boredom.
When I was a college student, my university shut down from the middle of December to late January. As much as I enjoyed the time off, by early January I already missed my classmates and studies, which I enjoyed so much (except for math.)
I’ll admit I wasn’t so eager to return to high school classes or work after a lengthy break. But I do believe that shaking the cobwebs from your brain is more difficult the longer you luxuriate in mental inertia. So it’s no surprise that many of us hate to return to work after New Year’s Day — and why school kids forget so much during summer vacation.
And, let’s admit it, the holidays are exhausting if you’re doing them right or
with even tepid enthusiasm — because you simultaneously must continue completing all the other usual domestic chores.
Many thinkers and religious leaders have emphasized the importance of work and discipline as a way to bring honor and respect to oneself and to others. One has only so much light to give, and it’s satisfying and ennobling to use it wisely and productively. Don’t we all to some degree feel the tug of that calling when we’re vacationing — whether we want to admit it or not?
There is a danger and Yin and Yang to all this that is captured in the 1981 film “My Dinner with Andre.”
“If you’re just operating by habit, then you’re not really living,” Andre tells Wally. Elsewhere, Andre again admonishes his friend: “Wally, don’t you see that comfort can be dangerous? I mean, you like to be comfortable and I like to be comfortable too, but comfort can lull you into a dangerous tranquility.”
Routine can be both a rut that leads to depression and a path that runs to fulfillment. It’s a real trick sometimes to find that balance. I’ve known people who would rather work than play, and I tend to be one of them. But being a slave to work and routine is no path to happiness.
The holidays, being among other things an occasion for reflection, should be a time to ask whether we need to re-balance our dedication to work, family, fun and adventure.
*or other instrument READER SUBMISSIONS INVITED!
ME AND MY
PIANO*
Share your unique story of you and your relationship with a musical instrument in 500 words or less and mail to CRR, 1333 14th Ave., Longview, WA 98632, or email to publisher@ crreader.com. Note “Me and My Piano” in the subject line and if possible attach/include a current mugshot and/or a photo of you with your instrument, then or now.
Don’t worry about perfect spelling or syntax. If your story is chosen, we will provide editing services and will contact you for additional details or embellishments as needed.
To strike a healthy balance is indeed good reason to sip some bubbly any time — not just on January 2.
Award-winning journalist Andre Stepankowsky is a former reporter and editor for The Daily News in Longview. His Columbia River Reader columns spring from his many interests, including hiking, rose gardening, music, and woodworking. More of his writing can be found under “Lower Columbia Currents,” on substack.com.
DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL
IEPISODE 21
Great Treats: Sea Salt and Blubber
By Michael O. Perry
n late December of 1805, five men hiked from Fort Clatsop to the ocean, near present-day Seaside, to set up a salt-making operation. A week later, Capt. Lewis wrote that two men brought back “a specemine of the salt of about a gallon” that was used to make their lean and often spoiled elk meat somewhat palatable. However, the salt makers also brought back a sample of blubber from a beached whale that Indians had found near present-day Cannon Beach. Sgt. Ordway wrote, “we mix it with our poor elk meat & find it eats very well.” Capt. Clark decided to set out the following day in an attempt to purchase some more blubber.
Sacajawea wanted to go along. When Clark said no, “She observed that She had traveled a long way with us to See the great waters, and that now that monstrous fish was also to be Seen, She thought it verry hard that She Could not be permitted to see either (She had never yet been to the Ocian).” Clark agreed to her request.
On January 6th, Clark and 12 men, plus Sacajawea and her French husband Charbonneau, hiked to the salt makers’ camp where they hired an Indian to guide them to the whale. They walked along the beach until they reached an “emence mountain the top of which was obscured in the clouds.” They camped high on the bluff, and the next day climbed to the top of a viewpoint on Tilamook Head (within today’s Ecola State Park)
where Clark saw “the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in my frount a boundless Ocean.”
Anyone who has ever hiked across Tillamook Head can appreciate what the men saw as they looked south towards Cannon Beach. Clark wrote, “inoumerable rocks of emence Sise out at a distance from the Shore and against which the Seas brak with great force gives this Coast a most romantic appearance.”
When they reached the whale, all that was left was the 105-foot long skeleton. The local Indians had completely stripped it. Clark was able to purchase only 300 pounds of blubber and a few gallons of whale oil, but he was grateful to get anything to add to the lean elk they ate virtually every meal. Prior to that, an occasional dog purchased from the Clatsop Indians was the only thing that made meals something to look forward to.
The daily journal entries illustrate how boring their days were in January and February. Lewis repeatedly wrote, “Nothing worthy of notice occured today.”
The men spent the winter preserving meat by smoking and drying. They also chopped firewood, repaired their weapons, dressed elk and deer skins, made clothes, etc. They made 338 pairs of moccasins. In addition, they traded with the Indians. Typically, the Indians wanted more than the men had to offer, but after a lot of haggling, a trade was often agreed to. Undoubtedly, the silk
handkerchiefs the men had received at Christmas were traded to Indian maidens who were willing to sell their favors to the men.
Don’t forget your flu shot
The weather at Fort Clatsop was miserable. Everything was wet, and it snowed several nights in December, January, and February. On January 26th, they awoke to eight inches of snow on the ground. The men were not eating a balanced diet and were prone to illness. The men experienced colds, boils, the flu, strained muscles, and venereal disease. On Feb. 22, Lewis wrote, “we have not had as many Sick at any one time Since we left” St. Louis in 1804. Ordway wrote, “Six of the party are now Sick I think that I and three others have the Enfluenzey.”
Everyone in the Corps of Discovery had a job. Lewis was the leader; others were hunters, carpenters, woodsmen and blacksmiths. William Clark was
the mapmaker. Captains Lewis and Clark spent much of their time at their writing desks. Lewis described and drew sketches of the dozens of plants and animals they had seen. Ten plants, two fish, eleven birds, and eleven mammals were new to science. He also recorded details about each Indian tribe they had met along the trail, describing their culture, language, and what they ate.
Mapmaker, Mapmaker, make me a map… Clark spent his spare time drawing charts and maps. Even though the Corps had failed to find a water route across the continent, the maps Clark would create were probably the most important thing that came from the journey. When the Expedition left St. Louis in 1804, Clark took along the best maps available. He had a large comprehensive map, drafted by Nicholas King in 1803, with a longitude and latitude grid accurately
Five years ago, we introduced a revised version oF Michael Perry’s popular series which had begun with CRR’s April 15, 2004 inaugural issue and was reprised three times and then expanded In the new book, Dispatches from the Discovery Trail, edited by Hal Calbom and published by CRRPress. It includes an in-depth author interview and new illustrations and commentary.
Clark
The present-day view from Ecola Point on the trail across Tillamook Head, north of Cannon Beach, along the route that Capt. Clark and 12 men (plus Sacajawea) took in January 1806 to get to the whale that had washed ashore near Cannon Beach. Clark wrote that he saw “inoumerable rocks of emence Sise out at a distance from the Shore and against which the Seas brak with great force gives this Coast a most romantic appearance.”
Lewis and Clark from page 8
showing the course of the lower Missouri River, as well as the Pacific Coast. Clark’s job was to fill in the blank area in the middle of that map.
During the winter of 1805 at Fort Clatsop, Clark consolidated his field notes covering their journey west from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. He made a series of small maps that were used to create a large detailed map
after the journey was over. Clark kept detailed field notes in his journal showing courses and distances traveled each day. If Clark assumed cartographers would use his painstakingly recorded traverse to create accurate maps after the journey was completed, he was wrong.
William Clark’s map of the mouth of the Columbia River shows Cape Disappointment (on the Washington side) and Point Adams (on the Oregon side) at the bottom, with Tongue Point in the center towards the top (Clark named it “Point William”). The dot in the river at the upper left that says “Rock” is Pillar Rock where Clark first saw the ocean on Nov. 7, 1805… see the notation to the left of that dot that reads “Encampment 7th Nov. 1805 - Ocian in View.” Additional notations along the Washington shore show where they camped on Nov. 8 – 9 and Nov. 10 –15, and Nov. 15 – 25… then, up by Tongue Point, Clark shows where they camped on Nov. 26, and then from Nov. 27 – 30.
Amazingly, nobody had ever used Clark’s field notes to create a set of maps. For almost 200 years, those field notes were ignored until a resident of Vancouver, Washington, published a three-volume set of Lewis and Clark Trail Maps. Martin Plamondon II, a descendent of Southwest Washington pioneer Simon Plamondon, worked for 30 years to create a set of more than 500 maps covering the entire 7,400mile route Lewis and Clark took.
Sadly, Plamondon died just before his third and final volume was published in 2004. Plamondon’s maps make the Expedition journals come to life in a way previously impossible. Captain Clark would have loved these maps. More on this in Episode 32 (next issue).
•••
Wintering Over
Below: Historical re-enactors participate in regular demonstrations and special occasions at Fort Clatsop, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. During the Bicentennial Commemoration, for example, park visitors exchanged Christmas gifts with Expedition “members.”
Would
the Corpsmen recognize today’s
Fort Clatsop?
M artin P la M ondon ’ s third volu M e of his Trail Maps, published in 2004, challenges several assumptions about the expedition in the Pacific Northwest. One example is his drawing of Fort Clatsop that is significantly different from the 1955 reconstruction that burned down in October 2005, and was rebuilt a year later using the same 1955 layout. Rather than two rows of rooms (three rooms in one row and four rooms in the other), separated by a 20-foot wide parade ground with a gate at each end, Plamondon thought the fort was actually U-shaped and consisted of three rows of connected rooms, with a walled stockade that extended out from the open end.
In 2005, before Fort Clatsop burned down, Scott Stonum, Fort Clatsop’s resource management chief, agreed the 50-year old layout might have been inaccurate. “We do not claim that the fort replica is an exact replica,” he said. The 1955 fort reconstruction was based on a preliminary design Captain Clark drew, whereas Plamondon’s drawing was based on the journal entries by three of the men who built the original fort. The best description was recorded by Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse, but the 1955 replica builders did not have access to Whitehouse’s writings since his journal was not discovered until 1966.
On December 11, 1805, Whitehouse wrote “We raised one line of our huts today.” This line probably formed the bottom end of the “U” and contained three rooms, one of which was the smokehouse. On December 13th, Sgt. John Ordway wrote “we raised another line of our huts and began the last line of our huts forming three sides of a square and 7 rooms 16 by 18 feet large. the other square we intend to picket and have gates at the two corners, so as to have a defensive fort.” The next day, Whitehouse wrote “We finished raising the line of huts, & began to cover one of them, which Our officers intend for a Meat house &ca.” Whitehouse also wrote that “Fort Clatsop lay a small distance back, from the West bank of [the Netul] River. The fort was built in the form of an oblong Square, & the front of it facing the River, was picketed in, & had a Gate on the North & one on the South side of it.”
Map by William Clark
lewis and clark national Historical Park, national Park service
Where to pick up YOUR copy of Columbia River Reader
It’s delivered all around the River by the 15th of each month (except the Holiday edition, which comes out Nov. 25th). Here’s the handy, regularly-refilled box and rack locations where you can pick up a copy.
LONGVIEW
Post Office
Forever Fit - 1211 18th Ave
Bob’s (rack, main check-out)
In front of 1232 Commerce Ave
In front of 1323 Commerce Ave
In front of Broadway Gallery 1418 Commerce
Teri’s on Broadway (side entry)
In front of Freddy’s 1110 Commerce
YMCA
Fred Meyer (rack, service desk)
Grocery Outlet, OB Hwy
Fibre Fed’l CU - Commerce Ave
Monticello Hotel (front entrance)
Kaiser Permanente
St. John Medical Center (rack, Park Lake Café)
LCC Student Center
Columbia River Reader Office 1333 14th Ave (box at door)
Omelettes & More (entry rack)
KELSO
Visitors’ Center / Kelso-Longview
Chamber of Commerce
KALAMA
Etc Mercantile
Fibre Fed’l CU
Kalama Shopping Center corner of First & Fir
Columbia Inn
McMenamin’s Harbor Lodge (rack)
Luckmans Coffee, Mountain Timber Market, Port of Kalama
WOODLAND
Grocery Outlet
Luckman Coffee
CASTLE ROCK
In front of CR Blooms Center
Cowlitz St. W., near Vault Books & Brew
Visitors’ Ctr, 890 Huntington Ave N., Exit 49, west side of I-5
Cascade Select Market
Fibre Fed’l CU
VADER
Little Crane Café
RYDERWOOD
Café porch
TOUTLE
Drew’s Grocery & Service
CLATSKANIE,
ORE
Post Office
Mobil / Mini-Mart
Fultano’s Pizza
WESTPORT
Berry Patch (entry rack)
RAINIER
Post Office
Cornerstone Café
Rainier Hardware (rack, entry)
Earth ‘n’ Sun (on Hwy 30)
El Tapatio (entry rack)
Grocery Outlet (rack by front door)
Senior Center (rack at front door)
DEER ISLAND
Deer Island Store
COLUMBIA CITY
Post Office
ST HELENS
Chamber of Commerce
Sunshine Pizza
St. Helens Market Fresh
Olde Town (near 2-Cs Vendor Mall)
Big River Tap Room
Safeway
WARREN
Warren Country Inn
SCAPPOOSE
Post Office
Road Runner
Fultano’s
Ace Hardware
WARRENTON
Fred Meyer
CATHLAMET
Cathlamet Pharmacy
Tsuga Gallery (entry rack)
Computer Link NW
Puget Island Ferry Landing
SKAMOKAWA
Skamokawa General Store
NASELLE
Appelo Archives & Café
Johnson’s One-Stop
Oakie’s (rack inside)
ILWACO
Time Enough Books (entry table)
OCEAN PARK
Ocean Park Chamber of Commerce, 1715 Bay Ave.
Roland on Wine
from page 7
that there is a lack of rigorous evidence for the positive long-term effect of not drinking for a month.
The benefits may be temporary. Caroline Mimbs Nyce, a staff writer for the Atlantic magazine critiques the Dry January participation. The author questions what the trend says about culture, rather than subscribing to the calendar challenge itself. The growing trend of abstaining from drinking for one month a year is a sign of society’s “problematic relationship with alcohol,” she writes. While dry January isn’t instantly bad, it may not help solve the problem.
So what is the problem?
As I see it, moderate drinking may reduce life expectancy, but only in a moderate way. Sobriety communication fails to consider the profound place that alcohol plays in social life. It’s not as simple as some would say. Abstinence proponents often overstate the benefits of abstinence. I find the all-or-nothing idea to be a hindrance to a view of more intentional drinking that takes into consideration some well-documented health, psychological, and social benefits. Please consider the following: arc’s guide
1. I give you permission to celebrate “Damp January,” a less extreme alternative
2. Moderate and intentional drinking is sustainable, abstinence isn’t.
3. January is a good time to reflect on how and why we drink, not just how much. January invites reflection. I believe wine belongs in a thoughtful life, not a habitdriven one.
4. Wine is meant to be enjoyed slowly, thoughtfully, and on your own terms. A glass of wine, a taste, or simply good conversation is a better way to go. Take a lesson from a native Pacific Northwest wine lover: Damp is better than Dry. Happy New Year!
Intro to Tai Chi • Beginners
Saturday, Feb 7, 2026 • 9:30 – 11:30am at Lower Columbia College
Two-Hour Workshop $20 Register through LCC 360 442-2602
Tai Chi for Health and Senior Fitness Instructor NASM Certified Senior Fitness Specialist
TCHI Certified Tai Chi for Arthritis and Fall Prevention (Standing/Seated) Tai Chi & Qigong for Health and Wellness (Standing/Seated) Cardio-Balance Movement Fusion (low-impact) • Rhythms Line Dancing for Health
By Judith Martin, Nicholas Ivor Martin and Jacobina Martin
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I have been invited to a dinner at my CEO’s home, along with members of the board. Is it still appropriate to arrive with flowers or wine for the host? I don’t know if the CEO drinks wine.
Would I be seen as “brown-nosing” if no one else brings anything? I am 57 and kinda old-school.
GENTLE READER: Flowers are the most gracious option. Miss Manners assures you that they will be taken as they were intended: as a thank-you for hosting a dinner party, not a bribe for future promotions.
Old-school or not, you will have to show up with a lot more than flowers if you want to brown-nose your way into a better job.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I would like some advice on who should handle an anniversary gift return.
My husband and I received a gift that had been ordered online by our relatives (who live blocks from us). Unfortunately, the item was damaged and needed to be returned. We repackaged the item into the box and planned on giving it back to the family so they could print the return label and drop off the package at a post office or shipping store. But instead, they asked us to do it.
When asked why, they said they “didn’t know how to return an item.” We took care of it, but shouldn’t it have been their responsibility?
GENTLE READER: Was it gracious of them? No. But you were already out and about.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I’m pleased that our daughter is teaching her children (ages 4 and 7) about thank-you notes. My question concerns the e-card version of this.
With a written note, certainly a parent must stamp and address it, and perhaps hover over the child to inspire them to write. But the results are a delight for both receiver (sweet childish notes, misspellings and all!) and sender (learning to express thankfulness).
With an e-card, one wonders if the child had any role at all, and if so, what they learned from it. Even if the child could type, does a mailed birthday card, attached to a package or gift of money, merit only an e-card reply?
This may be an issue the generations view quite differently -- that mailed thank-yous, birthday and anniversary greetings may be seen as charming but archaic.
If etiquette suggests we get with the times, I will receive these e-thanks as happily as handwritten ones. (And if so, I assume
texting and regular emails also suffice.) At the moment, though, I am slightly disappointed.
GENTLE READER: That is because your daughter taught part of the lesson, but not the hard part.
That presents require thanks is the first major lesson, especially as it is no longer universally practiced. So that is valuable. What she has apparently not taught is that it is not enough to send a mere receipt, such as a rote text, which is probably precomposed. Rather, the expression must be personal. Even toddlers can be urged to say something sincere and specific -- about both the present and the donor’s kindness.
That is a lesson that has an even deeper value than the essential social one.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: When did people become so insecure that they take offense at pretty much everything?
I’ve noticed a huge shift. Compliments given by strangers are now considered an insult or an attack against their feelings. A mom is insulted, a woman with a pretty hairstyle is offended, someone with a nice outfit is annoyed.
“You look nice today” is taken as saying she looks bad the rest of the week.
What’s wrong with people?
What is a society when nobody talks to anyone, and we let insecurities turn us cold and isolated? Then you have people saying, “I’m lonely and no one talks to me.” Well, what did you expect?
Due to being a single mom, people often ask what happened to cause my divorce. I just laugh and tell the truth -- that I was young and dumb -- and everyone always laughs in agreement. This has started some very funny conversations, and it has also started conversations with women who are struggling in their own marriages and need someone to talk to.
Due to financial struggles, I have purchased 99% of my clothes at resale shops or garage sales. I have always gotten compliments on my clothes; some women even ask where I bought my blouse, jacket, etc.
Do I get insulted, and say, “Oh my gosh, how dare she intrude in my life struggles”? No. I say, “Thank you -- and you know, I’ve had it so long I don’t remember where I bought it.” Compliment given, compliment accepted.
My faith keeps me motivated to be happy and kind to others. Here’s a final thought: If you use your time and energy to be happy and kind to others, you won’t have the time to look for insults where no insult exists.
A compliment to a stranger might just be what they need that day!
GENTLE READER: Or not.
Yet Miss Manners agrees that the unpleasant habit of taking insult when none was intended is widespread. She admires and appreciates your behavior. Indeed, the world would be a lot more pleasant if people presumed goodwill in others.
There are exceptions, of course: compliments that are salacious, for example. Questions that imply a slur. Or plain nosiness, which is also rampant. No one should feel forced to answer personal questions.
But barbed comments from strangers may be ignored, and nosy questions may be deflected. All Miss Manners asks is that they not inspire further rudeness.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am 56 years old and have a special person in my life. When we go out and meet people, how do I introduce her? As my girlfriend, my lady friend, my pillow pal? Please help.
GENTLE READER: Only if you expunge the term “pillow pal,” which has left Miss Manners with a mental picture she would prefer not to entertain.
The accepted term for an established unmarried couple is now “partner.” Short of that is “friend.”
(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www. missmanners.com; to her email, gentlereader@ missmanners.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)
The Cowlitz Economic Development Council has partnered with the City of Longview to host the Washington State Business Liaison Team for their Small Business Requirements and Resources (SBRR) Workshop on Wednesday, January 28, 11am–1pm at Longview City Hall, 1525 Broadway Street. This FREE two-hour workshop, for anyone interested in how to plan, start, or grow their business, features presentations and information from several state and local businesses, departments, and organizations. Pre- registration is required. Visit eventbrite.com, search “Longview Small Business Requirements and Resources.”
Ken Anderton recently began his role as the Port of Longview’s new Chief Executive Officer. Prior to this position, Anderton led several transformative projects as Senior Manager of Real Estate, Leasing and Investment at the Port of Portland, Oregon. Additional accomplishments include leading the Oregon Mass Timber Coalition, repositioning the Port of Portland’s Terminal 2, and redevelopment of the Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park into a career center.
“This was a highly competitive national search,” said the Port Commission President Allan Erickson. “Ken’s professional portfolio and port industry experience will serve the Port well as we embark on a significant period of growth and development.”
With a career of development and port experience spanning more than 20 years, Anderton’s appointment ideally aligns with the Port’s schedule of large projects on the horizon. The Port has broken ground on the Industrial Rail Corridor Expansion, a multi-year, multi-million dollar project to increase rail capacity into the Port and additional major infrastructure projects are slated to start in the coming years.
“I’m looking forward to building relationships with the Port team, industry partners and community,” said Anderton. “Leading the Port through a period of growth is an honor and highpoint of my decades-long work in port development.”
SPENCER CREEK STATION
Ken Anderton
Big changes coming to Cloney Park in 2026
In what is described as the City of Longview’s largest parks project in 20 years, major revisions and additions will begin this Spring at Cloney Park. The $4.3 million project will be funded by grants and corporate donations. Located along Washington Way and Douglas Street, between Nichols Blvd. and the City Parks and Rec building near 30th Ave., the revitalized park will become the City’s first fully-inclusive playground for disabled people, although most users will be unaware it was designed to accommodate people with disabilities. New features will include a covered picnic pavillion, restroom, boulder trail, log scramble, log pole climbers, log rollers, and swings, two slides with transfer platforms, an “accessible sequoia log,” Cowlitz Tribe-inspired nest basket, group swing, and canoe replica. The addition of 40-plus new trees will transform the bland site to a lush oasis of fun for all. Architect Craig Collins compared the project’s scale to the installation of docks and paths around Lake Sacajawea in th 1960s. For more details and illustrations, visit longviewwa.portal.civicclerk.com. - courtesy of andre stePankowsky, lower columbia currents, substack com
Port of Kalama to host open house retirement event for retiring Commissioner Randy Sweet
Randy Sweet
After 20 years of dedicated service as Port of Kalama Commissioner, Randy Sweet is retiring, leaving a profound legacy of transformative growth and community-focused development. Since joining in 2005, Sweet has helped shape Kalama into a thriving economic and recreational hub along the Columbia River—overseeing waterfront gems like Mountain Timber Market, McMenamins, marina upgrades, Haydu Park, cruise ship dock, property acquisitions and strategic industrial expansion, to name a few..
Sweet’s collaborative leadership, environmental stewardship and consensus-driven approach have strengthened the Port of Kalama for generations.
The public is invited to celebrate Commissioner Sweet’s remarkable contributions at an open house retirement party on Friday, February 13, at 3 p.m. in the Port of Kalama Administrative Office.
Port of Kalama news briefs provided by Dan Polacek, Legislative/Public Relations Administrator
Arrange the Javanese Dinner food items in this order with labels noting the suggested serving size:
Chow mein noodles: One heap, not too big
Rice: A good pile of it
Chicken & Gravy: Enough to cover
Onion: One spoonful
Celery: Another spoonful
Where’s the Buffet?
-Male Javanese Leopard
The food items need little preparation and are unpretentious. But they add up to be a pretty tasty stack. It starts with Chinese noodles, chicken and rice, with a combination of other foods and condiments piled on to create an interesting twist, reminiscent of the flavors of Javanese food.
A quick online search and a spin of my globe refreshed my memory. Java is the fourth largest island in Indonesia and home to an impressive 160 million people. This is more than half of the entire Indonesian population. Java is south of the equator in the middle of the South China Sea.
If you decide to plan a Javanese Dinner, I would recommend the host be responsible for preparing the chicken, gravy and curry sauce. Everyone else is each assigned to bring one or two of the remaining items, prepared at home and presented in a serving bowl ready for the buffet table. This saves a lot of mess and time in the kitchen, because the food arrives ready to serve, all easily kept “on hold” to accommodate latecomers or a leisurely period to share holiday cheer prior to dinner.
The Javanese Dinner sidesteps the usual problems that arise with “potluck” gatherings. The host has control of the offerings, avoiding repetitions and your least favorite items. And, having control, you are ready to present a superior bill of fare, with a little help from your friends.
But don’t give away all the credit to your helpful friends. Offer a “signature” item of your own to crown the event, maybe a spectacular beverage and a festive dessert.
Javanese Dinner from page5 Paul Thompson wrote his popular “Man in the Kitchen” column and other features since CRR’s first issue until he died in 2021. We re-run some of his classic recipes and column excerpts from time to time, in fond remembrance and appreciation for his friendship and role in developing CRR’s zeitgeist.
Pineapple: Another spoonful
Tomatoes: Another spoonful
Peppers: Another spoonful
Curry Sauce: Enough to cover
Cheese: Sprinkle this all over
Raisins: A few of these
Almonds: A few of these
Coconut: Top it all with this
Java Dinner Ingredients
Serves about 12
2 to 3 (3-ounce) cans chow mein noodles
6 to 8 cups steamed rice
3 pounds cooked shredded chicken
Chicken gravy (3 cans cream of chicken soup and 1 can milk) or Sauce Bechamel, recipe below
1 medium white onion, chopped
3 to 4 stalks celery, diced
1 15-oz can crushed pineapple, drained
4 medium tomatoes, diced
1 red or yellow pepper, chopped
Curry sauce (2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 1 can chicken broth, 1/2 can white wine and 2 tsp. curry, blended and heated)
1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup slivered almonds
2 cups grated coconut
Add chicken to chicken gravy (or Sauce Bechamel) and heat thoroughly. Arrange all the listed ingredients in separate serving bowls in the order shown. Provide dinner plates for the guests, who serve themselves, piling on the items to create their individual “stacks.”
Encourage them not to skip any items.
Sauce Bechamel
2 Tbl. butter
2 C. condensed milk
Salt & pepper
4 Tbl. cornstarch
2 C. chicken stock, well seasoned
2 4-oz. cans sliced mushrooms
Melt butter, blend in corn starch and slowly add milk and chicken broth. Stir over medium heat until bubbly. Add mushrooms.
LA Visit to the Woodland Historical Museum
Stepping back in time
Story
& photos
by Joseph Govednik, Director, Cowlitz County Historical Museum
ocated along the border of Cowlitz and Clark Counties is the City of Woodland, located along the Lewis River at Interstate 5. Situated in fertile lands, which have been subjected to flooding on occasion, people visiting this community can learn more of its history and the surrounding area at the Woodland Historical Museum, located at 417 Park Street.
The museum occupies a historic house graciously provided by Richard W. and Robert L. Colf for preserving the history of Woodland. The museum is operated through the passionate interest and care of an all-volunteer team who have spent countless hours assembling exhibits and organizing archives.
It is amazing to see how much history is on display inside what appears from the street as a modest building. Everything from logging to dairy farms and high school memorabilia to county fair ribbons can be seen on display. There is even a section of old water pipe made of wood (pictured above) to remind us of how our infrastructure has changed over the decades.
Something of a surprise was a “Woodlandopoly” game made several decades ago adding local Woodland flavor to the classic board game. Above the game were several pieces of high school memorabilia including a letterman jacket and vest. There is also a reference and research archive of local history books, inclugin a collection of high school annuals.
Post-holidays Re-Opening: Feb. 7th
The museum is open from noon-4pm on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays, February through November. To arrange a tour outside of these hours, contact the Museum (woodlandhistoricalmuseum@ gmail.com) to make an appointment to visit.
• Astoria-Warrenton Chamber/Ore Welcome Center 111 W. Marine Dr., Astoria 503-325-6311
The Woodland Historical Museum is located at 417 Park Street, in Woodland, Wash.
Wooden water “pipe” used during a bygone era.
Friends of the Museum Susan Humbard and Keith Bellisle pose by the “Open” sign when Mr. Govednik visited.
Calbom Production notes
Resolved: Thinking in Verse and Song
This monTh’s piece on Fred BaxTer and his homecoming called to mind a verse dear to our hearts and minds, which has appeared in these pages and in our CRRPress books:
We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot Four Quartets
We have an affection for poetry here at the Reader. It both inspires and heals us.
Poetry can be an antidote to wordiness. We try to economize on words and say things as clearly as we can, succinctly — just enough words to get the job done, we hope.
Unfortunately that’s often easier said — and re-said, and elaborated upon — than done.
Sometimes, though, poetry comes to the rescue, and simply “nails it.” Even as an epigram, a memorable turn of phrase, a witty one-liner, it condenses and intensifies meaning. It resonates.
Poetry doesn’t require a poetic sensibility. Sometimes words, assembled well, can just do it. Even if not conceived as verse, they become poetry through their eloquence and power. Think how long song lyrics linger in the mind and memory, and how often they come back to us.
Which is a roundabout way of setting up my Production Notes’ New Year’s Resolution. Let’s resolve to better know the place where we started
That is, in fact, the mission of this paper: to discover and enjoy the good life. But it’s hard to do with places to go, people to see, and our noses in our phones.
It can be well worth it. The people I’ve been reading from and talking to lately counsel the same basic things: slow down, look up, breathe. Quiet the intellect, open the senses.
Just as poetry represents a different way of seeing, arriving again where we started, and “knowing the place for the first time,” can also work a significant change to our experience.
These are hard times. The revelatory rush of re-knowing our familiar places — their beauty, joy and inspiration — is a poetry we can create for ourselves every moment, every day.
people+place
Coming Home
Fred Baxter arrives where he started
Consider the observation, “You can’t go home again.”
Fred Baxter
Author Thomas Wolfe said it in the 1940s. It’s survived and bounced around as a kind of folk wisdom-meets-contemporary cliche. It’s still subject to debate.
Can you really not go home again? If no, why not? If so, why go?
This is our sub-text for this month’s People+Place: A different way of seeing the places we call home.
Fred Baxter has been walking the residential streets of Longview, Washington’s Old West Side since his boyhood in the 1960s.
“Even back from college I’d always take ‘lake walks’ which wound through these neighborhoods,” he said, “and before I ever decided to take up architecture I was inspired by all these beautiful homes.”
For purposes of both business and pleasure, celebration and preservation, Fred Baxter has come home again.
The Pioneers’ Dream
Many restless Americans in the late 1800s and early 1900s regarded the Pacific Northwest as the country’s last frontier. Most of the continental U.S. had been staked out, railroaded, commercialized.
Those pursuing an American Dream of a better life, and heading west to follow it, had clear priorities: a better job with better pay, an improved quality of life, and finally, and not least importantly, a place to call home.
Even in this still-remote corner of the country, the dreamed-of “good life” aspired beyond the proverbial 40 acres and a mule.
The Pacific Northwest, and Longview in particular, was marketed and hyped as a haven for an emerging middle class, one that might expect their own single-family bungalow, a garden in the back, a bedroom for the kids, and maybe even indoor plumbing.
A chance to make a home of our own.
cont page 18
Developers and architects designed attractive model homes, but most were out of the reach of Longview’s rank and file. Besides its growing reputation as a future industrial center, Longview was also promoting home-based quality of life.
PHotos by fred baxter
PHoto courtesy of longview Public library
“The history of Longview is fascinating,” said Baxter, “So doggone gutsy. And they really did a great job,” he said. “They also did it all very fast, and I think that was stressful.”
Baxter’s book chronicling this era of development — Historic Homes of the Old West Side — is more than local history or nostalgia. “This was very much in tune with the dreams and expectations in the country at large,” he said.
His work offers a useful counterpoint, domestic details often overlooked in the grand stories of the Planned City. Those histories tend to be dominated by the mammoth investment in mills, infrastructure, and commercial buildings, and the economic tribulations of Long-Bell Lumber Company.
Dreams Deferred
Though he’d hoped to practice architecture in Longview, economic necessity drove Baxter north to a
prestigious Seattle firm. Designing skyscrapers put bread on the table, even while he longed to build houses.
His career path changed during one of his traditional lake walks in his home town of Longview.
“When I went out on my own, in Seattle, I got the opportunity to design a Spanish-style home in Windermere, and I started to do research.” He realized that many of the homes in that upscale Seattle neighborhood aspired to styles he’d observed simply walking back and forth to Northlake School in Longview.
“I was back in Longview visiting my parents one weekend, and walking the lake as I often would, and in fact Arch Torbitt’s home was a very good example of a Spanish Colonial home.”
That spectacular Spanish Colonial on Kessler Boulevard (photo at left) was designed by Longview’s foremost
early architect, Archibald Torbitt, better known for designing the public library and numerous other municipal structures in the 20s. “That was the house Torbitt built for himself,” said Baxter.
IT’S LIKE THEY WERE HERE WAITING FOR ME
He describes the revelation as more than just deja vu : “I found myself shaking my head. ‘This is so good, this is great. They’re in beautiful shape,’” he said, “It’s like they were here waiting for me.”
The City Beautiful Baxter ended up settling in Mukilteo, twenty miles north of Seattle, with his wife Jennifer and two sons. Following his retirement from his own independent practice there, he’s traveled extensively, and remained a student of his art, following architects from Frank Gehry to Frank Lloyd Wright.
Archibald Torbitt designed many of Longview’s iconic civic structures, and the handsome Spanish Colonial still standing on Kessler Boulevard for his own residence. Torbitt is known in the profession as Longview’s most influential architect, in his own class with luminaries such as Nichols, Morris, and Vandercook.
Architect Fred Baxter’s Historic Homes of the Old West Side supplements contemporary photos with useful primers on period architecture — including eaves, pillars, roof types, and window treatments, among others.
A Park Family Company A
Longview Pioneer Family
Proud Sponsor of People+Place
We appreciate that Columbia River Reader helps us understand both the places and the people of the Columbia River region. The breadth of CRR’s reporting highlights the interconnections among us — past, present and future.
George and Holly Roe
Illustration by Fred Baxter, from The Historic Homes of the Old West Side
Yet he remained fascinated by Longview. “There is this ongoing debate about the layout of the city,” he said, referring to the diagonal streets and “racetrack” civic circle. “But you see that all the time in Europe, diagonals leading back to nodes. Longview is a perfect example of that.”
And the Old West Side, bordered by Olympia and Washington Ways, the Civic Circle, and the majestic Kessler Boulevard, is not just Southwest Washington’s, but in the humble opinions of many, one of America’s great neighborhoods.
“This had never really been done before,” Baxter said. “Laying out an entire city plan. And I don’t care what people say about confusing streets, I think they were very successful. Many European cities are laid out in a similar fashion.”
Longview histories have highlighted the huge influence of the City Beautiful movement in the early 1900s, led by Frederick Law Olmsted and others, which enshrined values in building and road-making that heavily influenced the city’s founders.
Lake Sacajawea, in particular, exemplifies the splendor of this vision. Baxter refers to it in his book as one of the most beautiful, beloved and wellused urban parklands in the country.
Walking in Style
Few places reward a walk like Lake Sacajawea and its
and being involved in
For information or to donate, call 360-423-6741 or visit linkprogram.org
provided considerable research assistance to his project, and, thanks to the author’s generosity and public spiritedness, the Longview Library Foundation will receive all proceeds from book sales.
Baxter mapped and patiently illustrated the chronology of Old West Side settlement and building. The detailed illustration above has been created exclusively for this history.
Historic Homes of the Old West Side is available for $29.99 online at longviewlibraryfoundation.org or through the QR Code below, Books will be available at the library itself by mid-February, and eventually at online retailers.
Northwest hydropower produces no carbon emissions, thereby significantly reducing the total carbon footprint of the region’s energy production.
Sponsor of
FRED BAXTER SPENT COUNTLESS HOURS in Longview Public Library’s Reading Room. The Library
environs, especially if you’re tuned into even the basics of architectural genre, period, and style.
Both before and briefly after the first World War, the two dominant styles in American homebuilding were the Craftsman and the Bungalow.
“What a bungalow is — it’s basically a low structure, usually a story and a half. Often has dormers, usually has a big porch,” said Baxter, “and it comes from a word meaning ‘a low house for travelers.’”
Ever the architect, he points out that the bungalow is more a “form” than a style. There are bungalows here and abroad in a very great many styles, notably the Craftsman.
“Craftsman highlights the structural elements as decorations,” he said. “Eaves are usually large, not enclosed. Usually there are large columns that may be tapered. The windows often have a unique pattern, divided in half.”
Around and About
Founded in 1923, Longview rode the tail end of the bungalow craze and embraced the national mood of celebration, nostalgia and even grandiosity in the twenties. “Everybody came back to a kind of reminiscing and replicating the styles that had built America,” said Baxter, “various colonial styles — Dutch colonial, Georgian, and a lot of Tudor, and all kind of variations on Tudor — often simply known as period homes.”
Today Longview and its surrounding communities offer a timeless exhibition of evolved American architecture, with its museum-like centerpiece, Longview’s Old West Side.
MANY OLDER HOUSES HAVE BEEN PRESERVED IN OTHER COMMUNITIES
“ This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. - John 15:8
A local huddle is where two or more athletes and coaches meet regularly to grow in their faith, discuss life/sports through a biblical lens, and support each other, happening anywhere from locker rooms to coffee shops, often before or after practices. .
We cannot bear any fruit apart from staying tight to Jesus. Looking for community to help you stay tight to Jesus in the athletic field? Check out local huddle times at https://www.pdxfca.org/cowlitz-county
aroot@fca.org.
“Many older houses have been preserved in other communities,” said Baxter. They are often converted into museums or other living artifacts, and many, notably the Queen Anne and Victorian styles, pre-date Longview’s development by decades.
Part of the plan
For Fred Baxter, Longview represents more than his home town and professional interests.
It’s a planned place, a dedicated space, with aspirations higher than merely the haphazard or efficient.
It’s a part of the Planned City that followed the plan. Flourished. And still does.
“The Old West side is particularly unique by being part of that plan. It was a very focal part of the plan,” said Baxter. “Between the civic center, the lake and the west side, it’s very well defined, with the diagonal streets and boundaries. It’s a major part of Longview that really turned out successfully.”
Interviews are edited for clarity and length.
Hal Calbom, a thirdgeneration Longview native and author of Empire of Trees: America’s Planned City and the Last Frontier, produces CRR’s People+Place monthly feature, and is CRRPress associate publisher.
(E) - Easier: relatively flat ground (up to 5 miles and/or less than 500 ft. e.g.) (M) - Moderate: Longer, more elevation gain (over 5 miles and/or
ft. e.g.) (S) - Strenuous: Long and/or elevation gain (over 8 miles and/or 1200+ ft. e.g.) Call leader to join outing or for more info. Non-members welcome. Driving distances are from Longview, Wash. (SS) – Snow Shoe (XC) – Cross Country Ski (K) – Kayak (B) – Bicycle RT - round trip e.g. - elevation gain
Jan 16 - Fri • Kalama Falls Trail (SS) Drive 108 miles RT. Depending on winter conditions this will either be a snowshoe hike or normal hike of 4 miles RT with 311’ e.g. Leader: John M. 360-508-0878
Jan 21 - Wed • Whipple Creek Park (E) Drive 70 miles RT Hike a 4 mile loop with 190’ e.g. through forest and farmland.
Leader John R. 360-431-1122
Jan 24 - Sat Brownsmead Loop (E) Drive 70 miles RT Walk a 6 mile loop on a paved road with little e.g. through rustic low land.
Leader: Bruce M. 360-425-0256
Jan 28 - Wed • Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge (E) Drive 60 miles RT Walk 5-7 miles RT on a flat paved and gravel trail along the waterfront. This is a scenic area with
Feb 7 - Sat Lake Sacajawea (E) Walk 4 miles on flat ground around the whole lake or any portion for a shorter walk. This walk is designed for super seniors and/or people with physical limitations at a slow pace.
Leader: Susan S. 360-430-9914
Feb 11 - Wed • Rock Creek (E) Drive 120 miles RT Walk 6 miles RT on a paved path with 200’ e.g. past Bethany Lake to Marty Park and back. Shorter distances are possible.
Leader: Bruce M. 360-425-0256
Feb 13 - Fri • Forest Park, Balch Creek, Lower Macleay Trail to Wildwood Trail (M) Drive 100 miles RT to Portland. Parking in a residential area and short walk to trailhead. Hike 6.2 miles in Forest Park with 741’ e.g. Leader: John M. 360-508-0878 white tail deer, eagles and osprey. Bring your binoculars!
Leader: Barbara R. 360-431-1131
Feb 4 - Wed • Lake Sacajawea (E) Walk a 4+ mile loop around the entire lake or walk any segment of the lake trail for a shorter distance. There is very little e.g.
Leader: Chere J. 360-200-3715
sketcH by tHe late deena martinson
Northwest Gardener
Let us grow our own lettuce! It’s easy, rewarding, and tasty! And you can start now!
Lettuce? Boring ol’ lettuce? Why would anyone be eager to grow lettuce when we yearn to grow impressive vegetables like tomatoes ? ! More than likely your tomatoes are no longer in your garden, so “let us” plant something that snickers at the weather.
Lettuce is the foundation for green salad year around. Any small corner of a flower bed will do or you can grow them effortlessly in a container or basket even if you have no garden space.
Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed?
A large selection of lettuces are available from all vegetable seed suppliers. Territorial Seed Company lists 19 lettuce varieties and lettuce blends. With so many choices, it is hard to decide which to grow. I grew “Drunken Woman Frizzy Headed” because the name made me laugh out loud. I soon discovered this ruffled butterhead lettuce also tastes great and the rosy tips of the leaves are attractive in a fresh green salad.
Seed can be sown year around I like to sow the first crop around the end of January for planting outside in March. Lightly sprinkle a few seeds on the top of moist soil. Barely conceal the seed with additional soil and then cover with plastic wrap. (If you plan to keep your lettuce in a pot or basket, you can directly sow the seed into this container.) Germinate the seed in a place with good light and moderate heat. When the seed sprouts, remove the plastic and keep moist until ready to transplant. Use a mild houseplant fertilizer to feed them at this time. Repeat sowings every three weeks to have fresh plants to replenish your crop as you harvest throughout the season. Consider alternating varieties so that there is something different coming along all the time.
My last sowing is around the first of September. Transplants mature slowly and in late winter are a welcome bit of fresh greens. With an old comforter for protection, these plants will survive the coldest winter temperatures. In a sun room or atrium you would be able to grow lettuce to harvest year-round. Lettuce seed will keep for several years if sealed in a plastic bag and kept in the vegetable bin in the refrigerator. Be aware that the germination rate will fall as the seed ages. Sow a little heavier for older seed so you won’t be disappointed.
Transplanting
The seedlings can be transplanted to the garden when they have two to three sets of adult leaves. Give them some exposure to outside temperatures for a few days to avoid transplant shock. Select an area that gets some sun for part of the day. Mid-summer lettuce crops can grow with quite a bit of shade. Apply an organic, natural based fertilizer to the soil and work it into the top 4 inches before placing the seedlings. Space according to package directions, although I find that 6 to 8 inches apart prevents weeds from germinating. I can then harvest every other lettuce as the plants mature.
Care
Keep plants well watered and watch for slugs. Be sure to use slug bait that is registered for use in vegetable gardens. However, young slugs are not likely to feed on slug bait. Fortunately they do not leave a slime trail, nor do they eat very much. Picking them off is simple on a misty morning and they wash easily down the drain when rinsing your lettuce as you prepare your salad. Be thorough because some folks are less than thrilled to find a “gatecrasher” on their dinner plate.
Good enough to eat!
You can begin to harvest the outer leaves of your lettuce when you see leaves the size you would like in a salad. Popular gourmet “baby greens” are available year-round at supermarkets. You will soon have these tender leaves right outside your door for convenient picking on a daily basis! The center of the plant will continue to grow (see photo above) .With a twist and pull, you can snap the heart of the lettuce out without disturbing the core. The center will then continue to grow and the lettuce will recover to be harvested once again. Baskets and containers can be trimmed with scissors at any age. These “cut and come again” methods assure harvest of tender greens for several weeks. Eventually the plants will become woody and stressed. They will bolt and go to seed. Compost these and replace with the next crop you have coming along.
Lovely leafy greens
Lettuce with every lunch and dinner will give you multiple opportunities to consume those “5 to 6 servings” of tasty leafy greens a day.
Growing your own lettuce is easy, rewarding and tasty and it’s good for you!
and her husband, Jim, operated a landscaping business and independent nursery/garden center for 20+ years. She wrote CRR’s Northwest Gardener in CRR’s early years. After a hiatus, she rejoined CRR to reconnect us with some of her favorite gardening topics. Nancy is founder of “Castle
volunteers.
Nancy Chennault
Rock Blooms” community team of
Story and photos by Nancy Chennault
Seedlings at 10 weeks; below: Drunken Woman seedlings, 6 weeks
Above: Paradise Blend; below: regrowth at the plant’s center.
Romaine
Rainy Afternoon Magic
Uncomplicated games, crafts make for all-age indoor fun
By Tiffany Dickinson
Blustery days with kids can be loads of fun. Remember when we passed the time playing games and doing crafts? I loved indoor games as a kid, as a parent, and now as a grandparent. Here are a few ideas to get your creative gaming juices flowing.
Although Charades is always a favorite, one of my go-to active inside games is called “50 Ways to Cross the Room.” Best done in an empty large room (or with furniture pushed against the walls), it’s simple and perfect for every age and physical ability. Starting with the youngest, the first person crosses the room however they want.
Ideas include hopping backwards, crab crawling, rolling, skipping, cartwheels, and more. Make it complicated as you want, with routines like clap, skip, turn around, do a cartwheel, then do it over again. After the player gets across the room, everyone else must follow suit the best they can. Falls and laughter are guaranteed.
My favorite memories of this game were when our highly flexible gymnastics daughter would require us to do splits (trying was good fun) and when we were moving the next day across country and our college-aged son and his girlfriend joined in. They are happily married, so obviously we didn’t scare her too much.
My last birthday party included guests aged 2 to 78 years. The theme is easy in October. One game for all ages involved a blank piece of paper and a writing implement. We closed our eyes for up to two minutes and drew Jack-o’-lanterns. Our drawings were unexpectedly accurate, and some were rather inadvertently creepy. We also played “toss the pumpkin,” the “pumpkins” being
Cheese Balls (Cheetos in sphere form). Teams of two had to toss the cheese ball into their teammate’s mouth. I think the “basket” record was three. Lots of laughter with that one, AND it was the dogs’ favorite game.
Inter-generational teams
When we have larger family gatherings and we want to play something more adult, like Apples to Apples, we often team up the young ones with an older person. They “work” together getting cards and making decisions. Speaking of board games, classics like Chess and Checkers continue to be favored with the younger set and are great strategic skill builders.
Our six-year-old granddaughter retaught me a card game called Palace. Despite our age difference we could comfortably play it together. Palace teaches counting and the concepts of greater and less than. There’s not much strategy, but if you’re not paying attention, you can lose. We practiced math skills when playing knock-rummy and cribbage with our kids. These games can impart the fact that numbers are important and that they can be fun too.
We want to nurture fun-loving good sports who have wonderful memories
of playing with adults. If we adults are super-competitive, or rule absolutists, forget the fun. Recently, I played a board game with several junior family members, and one of the older boys was cheating mercilessly. The little kids didn’t notice and were having a great time. Rather than call him out and force everybody to FOLLOW THE RULES, I just chuckled to myself and continued playing. Of course, there are times to hold kids accountable, but that wasn’t it. He’ll learn soon enough that no one wants to play with cheaters.
A Crafty Alternative
If games are not your cup of tea, here’s a craft you can do with any kid (or kidult) who can fold paper and use a crayon. Mini-books, often called “zines,” are popular right now. They can be super fancy, with stickers and embellishments and entire stories in them, or they can be simply some pictures and words. All you need is an 8 ½ x 11-inch blank sheet of paper, preferably computer weight, and a pair of scissors. Fold it a few times, cut it, fold it again, and voila! You have a mini-book (see step-by-step, below).
With creativity and flexibility, you can fill gloomy days with the sunshine of laughter and learning, enjoying times with the young ones we love. I wish you many sunny days ahead. Even when it rains.
When Pacific Northwest native Tiffany Dickinson is not playing games with her family, she writes fiction for kids and nonfiction for adults. You can find her stories in Columbia River Reader, Lower Columbia College’s Salal Review, at online bookstores everywhere, and at www.tiffanydickinson.com. Her first young adult novel will be published this spring.
Join Local Award
1 2 3 4
Step
with the slit). Holding the paper at both ends, push the ends in toward each other.
for a Hands-On Workshop High Schoolers.
• Choosing a Setting
• Developing Characters
Step 4: The sections should fold into each other to form an eight-page booklet with a shared “spine.” Now fill in your blank booklet and turn it into a zine!
• Weaving Themes Saturday April 26 City Council
This is a free program of
Step 1: Fold a sheet of paper in half; Fold again into quarters, and then one more time so it is folded into eighths.
Step 2: Open the paper so that it is folded in half. Cut halfway across the middle from the fold. When you open the paper it should have a slit in the middle.
3: Fold the paper lengthwise (along the crease
“50 Ways to Cross a Room” is one of Tiffany’s preferred games over traditional Charades.
Above: Mini-book group project by CRR’s proofreaders, while on the job. If you notice more errors than usual in this issue, this could explain it.
Submission Guidelines
Letters to the Editor (up to 200 words) relevant to the publication’s purpose — helping readers discover and enjoy the good life in the Columbia River region, at home and on the road — are welcome. Longer pieces, or excerpts thereof, in response to previously-published articles, may be printed at the discretion of the publisher and subject to editing and space limitations.
Items sent to CRR will be considered for publication unless the writer specifies otherwise. Writer’s name and phone number must be included; anonymous submissions will not be considered.
Political Endorsements CRR is a monthly publication serving readers in several towns, three counties, two states and beyond, and does not publish Letters to the Editor that are endorsements or criticisms of political candidates or controversial issues. (Paid ad space is available.)
Unsolicited submissions may be considered, provided they are consistent with the publication’s purpose. Advance contact with the editor is recommended. Information of general interest submitted by readers may be used as background or incorporated in future articles.
Outings & Events calendar (free listing): Events must be open to the public. Non-profit organizations and the arts, entertainment, educational and recreational opportunities and community cultural events will receive listing priority. Fundraisers must be sanctioned/sponsored by the benefiting non-profit organization. Commercial projects, businesses and organizations wishing to promote their particular products or services are invited to purchase advertising.
ADVERTISING Deadlines, see page 7 Ned Piper, Manager 360-749-2632 nedpiper@gmail.com
General inquiries: publisher@crreader.com 360-749-1021
HOW TO PUBLICIZE YOUR NONPROFIT EVENT IN CRR
Send your non-commercial community event info (incl name of event, non-profit beneficiary/sponsor, date & time, location, brief description and contact info) to publisher@crreader.com
Or mail or hand-deliver (in person or via mail slot) to: Columbia River Reader 1333 14th, Longview, WA 98632
Submission Deadlines
Events occurring:
Feb 15 – March 20, 2026 by Jan 26 for Feb 15 issue
Mar 15 – April 20, 2026 by Feb 25 for Mar 15 issue
Calendar submissions are considered for inclusion, subject to lead time, relevance to readers, and space limitations.
See Submission Guidelines above.
Photography Display by Hans Schaufus
Through January, featuring a retro theme of approx 30 black/white photos taken from 1967 until recent years. Koth Gallery, Longview Public Library, 1600 Louisiana (on Longview’s Civic Circle). Hours: M-Tues, 9am–7pm; Wed-Th 9am–6pm; Sat, 9am–5pm.
THE MINTHORN COLLECTION OF INTERNATIONAL ART
A gift to the community from Dr. and Mrs. H. Minthorn via Lower Columbia College Foundation, The Minthorn Collection of Chinese Art encompasses a wide range of styles and is displayed in the upper level of the Forsberg Gallery in LCC’s Rose Center, open M-Th 10–3. Free.
Outings & Events
Oregon Symphony Jan 17–18.Beethoven’s “Eroica.” Arleen Schnitzer Concert Hall, Portland. Info & tickets: orsymphony.org, Box office 503-228-1353, M-F 10am–8pm.
sQuatch Fest+Galactic Fest . Jan 30-31. Cowlitz County Event Center. Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce. Celebration of all things mysterious, cosmic and fun. Info: KelsoLongviewchamber.org
Rainier Senior Center Bake Sale Mon, Feb 9, 11am–1pm The public is invited to help support the Nutrition Program and Home-delivered meals. (Donors of baked goods: Please bring baked items to the center by 10am) 48 West 7 and A Sts. Inside of the Rainier Riverfront Center. Info: 503-556- 3889
Probate – Where There’s a Will or Not Christine Cohen, genealogist and lecturer
Mount St. Helens Club HIKES
Family Fun AT THE THEATRE!
from the Whittier Area Genealogy Society, speaker at the Lower Columbia Genealogical Society’s February 12th Zoom meeting (note time change). Virtual doors open 9:30am. Speaker’s program begins 10:00am. The public is invited to attend. Please consider joining LCGS for $20/yr. For a link to join the meeting or to join the Society, contact lcgsgen@yahoo.com 24hrs prior to the event.
Cinderella Feb 25, 7pm. World Ballet Theatre spectacular Broadway-style production of beloved fairy tale in classic ballet. Columbia Theatre for the Peforming Arts, 1231 Vandercook Way, Longview Wash. Ticket price range approx $60–100. columbiatheatre.com, box office M-F 11:30–5:30, phone 360-575-8499. Kiosk 2 hours prior to showtime.
Friday, Jan 23rd •7:30pm
Tickets: Adult $25; Senior/ Students $23, Child $20
CLATSKANIE ARTS COMMISSION Performance at Birkenfeld Theatre, Clatskanie Cultural Center, Clatskanie, Ore.
Soups, Sandwiches, & Pie, Eat In or To Go Quilt Consignments, Arts & Crafts Vendors
34721 Church Rd., Warren OR
BROADWAY GALLERY
1418 Commerce Avenue, Longview Tues thru Sat, 11–4. Visit the Gallery to see new work. For event updates check our website: the-broadway-gallery. com, at Broadway Gallery on Facebook, and Broadway Gallery Longview on Instgram.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Jan New Gallery Members
Feb Guest artist Chris Artist (painting & 3D Art
See ad, page XX
by Hal Calbom
INFO: Chris, 503-888-7540
FIRST THURSDAY Feb 5 • 5:30–7pm Join us for music & refreshments
Check out our new Winter Classes, Workshops, and Paint & Sips by visiting our gallery or our website.
OPEN Tues - Sat 11–4
Free Gift Wrap on request.
Voted one of top 3 Galleries in SW Washington. Jan. 17-31 Studio Clearance Sale
Find a unique gift! We have beautiful artisan cards, jewelry, books by local authors, wearable art, original paintings, pottery, sculpture, photographs and so much more.
in the spotlight
Virtuoso Visit
She reflects the classical piano culture that nurtured her, but still leavens her Liszt with laughter and her Chopin with cheer.
This month the incomparable Tien Hsieh joins us… IN THE SPOTLIGHT...
World-class pianist shares the stage
This will be a night to remember.
Taiwan-born Tien Hsieh, who’s played the world’s great stages, pays an intimate visit to Longview via Columbia Theatre’s Stage Door Concert series Saturday, January 31st.
“I’m so excited by this format,” she told me in a recent phone conversation.
“I understand it’s a cafe-like setting, the audience right there with me on the stage. How fun!”
Hsieh (pronounced “Shay”) looks for any opportunity to overcome the various stereotypes attached to classical performers, their intimidating repertoire, and the aficionados in concert halls and opera houses often known for, let’s admit it, a certain highbrow attitude.
Hal Calbom is associate publisher with CRRPress, and produces CRR’s monthly “People+Place” feature, see page 27.
Tien cites her own experience as transcending those images. Her parents brought her to California at age nine, educating her in the conventional conservatory track, but also offering her a diverse set of experiences including seven years in New York City. cont page 26
IF YOU GO
Tien Hsieh
STAGE DOOR SERIES
Thurs, Jan 31 • 7:30pm
Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts 1231 Vandercook Way
Longview, Wash.
Tickets online or by phone, 360-575-8499, Box Office 11:30am–5:30pm M-F, and kiosk two hours before performances. columbiatheatre.com
15, 2026 / Columbia River
PHoto: nor cal candids
My View
At Least Give the Man a Nickel
Does Robert Gray deserve a commemorative coin?
By Brandon Ford
When you do an Internet search for Capt. Robert Gray, not much comes up; there are a couple of pretty good articles, one on an Oregon Pioneers website and another on Wikipedia.
The Wikipedia article mentions four elementary and two middle schools in Washington and Oregon that are named after him. He also has a harbor, a bay, a river and a small unincorporated town in Washington and a street in his hometown of Tiverton, Rhode Island, named after him. Not bad for a one-eyed merchant sea captain who died more than two centuries ago. But given his list of accomplishments, it’s not nearly enough.
Gray was not only the first American to sail around the world, but the second, as well. At the time there were only a handful of sea captains in the world who could claim a circumnavigation. He was also the first American to round Cape Horn. The first American to visit the Sandwich Islands. One of the first to China. But what will forever make Gray the pivotal character in Northwest history are his discoveries that established America’s claim to what is now Oregon and Washington. Without Gray’s discovery of the Columbia River, Grays Harbor and the Chehalis River in 1793, the United States would not have had a legitimate claim to the Northwest. The fact that he discovered Tillamook Bay in 1788 doesn’t hurt, either.
In 2005, during the bicentennial commemoration of Lewis and Clark, there was scarcely a mention of Gray’s discoveries. To the uninformed it may have appeared Lewis and Clark were the ones who established the U.S. claim to the Northwest. Some may have even thought they discovered the Columbia River by the back door. While their work cemented U.S. claims, it was Gray who made the all-important initial discoveries in the Northwest. Surely, the
meticulous George Vancouver would have gotten around to discovering the Columbia had Gray not beaten him to it. Then we’d all be speaking Canadian.
During his lifetime, Gray’s discoveries brought him little renown and he continued to ply his trade as a merchant sea captain. It was on one of those voyages in 1806 that Gray died, probably of yellow fever. Forty years after his death Gray’s widow petitioned the U.S. Congress for a pension based on his service in the Continental Navy and his discoveries.
Part of the petition reads, “neither her late husband during his lifetime, nor his family since his decease, have received the slightest pecuniary benefit from the great discovery … your honorable body is spreading before the world the claims of the United States to a vast territory of immense value and founding these claims, to a great extent, upon a discovery made by the energy and the perseverance of one of her citizens...”
Whether Martha Gray got her pension or not, Gray has been overlooked long
enough. During the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial in 2005, the U.S. Mint struck a nickel commemorating the Corps of Discovery. Doesn’t Gray deserve at least that?
Brandon Ford worked as a writer and editor for daily and weekly newspapers before becoming a “PR guy,” but only for organizations whose missions he truly believed in. The first was the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport. Later, he was a public information officer for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Marine Resources Program that managed and regulated the state’s salt-water fisheries. At 61, he quit to sail to Southern California, Mexico, and Hawaii for two years on a 50-year-old sailboat that he and his wife rebuilt. He continued to live aboard Oceanus for another five years in Olympia, Wash., before moving to Longview, Wash., to be near family.
“I loved New York,” she said, “and, frankly, I hung out more with the jazzers than the classicals. It was a looser group. Besides, I didn’t want to practice eight to ten hours a day.”
She looks forward to the intimacy afforded by the Stage Door Series format. “I always talk between the pieces,” she said, “I love to establish that rapport with the audience, and it sounds like this is the ideal chance to do that, face to face.”
Stage Door Concert performances put tables and chairs on stages with the performer, serve refreshments, and encourage a club-like atmosphere. And, as the name suggests, both audience and artist enter through the fabled stage door itself.
I asked Tien about the rigor and competition in China.
“You wouldn’t believe the piano culture there. Playing piano is more popular than sports.”
Classical instruction focuses on the Western canon. “Almost totally,” said Tien, who laughs easily and often. “My mom took her lessons from Dr. Schultz. How’s that for a good Chinese name!”
Tien promises a special program for her Longview performance. “I’ve got 11 composers to showcase, mostly shorter pieces.” Besides Bach and Beethoven, she’ll play a collection of Chopin Preludes and present five lesser known pieces by selected female composers.
Tien seems to have the best of both worlds: trained in a rigorous piano culture — “They consider the piano great brain training!” — but schooled ultimately in America, and performing around the world.
“I can’t wait to meet the people on stage!”
“Columbia in a Squall” by george davidson, artist Painter wHo served aboard tHe Columbia Rediviva
UIPS & QUOTES Q
Selected by Debra Tweedy
Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.
--Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance polymath, 1452-1519
The awakening of consciousness is not unlike the crossing of a frontier — one step and you are in another country.
--Adrienne Rich, American writer and feminist, 1929-2012
When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it is best to let him run.
--Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.
--Charles Dickens, English novelist and social critic, 1812–1870.
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.
--Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, 1875-1961
My advice is: Go outside, to the country, enjoy the sun and all nature has to offer. Try to recapture the happiness within yourself and God; think of all the beauty in yourself and in everything around you and be happy.
--Anne Frank, diarist and Holocaust victim, 1929-1945
I will prepare, and someday my chance will come.
--Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.
--George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and critic, 1856-1950
If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.
“We can’t turn our backs on people like George Washington. We can’t take them for granted.”
Writing posthumously through the editorial guidance of his daughter and decades-long research assistant, History Matters brings David McCullough’s wit and storytelling zeal to life, transforming a hodgepodge of personal essays and speeches into a written tapestry encapsulating McCullough’s life work.
In the forward, historian Jon Meacham summarizes McCullough’s creed, if you will, that history is driven by the actions and beliefs of individuals, not monotheistic chess moves or grand designs from the heavens. “Because of David McCullough, we know a great deal, and we also know where to look to find the most important things: at ourselves. For history is not dead, but living; history is not past, but unfolding.”
A Pacific Northwest native, Tom now resides in Texas Hill Country with his wife, Joanna, and 4-month-old daughter, Vivienne. Tom and Joanna’s golden retrievers, Wilbur and Winston, have made prior appearances in the CRR. And Tom and Joanna have contributed occasional stories to CRR, as well.
Rose
McCullough’s first book, The Johnstown Flood, was written on a secondhand typewriter he subsequently used for all his published works. McCullough twice won the Pulitzer Prize for presidential biographies of Harry S. Truman and John Adams, the latter transformed into a critically-acclaimed HBO miniseries. Nonetheless, McCullough was not one to sit on his laurels.
ATTENTION READERS
Read a good book lately? Share your impressions and thoughts with other CRR readers. Email alan@alan-rose.com or publisher@crreader.com for info. Writers and non-writers welcome, editing services provided, and can be based on phone miniinterview if preferred.
Much like his longstanding subject, John Adams, McCullough’s inexhaustible drive for knowledge and betterment of mankind comprised the essence of his character.
“To be indifferent to history isn’t just to be ignorant, it’s often to be rude, to show a form of ingratitude,” writes McCullough. Echoing William Manchester’s biographical grandeur with Twain’s moral compass, McCullough’s juxtaposition of essays offer a refreshing optimism to our present turmoil. With McCullough, history does matter.
Financial strategies
Bank Building 20 Cowlitz Street West Mon-Sat 8:30–5 • Sun 10–4 360-916-1377
Longview native Debra Tweedy has lived on four continents. She and her husband returned to her hometown in recent years, largely due to Lake Sacajawea and the Longview Public Library. The two have -recently relocated to Springville, Utah, to be near family. This is her final Quips & Quotes column. “I will treasure my years of working on the Reader and being part of the Proofreading Posse. I miss you all and wish you all happy travels”.
Lemiere CFP®
PAPERBACK FICTION
1. Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir, Ballantine, $22
2. Remarkably Bright
Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt, Ecco, $19.99
3. The God of the Woods
Liz Moore, Riverhead Books, $19
4. I Who Have Never Known Men
Jacqueline Harpman, Transit Books, $16.95
5. The Thursday Murder Club
Richard Osman, Penguin, $18
6. Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell, Vintage, $19
7. North Woods
Daniel Mason, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $18
8. Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Perennial, $21.99
9. Martyr!
Kaveh Akbar, Vintage, $18
10. Playground
Richard Powers, W. W. Norton & Company, $19.99
Brought to you by Book Sense and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, dated Dec. 28, 2025, based on reporting from the independent bookstores of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. For the Book Sense store nearest you, visit www.booksense.com
PAPERBACK NON-FICTION
1. On Tyranny
Timothy Snyder, Crown, $14
2. Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed Editions, $22
3. The Wager
David Grann, Vintage, $21
4. The Wide Wide Sea Hampton Sides, Vintage, $19
5. Monsters of the Pacific Northwest Jessica Freeburg, Natalie Fowler, Adventure Publications, $9.95
6. The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Amy Tan, Knopf, $36
7. Meditations for Mortals
Oliver Burkeman, Picador, $19
8. How to Know a Person
David Brooks, Random House Trade Paperbacks, $20
9. Edible Plants of the Pacific Northwest
Natalie Hammerquist, Mountaineers Books, $24.95
10. The Body Keeps the Score Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., Penguin, $19
1. The Correspondent
Virginia Evans, Crown, $28
2. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Kiran Desai, Hogarth, $32
3. Dungeon Crawler
Carl Matt Dinniman, Ace, $30
4. The Secret of Secrets
Dan Brown, Doubleday, $38
5. James Percival Everett, Doubleday, $28
6. Heart the Lover
Lily King, Grove Press, $28
7. Katabasis
R. F. Kuang, Harper Voyager, $32
8. Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan, Grove Press, $20
9. Flesh
David Szalay, Scribner, $28.99
10. Dog Show: Poems
Billy Collins, Pamela Sztybel (Illus.), Random House
1. Always Remember Charlie Mackesy, Penguin Life, $27
2. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Omar El Akkad, Knopf, $28
3. The Serviceberry Robin Wall Kimmerer, John Burgoyne (Illus.), Scribner, $20
4. 1929 Andrew Ross Sorkin, Viking, $35
5. Good Things Samin Nosrat, Random House, $45
6. Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy Mary Roach, W. W. Norton & Company, $28.99
7. Six Seasons of Pasta Joshua McFadden, Artisan, $40
8. Ursula K. Le Guin’s Book of Cats
Ursula K. Le Guin, Library of America, $16.95
9. The Creative Act: A Way of Being Rick Rubin, Penguin Press, $32
10. Separation of Church and Hate John Fugelsang, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, $29.99
Top 10 Bestsellers
1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Dr. Seuss, Random House Books for Young Readers, $19.99
2. Hansel and Gretel
Stephen King, Maurice Sendak (Illus.), HarperCollins, $26.99
3. How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney? Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen (Illus.), Candlewick, $18.99
4. This Book Is Dangerous! (A Narwhal and Jelly Picture Book) Ben Clanton, Tundra Books, $19.99
5. The Christmas Sweater
Jan Brett, G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, $19.99
6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Eric Carle, World of Eric Carle, $10.99
7. Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown, Clement Hurd (Illus.), Harper, $10.99
8. The Snowy Day
Ezra Jack Keats, Viking Books for Young Readers, $19.99
9. Where’s Waldo? The Perfect Present Hunt Martin Handford, Candlewick, $6.99,
10. A Snow Day for Amos McGee
Philip C. Stead, Erin E. Stead (Illus.), Roaring Brook Press, $19.99
1. The Poisoned King (Impossible Creatures #2)
Katherine Rundell, Ashley Mackenzie (Illus.), Knopf Books for Young Readers, $19.99
2. Hatchet
Gary Paulsen, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, $9.99
3. From the World of Percy Jackson Rick Riordan, Mark Oshiro, Disney Hyperion, $21.99
4. The Lost Library
Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass, Square Fish, $8.99
5. Scarlet Morning ND Stevenson, Quill Tree Books, $19.99
6. Winging It
Megan Wagner Lloyd, Michelle Mee Nutter (Illus.), Graphix, $14.99
7. A Wrinkle in Time
Madeleine L’Engle, Square Fish, $8.99
8. Origin Nat Cardozo, Red Comet Press, $25.99,
9. A Wolf Called Wander Rosanne Parry, Greenwillow Books, $9.99
BOOK REVIEW Maybe death isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
By Alan Rose
W,W, Norton Co.
$18.95
Paperback
Every soul is allowed seven moons to wander the In Between. To recall past lives. And then, to forget. They want you to forget. Because, when you forget, nothing changes.
This is an extraordinary book. It has been on my To-Be-Read list since 2022, when it won the Booker Prize. It is a book of ideas—profound ideas, comical ideas, terrifying ideas—all wrapped in the guise of a murder mystery that’s also a ghost story that’s
also a satire on the human condition. Not surprising, it’s also a challenging read.
It takes place in Colombo in 1989, during the brutal Sri Lankan civil war. This is familiar Joseph Conrad territory (The Heart of Darkness) echoing humanity’s timeless lament, “The horror, the horror.” It’s rarely good guys vs. bad guys, just people doing terrible things to other people, and taking turns being victims.
Maali Almeida is a dead war photographer who can’t remember how he died or who killed him. He had taken photos of massacres, incriminating both sides, and now has seven moons (days) to solve the mystery of his murder and to guide the living to where he hid the photos.
He does this in the Bardo, the inbetween state between life and death in Tibetan culture. It is a realm filled with grieving, vengeful, and vindictive spirits. Maali is led, sometimes misled,
Alan’s haunting novel of the AIDS epidemic, As If Death Summoned, won the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award (LGBT category). He organizes the monthly Word Fest gathering (info on facing page). Reach him at www.alan-rose.com.
This time, the pain swipes at your gullet, it chokes you as you remember things you had tried to forget. How scared you were on your first assignment for the army, how hurt you were when your father left, and how disappointed you were to wake up in hospital after overdosing. How much the twenty-nineyear-old you, the eleven-year-old you and the seventeen-year-old you would’ve hated each other. And how the dead you loathes them all.
-- from The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
by guides—the immediately past dead, various spirits and demons. Here time is not linear; it turns back, leaps forward, twists in upon itself.
There’s a lot of humor, although a bleak, sardonic kind of humor: Maali encounters a drag queen who committed suicide. She explains, “I did it because I was sad. That’s what most of us are, you see. But I also did
it because I was Buddhist. I thought reincarnation was cheaper than paying for a sex change.”
This book will probably be enjoyed most by those who remember their dreams, because it has the structure, logic, and feel of a dream, at once familiar and bizarre, surreal and revelatory. Like most magic realism, it’s a trip without drugs. Think Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children or the works of Gabriel Garcia Márquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude).
Peppered throughout are tantalizing ideas, on history (“History is people with ships and weapons wiping out those who forgot to invent them”), on the soul and personal identity (“You are not the you that you think you are… You are everything you have thought and done and been and seen.”), on the perpetual and perpetuating religious conflicts (“Everyone should pray to Whoever [i.e., one generic name for the divine]. Then no one gets offended.”
And perhaps the most unsettling idea of all: that death is not final. That the horror doesn’t end with one’s dying.
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
Clatskanie, Ore.
Fultano’s Pizza
770 E. Columbia River Hwy
Family style with unique pizza offerings, hot grill items & more!
Dine-in,Take-out and Home Delivery. Visit Fultanos.com for streamlined menu. 503-728-2922
Ixtapa Fine Mexican Restaurant
640 E. Columbia River Hwy
Fine Mexican cuisine. Daily specials. The best margarita in town. Daily drink specials. Dine-in, curbside pickup. M-Th 11am–9:30pm; Fri & Sat 11am–10:30pm; Sun 11am–9pm. 503-728-3344
119 E. “B” St., (Hwy 30) Crab Louie/Crab cocktails, crab-stuffed avocados. 17 hot and cold sandwiches. Amazing crab sandwiches. Full bar service. Catering for groups. 503-556-9950. interstatetavern@yahoo.com
El Tapatio
117 W. ‘A’ Street
Mexican Family Restaurant. Open Fri-Sat 11am-11pm, rest of week 11am-10pm. Full bar. 8-11pm. Patio seating. 503-556-8323.
Longview, Wash.
1335 14th Avenue
18 rotating craft brews, pub fare. M-Th 11am–9pm. Fri-Sat 11am–10pm. Local music coming soon. 360-232-8283. Wine Wednesdays: $5 pours.
Formerly The Carriage Restaurant & Lounge located on 14th Ave. 3353 Washington Way Chinese & American cuisine. Full bar, banquet room stage room with balcony; available for groups, special events. Restaurant: 11am–9pm, Lounge 11am–1:00am. 360-425-8680.
In the Merk (1339 Commerce Ave., #113) 360-998-2139. Mon-Fri 8am–4pm. Specialty coffees, teas, bubble teas and pastries....drinks with a smile. Takeout and on-site.
COLUMBIA RIVER dining guide
Freddy’s Just for the Halibut 1110 Commerce Ave. Cod, Alaskan halibut fish and chips, award-winning clam chowder. Burgers, steaks, pasta. Beer and wine. M-Wed 10am–8pm, Th-Sat 10am–9pm, Sunday 11am–8pm. Inside dining, Drive-thru, outdoor seating. 360-414-3288. See ad, page 28.
Hop N Grape 924 15th Ave., Longview Tues–Thurs 11am–8pm; Fri & Sat 11am–9pm. BBQ meat slowcooked on site. Pulled pork, chicken, brisket, ribs, turkey, salmon. Worldfamous mac & cheese. 360-577-1541.
Kyoto Sushi Steakhouse 760 Ocean Beach Hwy, Suite J 360-425-9696.
Japanese food, i.e. Hibachi, Bento boxes, Teppanyaki; Sushi.
Mon-Th 11-2:30, 4:30-9:30. Fri-Sat 11am10pm. Sun 11am-9pm. 360-425-9696.
Lynn’s Deli & Catering
1133 14th Ave.
Soups & sandwiches, specializing in paninis, box lunches, deli sandwiches and party platters. Mon-Fri 8-3, Saturday 10-2. 360-577-5656
OMELETTES & MORE
3120 Washington Way
Open 7am – 1:30pm. Closed Christmas Day. Home-cooked comfort foods. Breakfast & lunch classics. Dine in or order online at omelettesandmore.com. 10% Senior Discount everyday. 360-425-9260.
Vault Books & Brew 20 Cowlitz Street West, Castle Rock. Coffee and specialty drinks, quick eats & sweets. See ad, page 26
Kalama, Wash.
LUCKMAN’S COFFEE Mountain Timber Market, Port of Kalama. Open 8am–7pm. 360-673-4586.
215 N. Hendrickson Dr., Port of Kalama. A Northwest pub and unique bars serving breakfast, lunch & dinner daily. Info & reservations, bar hours at mcmenamins.com. 8am–midnight daily. 360673-9210. Indoor dining, covered outdoor seating.
Antique Deli 413N. First. M-F, 10–3. Call for daily sandwich special. 360-673-3310.
FIRESIDE CAFE
5055 Meeker Dr., Kalama. Open Wed-Sun, 9–4. 360-673-3473.
St. Helens, Ore.
Sunshine Pizza & Catering 2124 Columbia Blvd. Hot pizza, cool salad bar. Beer & wine. Limited inside seating, curbside pickup and delivery. 503-397-3211 See ad, page 8.
Big River Tap Room 313 Strand Street on the Riverfront. Lunch/Dinner TueThurs 12–8pm; Fri-Sat 12–9pm. Chicagostyle hot dogs, Italian beef, pastrami. Weekend Burrito Breakfast, Sat 8-11, Sun 8am-3pm.
Scappoose, Ore.
Fultano’s Pizza 51511 SE 2nd. Family style with unique pizza offerings, hot grill items & more! “Best pizza around!” Sun–Th 11:30am–9pm; Fri-Sat 11:30am–10pm. Full bar service ‘til 10pm Fri & Sat. Deliveries in Scappoose. 503-543-5100. Inside Dining.
Ixtapa Fine Mexican Restaurant 33452 Havlik Rd. Fine Mexican cuisine. Daily specials. The best margarita in town. Daily drink specials. M-Th 11am–9:30pm; Fri & Sat 11am–11:30pm; Sun 11am–9pm. 503-543-3017
Warren, Ore.
Warren Country Inn 56575 Columbia River Hwy. Fine family dining.
Toutle, Wash.
The Klondike
The Klondike 71 Cowlitz St, Historic Riverfront District. Steaks, seafood, burgers. Daily specials M-Th. Catering. Full bar. klondiketavern.com. 503-396-5036.
Ned Piper assists with CRR, inside out and all around the edges.
All Fall Down
Along the river shore lies a forest of boards, salmon-red and brown, bobbing on the high gray tide, soaking them a little darker than their faded state, as if the river splintered into kindling to feed the fire, the cold fire of the flotsam with all that’s left of Altoona Cannery. Waves flap at its wreckage, slapping the remnants of broad floors whose pilings gave way when the land’s loose logs came down. The flood that took this house of salmon was time.
A wedge of geese flies over Megler Bridge, across the far reach. One more old one down, one more forest to the sea, in a land where the sea is cheap and all the rest is long gone.
LOWER COLUMBIA: CANNERIES
Between 1866 and 1870, 35 canneries on the Lower Columbia packed more than 60,000 cases of salmon yearly, 48 pounds per case. Difficult and labor-intensive businesses, canneries were plagued with contentious issues, including use of immigrant workers and struggles over wages and union representation.
This page and pg. 8 feature excerpts from
WORDS AND WOOD PACIFIC NORTHWEST WOODCUTS AND HAIKU
Hooded Merganser
Proper formal wear
A real beauty to behold
His mate not so much
by Debby Neely
EMPIRE OF TREES
by Hal Calbom
AMERICA’S PLANNED CITY AND THE LAST FRONTIER
Staying Dry
Among the Longview mills’ most prominent features were the immense drying sheds, where sawn and shaped lumber, still “green” and wet with moisture, dried out. Despite the lavish civic architecture, and innovative layout, it was the colossal mills that dominated the landscape, the phenomenon that defined the new town:
In a bare four years the mill itself rose. Long-Bell by 1926 had invested $19 million in it, a complex of Olympian proportions. If the sawmill was not the largest in the world, as the company claimed, its size and equipment astounded observers, prompting one Pacific Northwest lumber entrepreneur to exclaim, “Everything is on such a mammoth scale it knocks the ordinary lumberman completely off his feet.”
Lenore Bradley Robert Alexander Long
CRRPRESS was founded in 2020, with the first printing of Tidewater Reach, followed by Dispatches from the Discovery Trail (see current episode, page 5), Empire of Trees, Words and Wood, and A Lifetime of Art. Purchase info, see page 2, 35.
Poem by Robert Michael Pyle • Photograph by Judy VanderMaten • Production Note by Hal Calbom
Where do you read
THE READER?
Valley of the Temples, Sicily Left to right: Ray Betts, Bob Grant, Julie Kendall, Marie Grant, Michael and Janice Carter; Steve and Lillian Jabusch.
Three Rivers At left: CRR mail subscriber Ken Trout, of Olympia, Wash., in Passau, a German city on the Austrian border which lies at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz rivers.
WHERE DO YOU READ THE READER?
Send your photo reading the Reader (high-resolution JPEG) to publisher@crreader. com. For cell phone photos, choose the largest file size up to 2 MB. Include names and cities of residence. Expect an acknowledgment within 5 days of submission; otherwise, please re-send. Thank you for your participation and patience, we usually have a small backlog!
Correction: Basilica in Barcelona Above, left to right: Steve and Kay Lippard, of Longview, who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on a cruise with a final stop in Barcelona, with friends Deborah and Craig Downs, of Kelso, Wash (inadequately identified in last issue’s caption), at the Sagrada Familia.
Out of her tree (farm) Fae Marie Beck on the porch of her home on the family tree farm in Toledo, Wash. Don’t worry, that broom alongside is NOT her regular transportation; she only uses that on Halloween.
Othe spectator by ned piper
Lost in Translation
ur contributor Andre Stepankowsky isn’t the only one of us with mixed memories of school work and especially the third of the “Three R’s “ — ‘Rithmetic.
My mind just didn’t seem to get math, which troubled my math teacher father. He even mounted a blackboard in my room, where he attempted to make sense of algebra and geometry to me. It didn’t work. Even more challenging for me than arithmetic was learning foreign languages. My high school classmates suggested that I take Latin, because you could cheat your way through it. I didn’t want to do that.
At the University of Washington, I decided I’d take German. I had learned a few words in German during the time I’d spent in Europe after graduation from high school. I dropped out after a few months, feeling hopeless.
Next, I tried Spanish. That lasted about as long. Finally, it got down to this: I needed 15 hours of a foreign language to graduate. Summer quarter was upon me. I headed to the German department.
“I’ve decided to stay in Seattle this summer,” I began, “and I want to sign up for 15 hours of German.”
“Sorry,” said the lady behind the counter. “We don’t offer German during summer quarter.”
“What do you offer?” I asked.
“Japanese, Chinese, and Russian.”
Assuming that Russian might use an alphabet that was somewhat similar to our own alphabet, I signed up to take 15 hours of Russian. Nyet!
It turned out to be a summer from Hell (or whatever ‘Hell’ was behind the Iron Curtain). By the end of the class I was 25 written lessons behind. My prof was a very patient man, however, and I believe he actually thought I’d learned the language. But I failed the final oral exam, big time.
I’m almost certain that he gave me a “D” for the class, because as a drama major, I offered him free tickets to all the plays on campus that summer.
To this day I know the phrase “Where there’s ‘a will there’s a way,” in neither Spanish, German or, especially, Russian.
Longview resident Ned Piper is mostly retired, but assists with CRR ads and distribution — when he is not enjoying TV sports, movies, or political talk (wrangling) shows. Maybe he’ll find time yet to take an online Russian course.
PLUGGED IN TO COWLITZ PUD
By Alice Dietz, Cowlitz PUD Communications/Public Relations Manager
Pride in a Public Promise
Public power in Cowlitz County began with a simple, powerful idea: neighbors working together can build something better — fairer and more enduring — than profit-driven utilities could deliver alone. From the first miles of line energizing rural homes to the countywide consolidation that unified service under one provider, Cowlitz PUD has always stood for local control and shared benefit.
Ninety years later, that promise still holds. As we celebrate the people who built and sustained this institution — and the communities we serve — we recommit to the values that brought light to the hills: courage, stewardship, and service. The challenges ahead are real, but so are the opportunities. And just as the granges once did, we’ll meet them together. Here’s to the next 90 years—powered by the people of Cowlitz County.
Join the Celebration: Share, Learn, Participate We’re marking 90 years throughout the coming year with stories, artifacts, and opportunities to engage. Here’s how you can be part of it:
• Share Your Story: Did your family get connected in the late ’30s or ’40s? Do you have photos of early crews, line trucks, or the 14th Avenue office? Send them to adietz@cowlitzpud.org. We’d love to feature your memories.
• Milestone Moments: Watch for our timeline series highlighting key events: the 1936 vote, the first pole raising in 1937 at Carnine Road and Spirit Lake Highway, the 1940 court ruling, the 1946 Northwestern Electric acquisition, and the 1948 consolidation—and more.
Alice Dietz may be reached at adietz@cowlitzpud.org, or 360-501-9146.
A Different Way of Seeing...
THE TIDEWATER REACH
Field Guide to the Lower Columbia in Poems and Pictures
THREE EDITIONS • $25, $35, $50
By Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten
“Tidewater Reach is a pleasure to hold; it provokes delights, both intellectual and emotional. I commend all who were involved in bringing us this treasure. It deserves a place on your bookshelf and in your heart.”
-- Cate Gable, “Coast Chronicles,” Chinook Observer, Long Beach, Wash.
DISPATCHES FROM THE DISCOVERY TRAIL
A Layman’s Lewis & Clark $35
by Michael O. Perry
Books also available at:
• Columbia Gorge Interpretive Museum Stevenson
• Broadway Gallery Longview
• Cowlitz County Historical Museum Shop Kelso
• Kelso-Longview Visitor Center, Kelso
• Vault Books & Brew Castle Rock
• Tsuga Gallery Cathlamet
• Redmen Hall Skamokawa
• Skamokawa Store Skamokawa
• Appelo Archives Naselle
• Time Enough Books Ilwaco
• Marie Powell Gallery Ilwaco
• Godfathers Books Astoria, Ore.
• RiverSea Gallery Astoria,Ore.
• Columbia Gorge Discovery Center & Museum The Dalles, Ore.
