Astoria

Population: 10,045
Class: Middle Class (primarily)
A small town in the northwest corner of Oregon along the coast, Astoria is an old fishing and fur-trading settlement on land that was originally occupied by the Clatsop tribe. Named for its first millionaire, John Jacob Astor, Astoria grew up around the fort founded by Astor's fur trading company in 1810. It also boasts a deep water port that sees very little shipping trade, though it still maintains a decent fishing industry. It is also a port of call for a number of cruise lines sailing up and down the West Coast. This port attracted a number of immigrants in the late Nineteenth Century, mainly Scandinavians (particularly Finns, who worked the fisheries) and Chinese (who found work in the canneries).

Facts & Figures

Astoria is a city of 10,000 people on the Columbia River, just a few miles from the Pacific Ocean located in Clatsop County. It is surrounded by the beauty of the forest, mountains, 3 rivers and the sea. Because of its steep hills and beautiful Victorian homes, Astoria has been Called the “Little San Francisco of the Pacific Northwest.” Just across Youngs Bay is Warrenton, a city of 4,500, that encompasses Fort Stevens State Park and its broad, clean ocean beaches.

Astoria and Warrenton have a marine climate, which means the summers are cool, with highs around 70, and the winters are mild, with few nights of freezing temperatures. The area gets about 75 inches of rain per year, which accounts for its vivid greenness and crystal clear air. Winter storms can be dramatic with winds reaching 70 to 100 miles per hour on the ocean bluffs. The area has a strong Scandinavian heritage.

History

In May, 1792, American Captain Robert Gray sailed his 230-ton Columbia Rediviva between Point Adams in what is now Oregon and Cape Disappointment in what is now Washington to first enter the Columbia River. Ten years later, President Thomas Jefferson asked his personal secretary, Army Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead an expedition to the Pacific to find “...whether the Columbia, Oregen, Colorado, or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce”.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition left Pittsburgh August 31, 1803. The Corps of Discovery entered the Lower Columbia River in November of 1805 and stayed through March 1806. They “wintered over” at Fort Clatsop, where it rained all but 12 days, hunting, making moccasins and other clothing, trading with the Clatsop, Tillamook, and Chinook Indians, and working on their journals.

In 1811, five years after the departure of Lewis & Clark, John Jacob Astor, a New York financier, sent fur traders aboard the ship Tonquin to establish a trading post. They built Fort Astoria on a site now preserved as a monument in the downtown area.

Well over 200 major shipwrecks have occurred near the mouth of the Columbia River – known for a century as “The Graveyard of the Pacific.” One, the Peter Iredale of 1906, is still visible on the beach at Fort Stevens State Park. Native Americans lived in the area for an estimated 10,000 years before Captain Gray’s arrival.

Links of Interest

• Astoria page at Wikipedia.
• Map of Astoria
• Video of Astoria, including some history.

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Old Town

Old Town Astoria is just what it sounds like - an area of town that was among the first settled. Old Town sees perhaps the greatest concentration of tourists, given its proximity to the boardwalk. Though it isn't the best-kept part of town, in terms of upkeep, it has a friendly vibe and somewhat of a youth-centric, counter-culture flavor to it.

• The Hotel Regina has been shut down for about as long as anyone in Astoria can remember. It is a local edifice, with its carved wooden doors and boarded-up windows. Children in Old Town have told one another ghost stories about it for years, and despite its abandonment, no one has ever thought of proposing it be torn down - it is too much of a local landmark for that.
• The Sleepy Shores Motel, a small busy motel in the middle of Old Town.
• The Eye of the Needle Body Art Shop, a piercing and tattooing parlor.
• Red's Liquor Store, the local all-night liquor store.
• Carter's Diner, a small greasy-spoon eatery that seems a little too run-down to attract many tourists, but a favorite of the locals.
• Old Town Police Department, the police headquarters for Old Town.
• Old Town Library, the underfunded and poorly-patronized library that is the oldest in Astoria.

Area Stats

• Physical: Access +3, Safety +0. Old Town has plenty of navigable streets, broad sidewalks and a predictable street layout. Though it isn't overtly dangerous, the presence of a wide variety of partying tourists and the accumulation of most of the town's troublemakers and poor means that safety isn't always an assurance in Old Town (though it's rarely danger of any kind of true severity).
• Mental: Information +0, Awareness +1. Old Town isn't the best suited to the information age - there are nearly no WiFi hotspots and things are kept simple. Most people are used to strange faces here, and though they don't generally bother anyone, they do keep an eye out for the things that go on.
• Social: Prestige -1, Stability +3. Everyone knows that Old Town is where you live when you can't really afford anything better. Its locals watch out for one another, however.
• Sanctum Qualities: Up to Size 3; must have Safety 1. The buildings of Old Town are divided and sub-divided such that it's impossible to find a truly large Sanctum. Additionally, the ramshackle nature of the neighborhood requires a minimum level of protection just to allow a building to qualify as a Sanctum.

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The Docks

X

Area Stats

• Physical: Access +X, Safety +X. X
• Mental: Information +X, Awareness +X. X
• Social: Prestige +X, Stability +X. X
• Sanctum Qualities: X. X

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The Hills

X

Area Stats

• Physical: Access +X, Safety +X. X
• Mental: Information +X, Awareness +X. X
• Social: Prestige +X, Stability +X. X
• Sanctum Qualities: X. X

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New Town

The most gentrified area in Astoria, New Town is a place frequently filmed when a movie needs to depict a lush Pacific Northwest coastal town. Trendy businesses and restored Victorian houses dot the area, against a backdrop of green hills and ocean vistas.

Area Stats

• Physical: Access +1, Safety +1. New Town has decently maintained streets and one or two cab companies, but most people need cars or at least bicycles to get around effectively. It is moderately patrolled and people have some measure of protection, but not much happens here, so the police aren't too curious nor the citizenry too diligent about locking doors or maintaining security systems.
• Mental: Information +3, Awareness -1. Though the physical lay of the land doesn't have much in the way of open line of sight (too much foliage and hills for that), security cameras and a lassitude that leaves street lights or sidewalk lamps burnt out a little too long sometimes, it's a small town, and so everyone seems to know everything.
• Social: Prestige +2, Stability +3. New Town is where most of the gentrification in Astoria has occurred, and so the houses out here are more expensive. The people who live in this part of town know one another fairly well, too.
• Sanctum Qualities: Up to Size 3. There aren't many buildings larger than a sizeable Victorian in New Town.

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Edges of Town

• 1: The Astoria Column, a 125-foot tall painted column with an observation deck on top that sits on a hill overlooking Astoria.
• 3: Clatsop Community College, a public two-year college that serves northwest Oregon and southeast Washington.

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Nearby Areas

• Astoria Regional Airport, a small municipal airport
  • CGAS Astoria, a Coast Guard Air Station located at the Astoria Regional Airport
• Warrenton, a nearby town (pop. 4300)
• Other Small Towns
  • All of the following have populations of less than 500, and many of only a few hundred
  • Hammond, a small town absorbed by Warrenton.
  • Navy Heights
  • Tongue Point Village
  • Youngs River & Bay
  • Fern Hill
  • Svensen
  • Olney
  • Lilleas & Estoos
• Clatsop Spit, a massive sand flat responsible for many shipwrecks.
  • The Peter Iredale shipwreck