Long Beach, Washington is a wonderful little seaside town in the far southwest corner of the state. This area was originally home to Chinook Indians who later traded with European ships as they made their way up and down the coast. William Clark visited these beaches at the end of his Corps of Discovery’s overland voyage to the Pacific. White settlers started to arrive not long after the Civil War, originally coming to harvest the plentiful local oysters to ship to San Francisco. In the mid 1870s, steamships started bringing in tourists from nearby Portland and hotels and restaurants started to spring up. Long Beach has been a vacation destination ever since.
I absolutely loved my time in Long Beach. The beach itself is beautiful and the sunsets were magnificent. I really liked Dylan’s Cottage Bakery which is one of the best I’ve been to in a long time. I had a wonderful dinner at Castaways, drinks at the Long Beach Tavern and ice cream at Scoopers. The Marsh Free Museum is a wonderful old collection of oddities set around a modern souvenir shop. But mostly I loved the statues and public art, colorful buildings, hand-painted signs and the general laid back feel of the town. The attention to detail is amazing and even the parking signs and bike racks are adorable. I had a fantastic time in Long Beach and can’t wait to go back again. If you ever get the chance, you should definitely pop in. You may end up staying longer than you thought you would. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Long Beach, Washington.
White Salmon is a cute little town up on the hill on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge. The area was historically Klickitat territory and was first settled by the Joslyn family in 1852. Cattle farming, timber, salmon fishing and wheat were the early industries in White Salmon, and later fruit farming and tourism would add to the economy. Today, the population rests right around 2500 people. It was the white salmon crosswalks that drew me in and the cute businesses and signs that kept me there. I wasn’t in White Salmon for long, but I really enjoyed my time there and I hope you enjoy this small handful of shots from the town ‘Where the Sun Meets the Rain”.
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest, and also the most important. It has always served as a trade route from the interior to the coast from the time American Indians paddled their dugout canoes up and down the river to the tall ships of the fur trade to modern trade ships of today. It also has several major dams which provide much needed power to the region and the river also serves as the border between Washington State and Oregon. The incredible waterfalls on the Oregon side bring in tourists by the thousands, but the small towns of the Washington side are friendlier and more livable. It gets hot out there, and it got too hot for me to stay too long and I ended up cutting my visit a little bit shorter than I would have liked, but I still had a great time out there. I hope you enjoy these photos from the beautiful Columbia River Gorge…
Bandon is an adorable little town of about 3,300 people on the southern Oregon coast. Originally Coquille Indian land, it was first settled by people of European decent in 1853. The town was established in 1873 by four men from Bandon, Ireland in County Cork and named for their old world home. Cranberries were introduced into Bandon in 1885 by Charles McFarlin of Massachusetts and have been grown and harvested successfully in the area ever since. Tragically the whole town burned to the ground in 1936 in a fire that claimed eleven lives. It has risen from the ashes and rebuilt as a charming coastal town with a lot to offer.
Bandon was probably my favorite town on the whole Oregon coast. The Old Town area was full of art and color and I loved just walking up and down the waterfront. The beaches were absolutely stunning with so much more to see than just the famous Face Rock and an evening stroll proved to be an excellent choice. The history museum, housed in the old City Hall, was one of the best local history museums I’ve ever been to in a town this size. Of course I loved the hand-painted signs around town, the beautiful carved wooden sculptures and the Coquille River Lighthouse. Of all the towns I visited in my first week along the coast, this was the one that stood out and a town I will definitely return to. Thank you, Bandon, for a wonderful stay. I hope you enjoy these photos from Bandon, Oregon.
Originally a Pomo Indian settlement, a lumber town was established on this site in 1852. The town was originally called Meiggsville, and then Big River before finally settling on Mendocino, named after Spanish navigator Antonio de Mendoza. Many of Mendocino’s early non-native settlers were from New England which is definitely evident in the architecture. In fact, several episodes of the TV show Murder, She Wrote were filmed here, and Mendocino stood in for the fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine. Quite a few films were made here as well, perhaps the most memorable of which was James Dean’s 1955 classic East of Eden. Today, Mendocino is one of the most charming little towns along the California coast and attracts a wonderful mix of artists, tourists and small-town enthusiasts like myself. I thought it was cool that the town still has many of the original wooden water towers, built before the town had a central water supply. My favorite places to photograph were definitely the stunning old Masonic Hall with it’s beautiful statue called Time and the Maiden, the old Mendocino Beacon Building, the unique water towers and of course the gorgeous coastline. I hope you enjoy these photos from stunning Mendocino, California.
The area around what’s now Patagonia, Arizona was once a Tohono O’odham village called Sonoitac. It may take its current name from the southern region of South America, christened by Welsh miners who had moved north for work. Another theory is that early settlers found a large footprint, perhaps from a grizzly bear (or Sasquatch himself), and called it “Land of the Bigfeet”. However it got its name, Patagonia is a wonderful little town that’s big on art and seems to have sought to beautify even the smallest details of their town.
When the Spanish moved north into the area, they established the Mission Los Reyes de Sonoitac. The region became part of the United States through the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 and lead and silver mines were quickly opened. Fort Buchanan was established to provide protection for the settlers from Apache raiders, later to be joined by Forts Crittenden and Huachuca.
