Historic Brownsmead
S
This quiet country village east of Astoria awaits
Some 20 miles upriver from Astoria is
the ghost town of Brownsmead. Or so says
Columbia River Gillnetter. His family has
been in Brownsmead so long that it’s said
Photoblog. It seems impossible to obtain
population statistics for Brownsmead — the
U.S. Census doesn’t even
know where it is — and there
are those who may think it’s
a ghost town just because
there’s no place to get a cap-
puccino. Or anything else:
Elk antlers adorn the dusty
walls inside the only store,
closed years ago. The nearest
“thing to do” on Yelp is the
Columbia River Maritime
Museum in Astoria.
Ararat. That can’t be true, though. Wester-
holm told me that Brownsmead was orig-
inally home to the Cath-
lamet, Chinook and Clatsop
peoples. It wasn’t until the
1870s that Europeans ar-
Columbia.
Westerholm also said,
“Bring a map, and know
where you’re going. You
could very well get lost.”
Good advice.
To explore Brownsmead,
drive almost 16 miles east
on U.S. Highway 30 from
downtown Astoria, turn
north on Ziak-Gnat Creek
nothing happens in Brown-
smead or that nobody lives
there. Dirk Rohne, Clatsop
County Commissioner and
dairy farmer, lives there. So This 1928 netshed, dubbed “the ware- Aldrich Point Road. From
house” by Brownsmead locals, sits at a here, you might turn right
er Joanne Rideout and arts wide spot on Gnat Creek.
again on Sylvandale Road,
near the end of which is
of people live there. They even have their hidden the old Sylvandale School, a sin-
own band, the Brownsmead Flats.
gle-room schoolhouse now privately owned
Jon Westerholm served as my guide to and gradually being restored.
Brownsmead, and if he’s a ghost he’s a pret-
If you continue on Aldrich Point Road a
few yards past Sylvandale, you will see on
the left a wide spot in Gnat Creek. This was
a holding pond for one of the logging com-
grange, historical society, and editor of the panies that worked the canyons of Browns-
mead from 1890 through 1930. The
Built in 1918, the Brownsmead grange has been the center of
local social life since then.
Lines hang in the warehouse.
present structure is a net shed that locals call
“the warehouse,” built on the site in 1928.
If you look closely just below the ware-
inhabited by one Barefoot Bill, and is now
occupied by a man named Strawberry. Con-
tinue on Brownsmead Dike, and you will
and tide boxes were completed in 1917.
of the mighty Spokane Portland & Seattle
Railway, which came to Brownsmead in
cut across Blind Slough, which meanders
through farms and Sitka spruce swamps,
opening onto the Columbia’s Prairie Chan-
nel above Knappa. The farms came after
cades of the 20th century; until then many
tion was mostly by boat.
When you arrive at Aldrich Point, you
are at the northernmost speck of Oregon.
ramp for recreational anglers. If you aren’t
and retrace your steps until you arrive at
right.
Immediately look to your left and you
will see a large house, all that remains of
Albert, Oregon, which had a store, a hotel
to 1913. Shortly thereafter, you will see a
creatively embellished house that was once
ern in 1970.
You have arrived at downtown Browns-
mead: a tiny train station, the empty store
that was once a school, and the substantial
of Patrons of Husbandry, built in 1918. The
Grange has been the center of Brownsmead
social life since then, including a stint as
basketball court for the school across the
street. The hoops and court remain, but
Grange plays host to the annual Corn Feed,
the Rummage Sale, country dances, and
whatever else the community requires. The
hall is clean and brightly painted, seemingly
In fact, Brownsmead gives the impres-
sion of a place quietly waiting for the next
return? Will the demand for fresh and local
food reinvigorate its farms? The village and
its people seem content to live peaceably,
waiting for what will come.
Boats sit on Blind Slough in
Brownsmead.
travel
Story and photos by DWIGHT CASWELL
8 | January 1, 2015 | coastweekend.com