2 | APRIL 2018
COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
History is a key to our economic future
Spring buds and spring-break
tourists have been greening up the
countryside and bank accounts the
past several weeks. Even though it
was a fairly pleasant and economi-
cally active winter, it’s encouraging
to see more people on the streets,
in stores and visiting our area’s re-
markable national and state parks.
A couple weeks ago I visited
the Fort Clatsop unit of Lewis and
Clark National Park for the first
time in probably 20 years. It was a
cool day with intermittent drizzle
and hail, and yet the visitor center
was bustling. A bus-load of school
kids from the Willamette Valley
arrived as I was leaving. It was
fun hearing their excited voices.
Thinking back to “ancient days” of
watching reruns of Disney’s “Davy
Crockett,” I can imagine how fun it
would have been to visit a re-
al-looking fort and dash around in
the footsteps of America’s most-fa-
mous explorers.
Long Beach Peninsula typically
draws more than 1 million annual
visits and ranks among Washington
state’s leading natural destinations.
The same is true of Fort Stevens
State Park in Warrenton.
I recently participated in a
panel discussion at the Columbia
Pacific Heritage Museum — it-
self a remarkable and unexpected
institution to find in the small town
of Ilwaco. The audience consisted
of around 20 current participants in
the Peninsula’s robust Community
Historian project. The years-long
annual series of seminars provides
attendees with a grounding in key
aspects of local history, as well as
some of the skills and tools needed
to pursue interests of their own. As
personal enrichment, the program
instills a sense of belonging within
the continuum of time, the latest but
not the last of rugged individuals
who make homes and have adven-
tures here on the far western edge of
MATT
WINTERS
PUBLISHER
& EDITOR
As we observed a dozen years
ago, the elevation and expansion of
Fort Clatsop National Memorial to
full-fledged national park status is a
gift that will keep giving for many
years into the future. Our area’s
depth of genuine history coupled
with scenery and cultural assets pro-
vide us with an irreplaceable head
start when it comes to long-term
vitality.
There currently are in the
vicinity of 300,000 visitors to Fort
Clatsop and even more to some of
our recreational state parks; Cape
Disappointment State Park on the
THERE CURRENTLY ARE IN THE VICINITY OF 300,000
VISITORS TO FORT CLATSOP AND EVEN MORE TO
SOME OF OUR RECREATIONAL STATE PARKS
North America. In an age when our
connections with other people — in
both the present and past — can
sometimes seem frayed, Commu-
nity Historians become living tran-
sistors that make their communities
hum with awareness.
The economic benefits of our
history cannot be overstated.
Whether it’s Astoria’s wealth of
vintage homes and businesses,
Gearhart and Seaview’s enviable
seashore cottages, or all the sites
associated with our region’s First
Peoples and tough pioneers, the
ways in which our rich past re-
mains constantly tangible translates
into visitors and jobs.
At least since the 2004-06 Lewis
and Clark Bicentennial, I’ve thought
we can do a better job than we do
of intelligently using our history
to make our towns healthier and
more resilient. School students
here should receive a thorough
grounding and be able to identify
landmarks by their Chinook/Clat-
sop names, for example, and be
ready to offer that information to
visitors and, eventually, their own
kids. We all should know and share
this place’s colorful and intriguing
stories.
It’s going to be a busy year.
Brace yourselves to enjoy and
profit from it.
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