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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2015)
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