By Fred Delkin

Amidst the Oregonian angst over the sudden residential and commercial development sweeping our coastline, it’s a relief to re-live “the way we were” by visiting what natives call “the Peninsula.”  Washed by ocean waves on the west and bathed by Willapa Bay on the east, Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula is an island-like outpost of beach life before bulldozers.

Even the drive there from the Portland/Vancouver area is relaxing compared to the crowded Oregon coastal access via either highways 26 or 18.  The Peninsula is two and a half hours from our urban center via U.S. 30 along the Columbia River.  This route was recently widened to accommodate the growing commuter  flow between Scappoose and St. Helens to Portland, then soon narrows to a quiet drive past the small burgs of Rainier and Clatskanie before reaching the port of Astoria. 

(Click on thumbnail for full-sized map.)

Here the impressive interstate bridge takes you over the Columbia to our neighboring state.  Ashore, you turn left past Lewis & Clark’s old campsite on the Columbia, through the historic village of Chinook and into Ilwaco, the struggling former sport charter fishing capitol.  Pause here for at least an hour’s tour of the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Ft Canby State Park just west of town.  Due north, highway 103 passes through the 1930’s tacky, two and a half mile commercial strip of Seaview/Long Beach before reaching the base of the Peninsula. 

Beyond Bumper Cars

 Now you’re past the boardwalk, bumper cars and saltwater taffy and into a beachland where hanging out and slowing down are de rigeur.  The alternate route to this laid-back beachfront, by the way, is to travel I-5 north to Longview, then take the uncrowded Washington state highway 4; traveling through forests and the rustic Finnish settlement of Naselle to a junction with highway 103 at the Peninsula’s base.

While Oregon’s prime beach home prices have climbed toward the half million dollar mark, the most expensive home listed in a current Peninsula real estate guide is just over $225,000. (Not the one shown.)  However, the fortunate folk who reside here .prefer that (a la Tom McCall) you come to visit but don’t stay.  You’ll notice there’s been little encouragement of development. 

Visitors will find a goodly choice of accommodations with reasonable rates.  Among the 32 hostelries the Peninsula phone director lists as “Motels,” you will find two “Motor Courts,” recalling a bygone motoring age, four establishments with separate cottages, and only two facilities flying under a “Resort” title.  In addition to this selection, there are 15 bed & breakfast operations, plus the Sou’wester Lodge in Oceanside, which beggars classification…it advertises three guest rooms in the main building with an “M.Y.O.D.” (“Make Your Own Damn” breakfast) rating, a group of  “casual cabins” with “early Salvation Army décor,” a “trailer classics hodgepodge for the impecunious,” and an RV park with bath & laundry facilities.  The Sou’Wester’s self-description mirrors the Peninsula’s communal sense of good humor and lack of pretension.

Matters Culinary

 When it comes to culinary matters, this area has garnered national notice for two restaurants.  The Ark in Nahcotta has been credited with first attracting attention from outside the region for “Northwest cuisine.”  Owners Nanci Main and Jimella Lucas have authored two nationally-distributed cookbooks.

Their rustic establishment, perched on the Willapa Bay shore between two oyster-packing plants, is viewed in New York City as a shrine to Northwest cuisine.  Their use of local ingredients is underscored by a large herb garden beside the restaurant and a neighboring vegetable patch which complement the ample seafood sources at hand.

Main and Lucas got their start working at The Shoalwater restaurant in Seaview, where the late and legendary cooking guru James Beard assessed their talent and encouraged them to open their own operation.  The Shoalwater, in Seaview’s historic Shelburne Inn, continues to attract gourmet diners from afar.  Northwest wine aficionados know this facility for its frequent winemaker dinners, hosted by regional vintners in an extensive wine cellar.   The Shelburne has been dubbed by Conde Nast Traveler magazine as one of the “top 25 best inns worldwide.”

Whever one stays on the Peninsula, it’s only a brief stroll to the beachfront.  The ocean side offers 28 miles of hard sand washed by the Pacific, with half its length open to vehicles year-round and the entire stretch offering public access.  The Willapa Bay side is less than two miles east of the ocean at the Peninsula’s widest point.  The 80,000-acre bay is a wildlife preserve with limited access and pristine views.  It includes one of the continent’s major oyster-growing areas, thanks to shallow waters unpolluted by development and flushed by powerful ocean tides.

Ecosystem protected

 Nahcotta is the site of the relatively new Willapa Bay Interpretive Center, where visitors can absorb the history of the region and study its unique ecology.  The Willapa ecosystem has attracted international attention among environmentalists, thanks to the focus of the locally-based Willapa Alliance, which was formed in 1992 to bring resident, industry, conservation groups and government agencies together to preserve the region’s abundant natural resources.

Any Peninsula visit should include a drive to the northern end’s Leadbetter State Park.  Brief hiking trails provide magnificent views of the full sweep of Willapa Bay and its ocean entrance, and also offer seldom-equalled bird-watching opportunities.

Just north of Nahcotta and south of Leadbetter Point lies Oysterville, the Peninsula’s first community, founded in 1855.  Its preserved Victorian homes are on the National Register of Historic Places.  The town’s existence can be credited to the Oregon Territorial pioneers’ discovery of the rich natural oyster beds here; the mid-19th century harvest supplied the Gold Rush crowds in San Francisco via sailing schooners.

The California city’s appetite got the best of Willapa’s native oysters before the turn of the century.  Pacific oyster stock from Japan was used in the 1920’s to restore the Willapa resource.  Today, visitors can stock upon the bivalves at the Oysterville Sea Farms or at oyster plant retail counters in Nahcotta.

Peninsula seafood resources also include deep-sea sport fishing from marinas at Ilwaco and Chinook   Salmon angling near the mouth of the Columbia has rebounded spectacularly in the past two years, while charters are also finding no shortage of sturgeon.  These ugly-but-toothsome creatures are available year-round, and are found in calm waters inside the Columbia bar.  Beach-bound visitors find abundant razor clam harvesting during spring and fall seasons on the Peninsula’s ocean beach.

The Peninsula’s attributes also include two nationally known artists with local gallery bases.  Charles Mulvey of Seaview creates watercolor images of Peninsula activities and seascapes, while pastels are the passion of Nahcotta’s Marie Powell (the painter of this one), who concentrates on Willapa Bay wildlife and scenery.  Both artists have their own galleries, and six other galleries feature the works of Peninsula artists.

The Peninsula Art Association sponsors an annual Labor Day Arts & Crafts Festival in Ocean Park, which draws artists and artisans from a broad sweep of the Pacific Northwest.  It’s one of several Peninsula events that mirror the character of a region determined to retain values and inhibit progress.  Two more upcoming are Jazz & Oysters concert and pig-out in Oysterville Sunday, 8/19 and the International Kite Festival brightening the length of the ocean beach 8/20-26.

Sorry, but you’ve missed the annual Garlic Festival for this year!