Pacific County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,365. Its county seat is South Bend, and its largest city is Raymond. The county was formed by the government of Oregon Territory in February 1851 and is named for the Pacific Ocean.
Ilwaco is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,087 at the 2020 census. Founded in 1890, the city was home to the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company along the Long Beach Peninsula, with its core economy based on logging and timber rafting. The city is located on the southern edge of the Long Beach Peninsula, on Baker Bay on the north side of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean. It is near the city of Astoria, Oregon, which lies to the southeast on the southern bank of the Columbia.
State Route 401 (SR 401) is a 12.13-mile (19.52 km) long state highway in Pacific County within the U.S. state of Washington. The highway originates at the north end of the Astoria–Megler Bridge west of Megler at an intersection with U.S. Route 101 (US 101). The roadway travels northeast, paralleling cliffs, the Columbia River and the South Fork of the Naselle River to Naselle, ending at SR 4. The road was designated Secondary State Highway 12B (SSH 12) between 1937 and 1964, when SR 401 was created to replace SSH 12B. The Astoria–Megler Bridge, completed in 1966, replaced a ferry east of the bridge, where the highway originally ended, and is known locally as Kingston Ferry Road. The roadway was extended west to the north end of the bridge, where it currently terminates. The former ferry terminal became the Dismal Nitch rest area, named after the Lewis and Clark Expedition's description of the place.
The Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (OR&N) was a rail and steamboat transport company that operated a rail network of 1,143 miles (1,839 km) running east from Portland, Oregon, United States, to northeastern Oregon, northeastern Washington, and northern Idaho. It operated from 1896 as a consolidation of several smaller railroads.
The Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company operated a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad that ran for over forty years from the bar of the Columbia River up the Long Beach Peninsula to Nahcotta, Washington, on Willapa Bay. The line ran entirely in Pacific County, Washington, and had no connection to any outside rail line. The railroad had a number of nicknames, including the "Clamshell Railroad" and the "Irregular, Rambling and Never-Get-There Railroad."
Seaview is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, Washington. It is located near Long Beach and had a population for its 98644 ZIP code at the 2010 census of 473 people.
Nahcotta is an unincorporated community in Pacific County, in the American state of Washington. It is located on Willapa Bay, on the eastern coast of the Long Beach Peninsula, within the Ocean Park CDP.
The T.J. Potter was a paddle steamer that operated in the Northwestern United States. The boat was launched in 1888. Her upper cabins came from the steamboat Wide West. This required some modification, because the T.J. Potter was a side-wheeler, whereas the Wide West had been a stern-wheeler. The boat's first owner was the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. The T. J. Potter was one of the few side-wheeler boats that operated on the Columbia River.
Loomis station was a stop on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company's narrow gauge line that ran on the Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County, Washington, United States from 1889 to 1930. The stop actually consisted of simply the mansion of Lewis A. Loomis, the founder and president of the line. He died in 1913, his mansion fell into disrepair, and the railroad ceased making stops at Loomis. In 1953 the mansion was torn down by a grandson of L.A. Loomis.
Klipsan Beach was the site of a station of the United States Life-Saving Service. The station buildings still remain, although they are privately owned. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places. The station's name was originally Ilwaco Beach, and only later became known as Klipsan Station. The station was one of several assigned to provide protection in the area known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.
Holman was a stop on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company's narrow gauge line that ran on the Long Beach Peninsula in Pacific County, Washington, USA from 1889 to 1930. Development in the area began when James Duval Holman. received a donation land claim on the west side of what is now Ilwaco.
Willapa Bay is a large shallow body of water near the Pacific Ocean in southwestern Washington. For a number of years before modern roads were built in Pacific County, Washington, the bay was used as the means of travel around the county, by powered and unpowered craft, including several steamboats.
The Bailey Gatzert was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from the 1890s to the 1920s. This vessel was considered one of the finest of its time. It was named after Bailey Gatzert, an early businessman and mayor of Seattle, who was one of the closest friends and business associates of John Leary – the person who financed the ship.
Dismal Nitch is the name of a cove along the lower Columbia River in Washington state, notable as the Lewis and Clark Expedition's last campsite before sighting the Pacific Ocean.
The Steilacoom–Anderson Island ferry is a ferry route in southern Puget Sound which is owned and operated by Pierce County, Washington. The route also serves Ketron Island.
The Astoria–Megler ferry, also called the Astoria–McGowan ferry and the Astoria–North Beach ferry, ran across the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon, and two ferry docks near the present small community of Megler, Washington, from 1921 to 1966.
Ocean Wave was a steamboat that was operated from 1891 to 1897 on the Columbia River, from 1897 to 1899 on Puget Sound and from 1899 to 1911 as a ferry on San Francisco Bay. Ocean Wave is perhaps best known for transporting summer vacationers from Portland, Oregon to seaside resorts near Ilwaco, Washington during its service on the Columbia River. This vessel is also known for being the first ferry placed in service by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
Breakers Station was a mail and passenger stop on the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company line on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. It was originally called Tioga. In 1917 it was listed as a town 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Long Beach, Washington.
Resort subdivision and Ilwaco railroad station at the north boundary of the town of Long Beach in the 1890s and early 1900s. The Tioga Hotel was the main focus of the resort and gave the railroad station its name. The surrounding beach was lined with vacation cottages and tents. J. M. Arthur, proprietor of the hotel, later built the Breakers Hotel in 1901. Tioga is an Iroquois word meaning "where it forks". The hotel and station are long gone. Tioga is now within the city limits of Long Beach. The name is no longer found on maps.
Nahcotta was a steamboat operated from 1898 to 1928 on a route from Astoria, Oregon to Ilwaco, Washington, and then, from 1908 on, from Astoria to Megler, Washington. Nahcotta ran on the same route for its entire service life, and for much of that time was commanded by Capt. Tom Parker, who started his marine career as a deckhand and who had only three months of formal education.
Ilwaco was a small riverine and coastal steamship built in 1890 which was operated as a passenger vessel for the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, and later served in other roles, including tow and freight boat, cannery tender and fish packing vessel. Ilwaco was originally named Suomi.
