Captain Robert Gray and the 1792 crossing that named the Columbia
Boston trader Robert Gray sailed the Columbia Rediviva over the river's bar in May 1792 and named the river after…
By Megan Harlow ·
Section
Notable People
People and history that shaped Oregon's North Coast, drawn from public sources.
Ben Holladay, the transportation baron who started Seaside as a resort
Stagecoach and railroad promoter Ben Holladay built the Seaside House hotel in the 1870s, giving the town its name and…
By Corey Lindqvist ·
Elon Musk: From Pretoria to Tesla, SpaceX and Beyond
A profile of Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief born in Pretoria in 1971, tracing his companies from Zip2…
By Dana Whitcomb ·
Before Hollywood, Clark Gable spent a season in Astoria
In the early 1920s, a young Clark Gable joined a traveling theater troupe that landed in Astoria, where he met…
By Megan Harlow ·
Washington Irving wrote the first bestseller about Astoria without ever going there
In 1836 Washington Irving published Astoria, a commissioned history of John Jacob Astor's Pacific venture that shaped how Americans saw…
By Corey Lindqvist ·
Captain George Flavel, the bar pilot who built Astoria’s grandest house
George Flavel made his fortune as a Columbia River bar pilot and businessman. His 1885 Queen Anne house is now…
By Megan Harlow ·
Phil Knight: The Oregon Runner Who Built Nike
Phil Knight, born in Portland in 1938, turned a handshake deal with his University of Oregon coach into Nike. A…
By Corey Lindqvist ·