Northwest Coast Magazine

Painter of the Rain Coast

Story and Artwork by Erik Sandgren We live on a lee shore—pounding waves, big trees, big fish, big water, First Peoples, confluences, and tectonic movement. William Blake’s Nobodaddy erupts anew from ancient deeps. Look: Sea stacks on the outer shore rhyme with the vertical accents of old cannery pilings and abandoned ...

Canned History: A Tale of Two Labels

During the Gilded Age of the late 19th century, the lower Columbia River was deemed the "Salmon Canning Capitol of the World." This title has long since passed to more northern waters, but for nearly a century, beginning in the 1860s, packing the over-sized salmonoid in hermetically-sealed receptacles was big ...

Salmonberry

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) "If hemlock forms the weft of the woods, then salmonberry makes the woof-at least in countless swales and slopes where the yellow canes run at all angles to the walker who would needle his way through. Often the appearance of a magenta rose among the salmonberry provides the ...

Weather: A Year in Review

By Sherman Peabody-- We Pacific Northwesterners are sometimes derided by outsiders for our propensity to talk about the weather. They suppose that our webfooted banter is for want of more interesting topics. But, had these climatologically-insensitive souls spent last year in these environs, they too might find the weather a worthy ...

Commercial Razor Clam Digging on the Long Beach

Dig It - Commercial Razor Clam Digging on the Long Beach Peninsula By Laurie Choate We grandchildren always called him "Poppy" though no one could remember why. He was very much the storyteller, so it was sometimes difficult to determine whether he was spinning yarns or telling true tales from his younger ...

Northwest Coast Joins Twitter

Hey Twitter users! Northwest Coast Magazine will now be posting updates on Twitter. If you'd like to follow us, please visit us here: http://twitter.com/nwcmagazine

Flying Dutchman Winery: Old World Wine on the Oregon Coast

by David Plechl The grapes come from five or six different Oregon vineyards that include all three of the state's interior growing regions, the Willamette, Umpqua, and Rogue Valley, but the wine is made right here on the Oregon Coast. The Flying Dutchman Winery is perched atop a salty, wind-kissed coastal highland. ...

Jane Barnes – The First Lady of Astoria

Astorians have been talking about Jane Barnes for nearly two centuries—and it’s no wonder, for she was the kind of woman people tend to talk about. Jane was the first woman of European descent to arrive in the Oregon Country, and it should be noted from the outset that her ...

Washaway Beach: The Moving Entrance to Willapa Bay

By Kathleen Sayce In the past 150 years, the Willapa Entrance has changed dramatically. The earliest charts of this area in southwest Washington show a long spit arching down to the southeast from Cape Shoalwater, north of the entrance, and the main channel near present day Leadbetter Point, on the south ...

Sneak Peek: Spring 2009

Dear Readers, The Spring 2009 issue of Northwest Coast is due out March 10. Here are some of the featured stories you can expect... Sometimes a Great Party: The Lincoln County Filming of a Ken Kesey Novel by Matt Love When Paul Newman and the cast and crew of Sometimes A Great Notion descended ...