Olympic Peninsula & Washington Coast - Washington, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest - page 293

Getting There & Around
Pacific Transit System ( www.pacifictransit.org ) runs buses throughout Pacific County,
from Aberdeen to towns along the Long Beach Peninsula via South Bend and Raymond,
and as far south as Astoria, OR. Bus 20 runs approximately once an hour between Ilwaco
and Oysterville from around 6am to 7pm weekdays (35¢, 40 minutes), less often on
Saturday and not at all on Sunday. Bus 24 connects Ilwaco with Astoria (50¢, 30
minutes, Monday to Friday only). There are no connections east toward Longview and
Kelso.
Ilwaco
POP 936
Blink-and-you'll-miss-it Ilwaco is known for its port that's crammed with fishing boats
bringing in salmon, Dungeness crab, albacore tuna and other treats from the Pacific.
What passes for downtown is a collection of wooden cabin-style homes overlooking a
Popeye-worthy harbor. The early growth of the salmon-canning industry here was aided
by the development of salmon traps, a method of catching the fish that was made illegal
in the 1930s.
Unlike the rest of the Long Beach Peninsula, Ilwaco is hemmed in by rocky hills. West
of town, on a rugged promontory above the mouth of the Columbia River in Cape Disap-
pointment State Park, are the remains of Fort Canby, a Civil War-era bulwark designed
to protect river shipping from Confederate interference. The hiking-biking Discovery
Trail ( Click here ) terminates here.
Sights
Cape Disappointment State Park PARK
( 360-642-3078; Hwy 100; dawn-dusk) Although little remains of the original Fort
Canby that once stood in what is now 2 miles southwest of Ilwaco in Cape Disappoint-
ment State Park, the location is of considerable interest because of its interpretive center,
wild beach and hiking trails (8 miles in total) to its two dramatic lighthouses.
Established in 1852, Fort Canby was heavily armed during the Civil War to prevent
Confederate gunboats from entering the Columbia River. Upgraded dramatically during
WWII, the fort stood as the principal defender of the river. Although no shots were fired
from Fort Canby, a Japanese submarine did manage to penetrate close enough to the Ore-
gon side to fire on Fort Stephens in 1942.