- Long Beach — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Long Beach, in Pacific County, one of Washington’s oldest seaside resorts, has drawn visitors, first from Oregon and later from all over the Northwest, to its 28 miles of open beach, clam digging grounds, and town full of attractions, for more than a hundred years. Hemmed in by hills and water, early visitors had to travel there via sternwheelers and stage coach, and later rail, until the 1920s when roads connected the town to Washington’s interior. Long Beach began as a resort community for wealthy Portlanders. Once Oregon’s coastal resort towns began to develop, more visitors from Washington residents began to flock to its beaches. After declines suffered in the 1980s following the near-failure of razor clam and salmon fisheries and the 1979 energy crisis, Long Beach has shifted its focus to the spectacular local environment and the community’s unique history to attract visitors.
- Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition visits the future site of Long Beach on November 19, 1805. (historylink.org)
On November 19, 1805, Captain William Clark (1770-1838) of the Lewis and Clark Expedition visits the future site of Long Beach. Clark records in his journal that at the most northerly point the expedition reached on the Pacific coast he inscribed “my name on a Small pine, the Day of the month & Year, Etc.” (Reuben Gold Thwaites, 236). The tree will be lost, but a bronze sculpture placed along the Discovery Trail in Long Beach in 2003 will commemorate Clark’s visit and mark the tree’s approximate location.
- Long Beach (Washington) (Wikivoyage)
Long Beach is a beachfront city in southwestern Washington State. It is the largest city on the Long Beach Peninsula, claimed to be the longest continuous beach in the United States.
