"Our Coast"
The freebie publication in our post office box yesterday had the shape and size of a magazine and a glossy one at that. However, its contents seemed to say “Visitor’s Guide” and the number of advertisements – 35 full pages out of 86! – said “Junk Mail.”
I plowed through the first eight pages (all ads) to get to the Table of Contents and found that this is to be a once-a-year publication put out by The Daily Astorian and the Chinook Observer (Visitor’s Guide, again) and that three of the four featured writers are not from our coast at all. A Visitor’s Guide by visitors. A novel concept but I wasn’t sure they could talk about our area with authority.
At that point I checked out the “Our Coast” website where I found only a repeat of the publication in hand. Next I checked their facebook presence where they purport to be “the only regional travel magazine and site focused on just the Columbia-Pacific region.” Ahhh! A travel magazine! They explore travel options “from Oysterville, Wash., to Wheeler, Ore” – or so they said.
So I flipped through to see what they might have said about Oysterville. Not a word, as in nada, nothing, zip. Well, that’s not altogether true. One article about food (by Portland writer M.J. Cody) did have Oysterville in a subtitle: Our critics’ picks for dining and lodging from Oysterville to Wheeler which was followed up in paragraph three with one sentence: I always drive through Oysterville to see the historic homes – a place that holds fascination since childhood – and keep driving north a few blocks for open vistas of the bay and fresh (and smoked) oysters shrimp and fish at Oysterville Sea Farms.
The tricky part, of course, would be getting here. Oysterville does not appear on a single map in the magazine – not even on any of the three maps on the double-page spread titled “Long Beach Peninsula.” By stretching the magazine side-to-side I was able to see the ‘O’ (presumably for Oysterville) in the gutter. Oysterville had apparently been gobbled up in the fold. So had Nahcotta. Klipsan didn’t appear at all – the only town between Long Beach and Ocean Park was “Oceanside.” Oceanside??? On the peninsula? I must be living in a parallel universe.
Actually, Oceanside, Washington, does show up on a Google map which is what the layout folks must have used. But in Oysterville we know how reliable Google Maps are. The Postal People used Google Map information to suggest that we go to the Bay Center Post Office, only 6.7 miles to the east, should our post office be closed. Never mind Willapa Bay intervening… And “Our Coast” purports to be a travel magazine! Checking out their maps might be a starting point for accuracy of coverage.
Nor did Oysterville appear on the list of thirteen things to do on the Long Beach Peninsula. On the other hand, the Knappton Cove Heritage Center east of the Astoria Bridge and the Appelo Arcchive Center in Naselle appear on that list. (Now, where is the Long Beach Peninsula, again???)
Granted, I’m skewed on the subject of Oysterville. But, still, we are the only National Historic District in Pacific County – maybe the only one on the coast between here and Wheeler. Maybe they’ll include us next year… Maybe just a photograph… Meanwhile, in our household it’s the recycle bin for this first “Our Coast” issue. We’ve decided it’s Junk Mail after all.
Sydney: Thx for posting this. I lobbed up my tirade to the powers that be. Herewith:
“First of all “Our Coast” is beautiful on production values: the quality of the paper, layout and the photographs are great.
But I have to comment on a couple other aspects of the publication. I find the “Featured Writers” segment very demeaning to your “Contributing Writers” who I think you might admit are the bread and butter workers on most of the North Coast publications.These “featured authors” are not really local as locals will easily see. (A few examples below.) Yet they are the stars of the title page, complete with bios and headshots, fantastic layouts with full-page photos and primo placement at the front of the publication. Meanwhile the lowly contributing writers are stacked in bulk.
The Long Beach Peninsula, represented on pages 76-77, seems to end just north of 12th Street in Long Beach. No mention of Klipsan, Nahcotta, or Oysterville. Even Leadbetter Point is described as being “19 miles north of Seaview.” The entire village of Oysterville is on the historic record—it seems a rather large oversight not to have included it somewhere.
RE: Becky Ohlsen’s “Nooks and Crannies” — One of the absolutely best places for curio hunters is Jerry Matsen’s Crows Nest (in Ocean Park). It is truly a hidden treasure as opposed to the many standard antique shops Ohlsen mentions. Jerry himself is a nationally-known fish decoy carver and his shop is a brilliant collection of the odd, the rare, the historic and the mundane. In the department of used books, Catherine O’Toole’s bookshop (also in Ocean Park) has one of the best collections of rare literature and art books I have ever seen. (And I lived for 20 years in Berkeley, CA — the book capital of the world — I know bookstores.) She is more known online perhaps but serious local collectors know where to find her. Again, her shop is unmentioned.
Jerry Olsen’s article doesn’t mention the plovers (north of Surfside). Paul Gerald doesn’t mention the elk herd to be seen hiking Leadbetter. Just a few instances of omission which of course us locals know.
I was never told exactly what the nature of this publication would be. I think none of your local writers were — or we could/would have done a much better job of covering the delights, secret or not, of our coast. Instead we tossed up a few ideas and wrote a few short articles (months and months ago) without knowing the context.
I know a publication like this can’t hit every high point. But this is of the quality that could well make it a keepsake; so it’s a shame that some of the best of the best was left out; and that, on our own stage, local players must sit second fiddle to Portland writers.”
I have yet to see a better blueprint for what needs to be produced to promote our area rightfully–and with the talent and resources available to us–I hope our common anger at being overlooked (don’t get me started on Ilwaco) can lead to an excellent alternative.
It has long been a saddness to me that the Astorian publishes the Observer. Maybe if enough people complain about this slick paper magazine?…visitors guide?…they will make a better attempt next time.
Oh, yea. And it doesn’t even fit in a magazine holder for display.
I guess it’s “too good”.