- Pilings along the Bay
Here and there along the perimeter of Shoalwater (now Willapa) Bay and along both sides of the Columbia River shoreline are the remains of old pilings, best seen when the tide is out. At high tide, of course, they are covered, but at low water they tug at my imagination. What were they once upon a time? Fish traps? Dock trestles? Cannery foundations? And what did the shoreline look like then?
On our ‘field trip’ across the river on Saturday, our guide pointed out that Astoria prides itself on being “pretty and gritty.” Along the riverfront, both aspects are obvious. The ‘pretty’ includes new buildings, the park installations and the river-walk, itself. The ‘gritty’ is what remains of abandoned cannery buildings, the old pilings, the riprap, and other remnants of the city’s heritage.
Some years ago, I learned that pilings only rot away above the waterline where they come in contact with the air. Below the water, they are as solid as they ever were. They can be re-used as support for new construction. It is for that reason that waterfront property owners leave them in place. If, in the future, there should be a need, the many modern permitting hoops to sink new piling can be by-passed and the old ones can serve.
Here, out in front of Oysterville, there was once a mile-long fence of piling. It was put in during the latter half of the nineteenth by my great-grandfather at a time when erosion and rising water threatened to drown Oysterville.
There is little of that piling ‘fence’ visible these days. The bay has silted in and covered what remained during my childhood, though even in the 1980s some of it could still be seen after winter storms scoured away the sand. Now it pleases me to think of it as one of the secrets of Oysterville’s past – the invisible remains still there, still underground. I wonder what the archaeologists of the future will make of it.
I’m sorry to tell Astoria that Tacoma is already Grit City, but it can think itself gritty if it wants. I think it’s wonderful and we are lucky to have it near by!