History

The site of Seaside was first inhabited by the Clatsop Indians whose ancestors had lived for thousands of years before the coming of the white man. Clatsop Indians were non-nomadic people; fourteen Clatsop villages are known to have existed. The native people gathered berries, fished for salmon, collected clams and mussels, and hunted whales and sea lions for meat. The Clatsops sanctified the spirits of many forest animals and great storms that lashed their land.The Clatsop people had interacted with white men long before their first recorded visits. Whites had come as traders, trappers, woodsman, as well as survivors of shipwrecks.

The history of Seaside is connected with the discovery and development of the Columbia River. The river was first sited in 1775 by the Spanish navigator Bruno de Hezeta (aka Heceta) who mistook the estuary for an inland bay, although it's seething currents reminded him that "it may be the mouth of some great river or some passage to another sea." He did not attempt to enter.

On May 11, 1792, Captain Robert Gray of Boston, while seeking to expand his fur trade, navigated the bar and discovered the great river he named for his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. He first anchored near the site of today's Astoria, then sailed some 15 miles upstream, returning to his initial anchorage to spend five days among the hospitable Indians.

On October 16, 1805, Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery reached the Columbia and viewed the Pacific Ocean on November 7. Their winter campsite, named Fort Clatsop, was constructed on the bank of the Lewis & Clark River. Supplies were depleted by the time they reached the Columbia and several months would be needed to prepare for the return trip. Desperately needing salt now to cure and preserve a meat supply and for their personal use, the expedition sent five of its men to find a beach site for salt making. The camp was established some 15 miles south of Fort Clatsop near the mouth of the Necanicum, the present site of Seaside. The camp was comfortable; deer and elk were plentiful for meat; and some 2 to 3 gallons of salt a day could be extracted when the kettles were boiled constantly.

In February 1806, Captain Lewis, with a party including Sacajawea and her husband Charbonneau, viewed the salt makers' camp and proceeded on to climb Tillamook Head in search of a large beached whale said to be on the sand south of the headland. They found the whale carcass and before returning, named a nearby creek the Ecola, the Indian word for whale. The salt makers' cairn is the westernmost encampment site of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and is an honored monument at the center of Seaside.

After the successful return of Lewis and Clark, it didn't take long before settlement on the Northwest coast began. Fur trading tycoon John Jacob Astor dispatched an expedition to sail from New York and establish a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia. Fort Astoria was established in 1811. Lucrative fishing, logging, and fur trapping made the region boom. As early as 1820’s, salmon began to be commercially caught. Settlers began arriving to make land claims and people also started coming to the coast to vacation and experience the breathtaking beauty of the Oregon coast. Vacationers came by water down the Columbia to Astoria, then traveled by stagecoach to the beach.

In 1850, Seaside's first guest house was opened, and in 1870 Ben Holladay, a prominent Portland land developer and railroad builder, purchased that property and built a luxury hotel. He named the resort Seaside House. An imposing Italian Villa, Holladay's Seaside House and grounds extended over the acreage now known as the Seaside Golf Course. The resort was beautifully landscaped and had a race track and stable of race horses, as well as well-groomed groves of trees, vast lawns, and a stream with a handsome wooden bridge; as an added convenience, a fish trap was installed. Holladay focused on wealthy and influential guests. At this point in its history, Seaside was for the prosperous and high-fashion citizenry vacationing in elegant expensive comfort. Seaside House was advertised in Northwest and California newspapers as "The Coastal Capital of Oregon" and "The oldest fashionable summer resort" on the Oregon Coast. Mail to the area was first addressed to Seaside House, then later shortened to Sea Side which was eventually transformed into Seaside and adopted as the city's name.

G.M. Grimes also started his Grimes Hotel in the early 1870s near the center of present-day Seaside on the west bank of the Necanicum, over which he built a second bridge which led to his hotel. The first led to the former Summer House. Grimes cut a wide trail from his hotel to the beach; this trail would later become the Shell Road, which in turn, became Broadway.

With the opening of a railroad between Youngs Bay and Seaside in 1888, the region became even more accessible to commercial activity, vocations and recreation. To escape Portland's summer heat families would make the boat and railroad journey to Seaside and spend their summer in the beautiful little town. Daddy would then make the trip back to Portland, spend the week at his job, returning on weekends to visit the family. Every weekend the families would gather at the railroad station to greet daddy, then see him off on his trip back to Portland. It wasn't long before the train carrying daddy became known as the "Daddy Train". In 1898, rail service began along the Columbia from Portland to Astoria.

By the turn of the century, Seaside, in response to its railroad now bringing thousands of visitors to its beaches, was building up its beach city. The Seaside community had slowly evolved into two separate towns, Seaside and West Seaside, on separate sides of the Necanicum. The combined population in 1902 was 500, although the summer months brought 5000 to 10,000 more as vacationers. By this time the community had five hotels, numerous stores, the Western Union Telegraph, long distance telephone, and four trains in and out daily. The Seaside Volunteer Fire Department had been organized in 1904. Seaside drew the interest of R.N. Watson, a long-time newspaperman, who arrived to establish the Seaside Signal, the city's first newspaper. Its first issue was dated March 25, 1905.

By 1910 Seaside had a population of some 1600, to which some 10,000 tourists were added during the summer months. Seven daily trains now reached the community. The local bank had a capital of $25,000 and the lumber company employed some 250 persons. The merger of Seaside (incorporated in 1899) and West Seaside (incorporated in 1905) took place officially in 1913, two years after the overwhelming vote for merger by citizens of both communities in 1911. The merger would, Seasiders believed, give vital direction and unified support for the city's growth as a major tourist resort. After a fire destroyed the commercial center of Seaside east of the Necanicum River in 1912, the center of Seaside started to grow along Broadway. In 1914, the natatorium, an indoor saltwater pool was completed on the beachfront. The natatorium was the scene of swimming races and other popular water events. The Gilbert Block Building, east of the river, was completed in 1915.

In 1920, the concrete promenade and turnaround were constructed, replacing the wooden boardwalk. By then, roads connected Seaside to Astoria and Tillamook. By the late 20’s, the Oregon Coast Highway between Astoria and the California border was almost complete, then known as Roosevelt Coast Military Highway. In 1938 to the Sunset Highway (then called Wolf Creek Highway) was opened, reducing the distance from Portland to fewer than 100 miles; and the automobile began to replace the train as the way to reach Northwest's most popular beach resort. The Seaside Aquarium opened in 1937 inviting the visitors to come feed the seals in the building that once housed the natatorium.

The most popular resort on the Northwest Coast, Seaside, never limited to the "high-fashion" crowd of Holladay's Seaside House era, continued its phenomenal growth. Its gently sloping, long beach, some 250 feet wide, is the most heavily used of any along the Oregon Coast. The community is heavily developed with residential buildings and many people are retiring here. Growth of transportation facilities, national and regional, combined with a growing, mobile, travel-oriented population, brought the future to seaside.