History

Oregon Coast, Seaside Oregon 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 in the far northwest corner of present- day Oregon. Clatsop territory encompassed some 1100 square miles; its northern border, the Columbia River, extended upstream to the Tongue Point area, there forming an eastern border through the Coast Range wilderness to a border at the south running west to Tillamook Head; its western border, the Pacific Ocean, reached north to the mouth of the Columbia. This homeland offered dense forests of fir, pine, spruce and cedar, as well as fertile coastal plains, creating an abundance of game, berries and edible roots. Its waters--the Columbia, streams and lakes, ocean tidelands--teemed with life including many species of salmon, freshwater fish, and shellfish.

The Necanicum River, draining the south Clatsop region, nurtured groves of fir, spruce and pine, a rich ground cover including salal, kinnikinnik, wapato and camass, interspersed with meadows and berry thickets. Here, where the Necanicum empties into the Pacific, massive boulders and rocks identify the terminal moraine of ancient Necanicum Glacier that formed the canyon of the river and merged with the Pacific in this area.

Fourteen Clatsop villages are known to have existed. One, Quatat, stood at the mouth of the Necanicum; two others, Ne-ah-coxie and Ne-co-tat, were nearby. Indian artifacts and skeletal remains continue to be unearthed in and around Seaside. Building excavations have brought up draw knives, gouges, implements, wampum, and other trading and personal effects. A portion of Seaside west of the Necanicum was once an ancient Indian burial ground. Like their cousins, the Chinooks north of the Columbia, the Clatsops were canoe people who buried the dead in their canoes with personal effects needed in the next life. The canoes were braced atop four upright split timbers that had been sunk a few feet in the ground. Skulls identify these people as Clatsop Flatheads--so called because of their sloping foreheads, a result of their practice of binding the infant across its brow with a strong piece of bark or wood that was tied firmly at both ends to the cradle board. This provided ease of transport by the mother, as well as a flattening effect of the frontal skull.

As fish-eaters, the Clatsops believed the salmon to be a divine gift from the wolf-spirit Talapus who created the great fish to save their people from extinction at a legendary time of near disaster. They adhered to strict tradition in honoring Talapus: the salmon was cut only lengthwise from mouth to tail, never crosswise against the spine; its bones always were returned to the waters for renewal. Failure to obey any such sacred edict to harsh punishment including burial alive. The Clatsops also sanctified the spirits of many forest animals and great great storms that lashed their land.

A non-nomadic people, the Clatsops built low-roofed, partitioned lodges of cedar planks, creating strong, permanent dwelling places. Their canoes were also made of cedar logs, first hollowed out by fire, then shaped and finished with stone or bone tools. Food bowls and utility vessels were fashioned from stone, wood, bone and shell. Mats and baskets for gathering and storage were woven of hide, vine, grass, roots and bark.

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. Although the discovery and settlement of the Columbia River ultimately scattered and decimated the Native Americans, they are ingrained in the region's development.

The history of Seaside is wedded to 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 its 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.

Word of Gray's monumental discovery moved rapidly with far- reaching effects. The British at once dispatched two ships to the river from the north Pacific--the Discovery, commanded by George Vancouver, and the Chatham, commanded by Captain Broughton. Vancouver was unable to find a channel at the entrance to accommodate his larger ship; however, the smaller Chatham explored some 100 miles upstream. By October of 1792, another British schooner was on the Columbia. Many followed.

Spurred by President Thomas Jefferson's intense interest in exploration of the wilderness west of the Missouri, as well as by powerful financial interests in the eastern United States, Congress appropriated $2500 for an expedition to "(extend) the external commerce of the United States." With a company of 45 men Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their historic overland journey in May 1804. They reached the Columbia on October 16, 1805, and viewed the Pacific Ocean on November 7. In early December they crossed to the south bank of the Columbia which offered easier access to game and to the ocean for needed salt. The south shore also provided better access to the river for canoe exploration.

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. The salt here however, was in diluted quantity due to the fresh water entering from the Necanicum.

In February 1806, Captain Lewis, with a party including Sacajawea and her husband Charbonneau, viewed the saltmakers' 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 saltmakers' camp was disbanded and the salt supply taken to Fort Clatsop on February 21, 1806. After presenting Fort Clatsop and its contents to the chief of the Clatsops, the expedition began its return trip March 23, 1806.

The saltmaker cairn is the westernmost encampment site of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and is an honoured monument at the center of Seaside.

Routes by both land and sea were opening into the Northwest. Intense rivalry grew between the British and American fur-trading interests. Many small trading posts grew along the coast and inland streams. The British, represented by Hudson's Bay Co. and Northwest Co., monopolized trading north of the Columbia and were rapidly increasing their presence on the Columbia. In the East, John Jacob Astor was focusing powerful financial interests in the Pacific Fur Co., which he founded in 1810, hoping to control fur-trading south of the Columbia. He outfitted the ship Tonpuin, commanded by Captain Thorne, which arrived on the Columbia in 1811. He had at the same time dispatched an overland expedition that reached the river the same year. The Tonguin left a colony of men to build a trading post on the south bank, a site they named Astoria for their employer. Another ship, the Beaver, outfitted by Astor, arrived May 10, 1812.

The outbreak of the War of 1812 brought a British man-of-war to the Columbia. In a precipitous move to protect his interests, Astor sold his Pacific Fur Co. to the British Northwest Co., and within a month Captain Black of the British warship took possession of the Astoria post, renaming it Fort George, a name that would persist for years. While the Treaty of Ghent restored the location to the United States in 1818, the trading post remained an asset of the British company until 1821 when it merged with the Hudson's Bay Co. In 1824 Dr. John McLoughlin took command of the post, which he moved to Fort Vancouver some 110 miles upstream near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette. By 1825, having lost its significance as a trading post, Astoria had become little more than a desolate lookout for company ships. However, upstream the interior regions of Oregon were being settled, by sea and land. Portland was beginning to thrive as a potential center of industry and shipping for the resources of the Willamette Valley and its surrounding country.

Unlike the more accessible and temperate interior of Oregon, the Clatsop Plains country south of the Columbia was settled slowly. Its nemesis was transportation. Road-building was delayed for many decades. The plains were webbed with waterways; transportation was principally by canoe and raft. For land travel, the ancient, well-worn Indian trails served settlers, Indians and itinerants alike. Immigrant families often came down the Clatsop ocean beach by ox or horse-driven carts to reach land claims. Some settlers built primitive private roads over short distances in trying to solve some transport problems; however, these roads were not dependable, and often impassable for months by rain, flooding, or storms.

The 1830s and 1840s found the Columbia beginning to flourish as the center of transportation and communication for the Oregon country. Shipping and trading vessels plied her waters; passenger and immigration ships were increasing. Shipbuilding had started as early as 1811 in Astoria with the schooner Dolly. The first steamship, the Beaver, was converted at Fort Vancouver and set sail in 1836. The first regular transportation line on the lower Columbia was founded in 1842 by a black man named Saul who carried passengers, livestock and other freight in his small schooner. Many regularly scheduled ships followed. The Columbia, not yet tamed by channel improvements, dams or levees, required expert navigational skills;many ships were lost in its treacherous waters.

In 1840, Solomon H. Smith, a resourceful frontiersman, became the first white settler on the Clatsop Plains. Married to Celiast, a Clatsop woman, Smith built a log house about five miles south of the Columbia on the north Clatsop Plains. With the Rev. J. H. Frost, who had arrived that year on the missionary ship Lausanne, Smith constructed a mission house a mile north of his home. His skills included boat-building, school teaching and law; he opened a store in Lexington (later Skipanon) on the Skipanon River, and also ran the first ferry across the Columbia. The Eldridge Trask and W. T. Perry families were among the early arrivals, settling near the Smith Claim. Thomas and Sarah Owens arrived in December 1943; Smith took them by wagon via the beach to their farm claim.

The Owenses brought the first flax into Oregon from Kentucky. The Eberman family, with 16 children, owned land from the north Plains to the Necanicum. The William Hobson, George Summers, J. L. Parrish and Calvin Tibbetta families all homesteaded in the early 1840s. Philip Gearhart moved to his homestead in 1849, two miles north of Seaside, bringing his wife and 4 children by Chinook canoe. His site became the future Gearhart, Oregon. Gearhart started a dairy business on his farm.

Livestock and dairying were important to the early economy. The British Northwest Co. had introduced the first livestock in the region during the War of 1812. Solomon Smith was reportedly the first dairyman in the territory. He and J. H. Frost had driven the first herd of cattle across the Coast Range, then up the coast to Smith's farm. In 1842, Calvin Tibbetts and others helped establish further cattle routes through the mountains. These were essentially old Indian wilderness trails. Clatsop settlers, guided by Indians, went by canoe to Fort Vancouver in 1842 to purchase horses and cattle which they drove overland to the Plains.

The rich soil of the Plains provided excellent potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and other garden produce. Chickens and eggs were raised; hay and grains were harvested; furs and hides were plentiful; salmon and berries, abundant. Timber activity was beginning in the forests, with logging and sawmills. William Hobson wrote in the 1840s to his family in the British Isles to send Scotch Broom seed to beautify his farm. The plant also proved an erosion deterrent when planted on the beach ridge by helping reduce the amount of beach sand blowing onto farmland. Its seed was later marketed and sold to the government. Bulb crops flourished in the moist, sandy soil and became a profitable enterprise. Hyacinth, narcissus, dahlia, daffodil and other bulbs, were marketed; their abundance presaged future events such as the Seaside Dahlia Festival. The prolific Scotch broom soon established its deep yellow bloom throughout the Clatsop country, which became known as The Golden Trail as a result.

Because large gray wolves were destroying livestock and cattle on the Plains in the early '40s, the settlers planned frequent hunting parties at "wolf meetings." These meetings, held at Solomon Smith's farm, gradually became political forums as well, with the settlers forming the district's earliest election board, officers, and petitioning for support in road building and other improvements.

In 1846, Clatsop County population totaled 95 persons, representing 38 families, mostly settled on the Plains. In 1850, the census stood at 462. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 was to have a resounding impact on Oregon and the Columbia. The Northwest became the natural trading partner for a rapidly expanding California population. The Gold Rush caused a major depopulation of men from the county, temporarily seeking gold; it also diverted some immigration from Oregon to California in those years. As a result, the population fluctuated throughout the decade of the '50s. Of 593 residents of Clatsop County in 1854, one-third were women.

Trading with California increased significantly. Settlers sent lumber, agriculture, flour, wool, hides, fish, dairy products, meats and vegetables. In return, they received liquors, glass, iron, tin, tools, and such foods as rice, sugar and molasses. Gold at last offered an appropriate currency, the lack of which had been a impediment to trade in the Clatsop country.

In 1848, Clatsop settlers R. S. McEwen, Calvin Tibbetts, Thomas Owen and Eldridge Trask built a schooner and took it to California with a cargo of eggs, butter, bacon, hides and vegetables, which they sold profitably along with the schooner. Mr. Tibbetts died of a fever on their return voyage.

Increase in Columbia trade and settlement of the Plains gave impetus to the small communities struggling for growth along the coast. The first step toward the future Seaside came when the widow and children of Alexander Lattie, a drowned Columbia River pilot from Scotland, became the community's first landowners and business entrepreneurs. They bought two donation land claims in 1852 and 1853, for a total of 6112 acres, representing most of today's downtown Seaside, and extending roughly to Tillamook Head. On this land claim where the Seaside Golf Course now exists, Mrs. Lattie, her son William, and daughter Helen, established the Northwest Coast's first boarding-house in 1852. Preston W. Gillette reports seeing the Lattie place that year when it was no more than a primitive wood structure with a number of hide tents pitched outside along the front. About a third of a mile south, he said, was an acre of land covered with human skeletal remains and decaying canoes with relics that belonged to the decedents.

Operated by Helen and William Lattie, the "boarding-house" was gradually improved with the addition of rooms at each end. Helen had become a superb cook after several years of service in the Van Dusen family of Astoria, and the meals she served, including French cuisine, gained a notable reputation. The food at "Lattie's" added its own luster to the already remarkable tourist assets of this location, which included hunting, fishing, hiking, clamming, camping, and the rest and recreation of the sandy beach. Known as "Lattie's" and "Bill Lattie's" for a number of years, the business then became "Summer House" in the late '50s. Helen Lattie married Antoine J. Cloutrie, a hunter and trapper, and "Summer House" became the postal designation for this earliest settlement of Seaside; in 1871 Antoine Cloutrie was named its first postmaster.

Guests came from Astoria, Portland and other areas by mail stage from the Skipanon boat landing, or by foot or horse down the ocean beach. Groceries and supplies were brought by stage, but much of the food was produced and purchased locally. Indians sold salmon, freshwater fish, elk and venison from their two- wheeled, springless pony carts. Salmon was sold only to customers who cut the fish lengthwise in time-honored Clatsop tradition. Indian women carried pine-root and vine baskets, marketing clams, barnacles, wild berries, root foods and crabs. Milk and cream came from the long-horned cows grazing nearby. Potatoes, cabbage, carrots, turnips, onions and other produce grew in abundance.

In the autumn of 1870, Ben Holladay, a prominent Portland land developer and railroad builder, made his first visit to Summer House, purportedly on a hunting trip. He had heard of the extraordinary natural assets at this coastal location, and with vast financial interests already in the Columbia River area, he was intent on a personal appraisal of the beach country. Within about a year, Holladay was owner of the Lattie property and had under construction his famous Seaside House at the site of the Lattie's Summer House.

An imposing Italian Villa, Holladay's Seaside House and grounds extended over the acreage now known as the Seaside Golf Course. Beautifully landscaped, the hotel was of wood construction with two wings of two and one-half stories each, connected by a central wing running east and west at right angles between them. A separate dwelling for the staff was connected to the main building by the long one-story veranda that encompassed the entire west and south sides of the hotel. The resort boasted 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, Holladay also installed a fish trap. In 1882, Seaside House was widely promoted as "a new and elegant hotel recently completed by Ben Holladay on the site of the old Summer House at Clatsop Beach"; the hotel was being managed by C.H. Dexter, "formerly of Cliff House of San Francisco." Dexter also replaced Antoine Cloutre of Summer House as postmaster.

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. In 1875, summer guests of the hotel numbered some 400, with 125 the record for a single day.

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.

The career of Ben Holladay had by 1874 reached a critical juncture. Interestingly, it involved that most critically needed improvement in Clatsop County--transportation. And here railroad building, in which Holladay was prominent, followed the same pattern as road building. Clatsop County settlers had tried unsuccessfully from 1853 to arrange capitalization for railroad projects.

By 1870, the Land Grant Act permitted a land subsidy for a railroad from Portland to Astoria, and in furtherance of this plan, Clatsop citizens invested in both the Willamette Valley West Side railway and East Side railway, hoping to extend a line into Astoria from Portland. However, Ben Holladay, who controlled the East Side company, absorbed the West Side line also, in August 1870, thus blocking plans for a line to Astoria from Portland. Later in 1870, in a political maneuver, Senator George Williams foiled an Astorian request for a railway land grant. Thus, at the height of his influence and financial power in 1970-1973, Holladay, who had a large land bounty for a line from Portland to Astoria, built the East Side road to Roseburg from Portland and the West Side road to the Yamhill River near McMinnville. However, overextended, he could not finance the Astoria branch beyond surveying for it.

By 1875 his financial empire was crumbling, then collapsed in bankruptcy and foreclosures. Ultimately, after long and arduous negotiation, the Astorians arranged a plan for capitalization through A.B. Hammond, and at last, in May 1898, a train made its first run from Astoria to Portland.

In the meantime, the first public railroad in Clatsop County was built by the Astoria & South Coast Railroad Co., founded by E.M. Grimes of Seaside, D.K. Warren of Warrenton, and a group of Astoria investors. Completed by the spring of 1890, the little railroad ran from Young's Bay to Seaside via Warrenton and small settlements along the way. Boats carried passengers from their ships to the pier where the railway would be ready to take them south into the Clatsop country. A.B. Hammond bought this little "Seaside railroad" in 1894 and extended it through to Astoria in 1896. making it a branch of the Astoria & Columbia River Railroad, the rail line to Portland from Astoria.

A community called "Clatsop Plains" was established and incorporated in 1870, primarily for the purpose of restricting cattle grazing along the sea ridge. This grazing was destroying ridge grass and plants that prevented sand from blowing onto the nearby farms. As incorporated originally, "Clatsop Plains" extended from the Skipanon River to Seaside. An actual town eventually came into being about a mile north of Seaside, and was later absorbed into Gearhart, Oregon. However, its early proximity to Seaside is probably why Seaside itself was sometimes referred to Clatsop Plains.

In 1886, mail was no longer delivered to a community designated "Seaside House," because "Seaside House" had now become Sea Side, shortened to two words by J.P. Austin, its postmaster. Its resident population was 60. Mr. Austin also operated a saloon, a grocery store, and stage line. L.D. Coffman, who was married to a daughter of Antoine and Helen Lattie Cloutrie, was a carpenter, once associated with Holladay in the building of Seaside House, and now also had established a clam packing and delivery business in the town. He also had a horse-drawn taxi service if needed. Two hotels served visitors, the Holladay resort and the Grimes Hotel. A small school for children of the settlers had been built on "A" Street in 1860. Another source states that the first school was built in 1872 on the Cloutrie property on "U" Avenue.

In 1888, Sea Side had become Seaside, one word, through the efforts of Augusta Steabb, its sixth postmaster. In 1889 and 1890, Seaside still received mail three times a week for a resident population of 60 and surrounding residents of the south Clatsop country. An addition to Seaside's business community was Carl Epperly, now operating Seaside House. Mr. Grimes, who owned and operated the Grimes Hotel, also operated the Grimes Station, the depot at the Seaside end of the line for the new train service.

By 1892, mail was being received daily in Seaside, whose resident population was then 70 plus a growing number of people in the smaller settlements in the area. Mrs. S. Anderson was postmaster. The coming of the train has brought additional business activity including: M.0. Anderson & Co., builders and carpenters; the H. F. Logan Saloon; the C.A. McGuire Hotel and McGuire Grocery Store; the J. P. Marefield Blacksmith Shop. Carl Epperly no longer appeared to operate the Seaside House, although the "Holladay & Holladay Hotel" was in operation.

In May 1895, the Calvary Episcopal Church was dedicated, with Rev. Sillim Short as pastor. Seaside's Catholic Church was dedicated July 14, 1901; eleven years later in the Great Fire of 1912 it was destroyed, but rebuilt and rededicated July 7, 1913.

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. Transportation facilities were improving, however slowly by land, and commerce and industry on the Columbia were stimulating population and tourist potential. The trading area of the community encompassed Gearhart Park, Cannon Beach, Hamlet, and an extensive area of Clatsop Plains. By this time the community had five hotels, numerous stores, the Western Union Telegraph, long distance telephone, and four trains in and out daily. It had a cannery, a sawmill and box factory operated by a lumber company with a total payroll of over $6000 monthly; there were three churches, the Catholic, Episcopal and Methodist; and the school employed three teachers.

Seaside drew the interest of R.N. Watson, a colourful, long-time newspaperman, who arrived to establish the Seaside Signal, the city's first newspaper. Its first issue, dated March 25, 1905, was printed in a small, shed-like building east of City Hall. Mr. Webster, a first-class civic activist, noted enthusiastically in August 1906 the growth of Seaside in the one and one-half years since his arrival: installation of a telephone exchange and electric light plant; the addition of two more teachers in the school, plus two more grades and three more rooms.

Watson agitated for a bank, a box factory, a deep-water harbour at Seaside, and other additions, principally roads, that would stimulate growth and tourism. On the other hand, he objected vociferously to there being five saloons in a community the size of Seaside. He carried on a protracted feud, in print and person, with B.J. Callahan, one of the saloon owners, who later became owner of several theaters in the area.

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. Businesses were increasing steadily. The Panic of 1907 in the East didn't reach Seaside in force until 1910. The Seaside Lumber & Manufacturing Co. went bankrupt and carried the local bank with it. The bank cashier who was also the treasurer of Seaside, E.N. Henninger, committed suicide. His brother, W.S. Henninger, resigned as president of the lumber company and also as mayor of Seaside. A major employer, the lumber company left its employees bereft of funds and jobs, creating a domino effect throughout the community. With the collapse of both bank and mill, the community went into serious decline. C.C. Palmberg bought the assets of the mill at auction in 1911 and later put the mill in operation, employing some workers. However, there were not sufficient logs at hand, so it had to close permanently in early March 1912.

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 discrepancy between voting date and official recognition of the merger was due to an obscure law requiring the State Governor to call a statewide election for any such merger. Seaside, moving to abrogate the law in seeking validation of its 1911 merger vote, placed the dispute in litigation before the State Supreme Court, who handed down its verdict for recognition of the 1911 election vote for merger. The merger would, Seasiders believed, give vital direction and unified support for the city's growth as a major tourist resort.

To compound the financial disaster of 1910 came the Great Fire of 1912, destroying 54 businesses possessing little or no insurance. West Seattle was spared loss by the vigorous action of its citizens. City Hall was the last building east of the bridge to go. The only buildings saved on East Bridge Street were the secondhand furniture store, the Signal office, the Commercial Hotel, the Beiderman restaurant, B.W. Otto's concrete store building, and the residences of B.W. Otto and Henry Braillier. The fire had begun in the back room of the Bridge Exchange Saloon where a gas stove exploded. Fed by a strong east wind, the fire moved swiftly. Most of Seaside came out to help fight the catastrophe. A special train from Astoria was sent with men and fire-fighting equipment to assist. The Seaside Volunteer Fire Department found water dangerously short; then it discovered that someone had shut off the water from the east side to provide more for protection of the west side. The Department also formed a huge bucket brigade of citizens gathering quilts, blankets and sheets to keep watersoaked and placed on roofs, eaves, porches, whatever was endangered.

Seaside took its $350,000+ loss in stride. The telephone exchange was immediately set up on the porch of the Charles Williams residence until a new telephone office could be built. The city council also appropriated at once $1000 for 1000 feet of fire hose and a fire cart, all of which were destroyed in fighting the fire. Rebuilding plans got underway quickly, and this time with more emphasis on concrete and more permanent buildings. In a sense, the fire was the beginning of Seaside's more substantial growth period.

Another major fire, fed by a 60 to 70 mile-an-hour gale, struck Seaside in 1935, causing serious damage to the Gilbert Building, drugstore, the post office, liquor store and bakery.

The Seaside Volunteer Fire Department had been organized in 1904. Although its meetings were irregular and there was considerable turnover of personnel, the department operated well. It worked with a hook, ladder and two fire-hose carts, all manually operated. As the community developed, the department and its equipment improved. In 1937, its members built a fire truck on a 1935 Chevrolet chassis to accommodate a '35 Mack triple- combination pumper. The citizens of Seaside gave the Department an emergency car and a public address system, which was also used in other emergencies, ball games and for special public announcements. In 1949, the volunteer force numbered 35 men and maintained its independence through annual dances, fireworks sales, picnics, fund drives and other activities.

By 1910, Publisher Watson, a restless man, had decided to move on, and sold the paper to E.N. Hurd and W.B. Scott. The financial panic had made the purchase difficult for Hurd, who bought the paper with little equipment. He became a major civic leader and was a vital factor in the success of the merger of the two Seasides. He was a driving force behind the road-building agitation that ultimately succeeded. The Signal was moved from its old headquarters at 762 Broadway to a new home, now the quarters for city administration. Proposals for the Promenade, a concrete walk to reach the length of Seaside's ocean frontage, were carried forward (although detractors at the time called it "Hurd's Folly"). Hurd organized the Breakwater Association, forerunner of the Chamber of Commerce. The Breakwater organization was responsible later for pushing the Promenade to completion. J.E. Oates' well-known Natorium was built in 1913- 1914 at a cost of $30,000. It was the scene of swimming races and other popular water events. The Seaside Women's Club was organized in 1913 and went on to promote notable community developments, including an improved city library in 1919, the first home delivery of mail in 1935 and the annual Dahlia Show in 1931. Seaside High School, the city's first, was built in 1916.

However, the first World War intervened in Seaside's projections, and directed energies elsewhere. Ben Holladay's Seaside House, abandoned for many years, was converted to a medical facility during the war. The economy boomed. Seaside oversubscribed its Liberty Bond quota by some 362 percent, highly unusual for a small community. Fort Stevens, in full military stance, added 2000 solders to the county's population. Seaside provided a building as a military recreation center. Some 1500 solders and civilians built spur railways into the spruce forests and logged out the timber needed for war planes and other wartime priorities. There were no Seaside names on the war casualty lists. In November 1918, the armistice was signed. At the same time the flu quarantine was lifted. While no Seaside residents had died during this worldwide epidemic, there had been deaths among its visitors.

At war's end, Seaside again directed its energies to renewed building, more and better roads, many new hotels on the beach, completing the Promenade, and promoting tourism in every possible way. Its population increased from 1500 in 1915 to 2000 in 1920. In 1920, the Promenade, with its Turnaround at the end of Broadway, was constructed along 8010 feet of beach front and it became Seaside's unique and famous landmark. At its dedication, the largest crowd yet in Seaside's history assembled some 25,000 to 30,000 visitors.

The Prom was designed by L.C. Rogers, then the city engineer, and built by J.H. Tiliman, the contractor responsible for miles of streets in Seaside and many county roads. Tourist businesses of many kinds followed the Promenade to Seaside, gift and souvenir shops; amusement rides and concessions; Elmer (Tiny) Leonard's water- taffy business where Tiny pulled, wrapped and sold millions of taffy candies over the years for unnumbered vacationers. After serving as a military hospital during the war, Seaside House was dismantled and its grounds were occupied by the Seaside Golf Course in 1924. From the air, one can detect the ghostly outline of the old Holladay racetrack. Dan J. Moore sold his Hotel Moore in 1919 for $75,000, making way for the Hotel Seaside on the Promenade.

The persistent agitation for roads, and seemingly endless delays in their building, round some little satisfaction in the Roosevelt Drive being finally finished from the north of town to Broadway, although its southern leg was in the distant future. Also, in the decade of the '20s, after much dispute, the county finally took responsibility for rebuilding the perilously old Broadway Bridge. Seaside's water system had to be re-developed to meet the needs of a growing population, leading to establishment of its own municipal system in 1925. In 1926 a new concrete-block building by Alex Gilbert stood at the corner of Broadway to Seventh. Broadway also boasted the new Woodman Hall. At the time of Astoria's catastrophic fire of December 8, 1922, the Seaside Signal printed for the Astorian both its AM and PM editions for three weeks, since it had been burned out in that fire. The Signal was also printing the Clatsop County Argus, a Warrenton paper, in addition to its own publication. The enthusiasm of Seaside's people was not deterred by the 1920 postwar slump.

Appropriate roads, making this oceanside resort country accessible to tourists, the dominant factor in its economy, were not available, after decades of planning and unsuccessful negotiation. Road construction, subject to incessant political and financial reverses, had been long delayed and this still seriously isolated many communities, impairing development. In 1888, a county road had been finally completed over the 15 miles from Seaside to Young's Bay; however, it was badly neglected and often impassable. Not until 1915 was the Columbia Highway from Astoria to Seaside, a distance of 18 miles, ready for surfacing. The road linking Seaside with Tillamook County had not been finished before 1914.

In 1916, the long-neglected Lower Columbia Highway that extended through the county had been improved with the use of $72,000, half tax dollars, half federal highway aid. The year 1919 saw legislation proposed for a road from Astoria to California, initially called Roosevelt Coast Military Highway, but later renamed the Oregon Coast Highway. The Roosevelt in 1926 was being completed, although portions of it remained incomplete. In 1936, renamed the Oregon Coast Highway, this road was given another link, the Arch Cape tunnel, 1278 feet long.

The Work Projects Administration was directed in 1936 by President Roosevelt to build the road needed to shorten the miles between Seaside and Portland. This was known as the Wolf Creek Highway, opened in 1938, reducing the distance from Portland to fewer than 100 miles. The name was changed from Wolf Creek to the Sunset Highway in 1946, since many were confused by the meaning of the "Wolf Creek." S.N. Hurd, formerly of the Signal, had been pivotal, with the Seaside Chamber of Commerce, in promoting the Wolf Creek project. Hurd had told the engineers in their early designs that "at the headwaters of Wolf Creek, a low pass exists that could take the highway through the Coast Range." Thus the "Wolf Creek" of the original name.

Before the opening of the 1938 Sunset (then Wolf Creek) Highway, thousands of visitors had arrived annually by train, welcomed at the depot the end of Broadway's eight paved blocks to the ocean. The automobile in the not distant future would reduce, then end those depot arrivals.

Some 100 years after the early settlers had first urged and petitioned for roads, were they constructed to make this country accessible to the travelers who would use them.

S.N. Hurd sold the Signal to Max Schafer in 1928, the eve of the Great Depression. Mr. Schafer proved an energetic, perceptive force in the development of Seaside. The Seaside bank went broke on September 22, 1927, for the second time, as the Signal arranged to change hands for the second time. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 did not have an immediate destructive effect. It is noted, however, that Seaside's 1925 population of 3000 dropped to 1565 by 1930. In Seaside, the summer tourist trade of 1930 and 1931 were fairly good, according to the Signal. However, the economy precipitously collapsed. When President Roosevelt closed the banks in March 1933, the future appeared doomed. Budgets and salaries were drastically reduced. Unemployment reached underheard-of numbers. Seaside was not alone to flirt with bankruptcy. Although many critics voiced loud objections, the extensive federal works projects brought much that was good. Many roads were planned and put underway with government- subsidized labour and funds; included was the long-awaited Sunset Highway.

The Civilian Conservation Corps provided extensive employment in creating coastal parks and fighting erosion of the dunes. Seaside bridge construction and road repairs provided needed employment for many citizens. Serious labour unrest was as prevalent in the Clatsop country as elsewhere in the nation during the '30s.

In the spring of 1934, Crown-Willamette (forerunner of Crown-Zellerbach) had entered the district and took over the operations of a the LeDee Logging Company. The Timber and Sawmill Workers Union struck the company; the dispute developed into violence; and many employees in Seaside were idle. Armed violence came with an attack by union workers on the Lewis and Clark camp of Crown-Willamette, leaving two workers dead. Lasting bitterness enveloped labour relations, and the Seaside union and the company endured years of unsuccessful negotiations and litigation.

By 1934, a number of Seaside businesses were planning to reopen for the first time since 1930; more tourists might be anticipated. In 1936, savings deposits had improved; delinquent taxes were being paid; retail costs were rising for the first time; the school was almost out of debt in 1937; by 1938 the city was lowering taxes since the threat of bankruptcy was fading.

In 1939, the Great Depression could look back on its worse years. And Europe was at war. The United States was mobilizing. Pearl Harbour, December 7, 1941, brought immediate blackout and military restrictions. The National Guard was present at positions all along the Northern Oregon coast. The nation once again was converting its massive energies and resources to war.

In 1940 Seaside's economy had been good and improving. Its new sewage plan had begun operating in 1940; many improvement plans were underway: a new jail, roads, bridges, buildings, parking meters. As of December 7, 1941, any such plans were immediately put on delayed action. Employees were hard to rind; priorities and rationing were strictly controlled; many tourist businesses suspended operations for the duration; a wood famine was threatening because of wartime needs elsewhere. This near-famine brought oil heat, replacing wood heat, to Seaside. The community devoted its singular energies and contributions to the war effort.

In 1945, at war's end, the economy again began to boom. Returning military personnel needed homes, clothing, autos, education facilities, and to begin families. A new city charter was prepared; parking meters were arranged; a new taxi service appeared. Businesses returned, employment was steady. Real estate sales were reaching new heights. Peacetime improvement plans were again possible. The old Seaside High School was torn down and replaced by the new high school. The 1950s found national highway construction proceeding apace to meet a growing population and lifestyle that demanded automobiles and travel. Air travel had leaped into the Jet Age. While Seaside had developed a landing-strip as early as the 1930s along the beach, the Seaside-Gearhart Airport was dedicated in 1957. Tourism would be the dominant force in the rapidly approaching future of the county. Salmon and lumber continued their relentless decline after decades of over-use and misuse.

Seaside's tourist traditions now included the "Miss Oregon" Pageant, created in 1946 by Mitch C. Thorn. Vacation brochures and newspaper supplements were published regularly, extolling the scenic beauties and playground of this resort city. Salmon feasts and clam chowder events drew hundreds of guests. While Seaside had had a landing strip for planes along the beach as early as the '30s, the Seaside Gearhart Airport was established in the 1950s.

Probably the most popular resort on the Northwest Coast, postwar 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. Now it is left to the community to focus on its own unique persona as related to a rich historical past, in reinforcing its now tourist economy.