The New York herald., 1922-12-10
The City That Never Was.

pciLlI IL W Uo ScHiouoAy CouoiuSISu.
The City That Never Was.
Tho Ill fortune that befell Astoria,
Oregon, on Friday, when a great fire
swept away its business section. caus-
ing property loss estimated at s15,-
900, 900. brought into the news a
city whose name figures very infre-
Quently in the dispatches. Astoria
was intended for great thfngA 1t
was a city founded on a vision. The
vision faded, and the town that grew
up on pilings driven into the fats of
the Columbia River eight miles from
its mouth plodded on to a soberer
and less magnificent destiny.
JOHN JACOB AsroR, its founder and
the founder of the Astor family In
America, dreamed of making Astoria
the commercial center ofIa vast trade
with the Far East. The fortunes of
the war Of 1912 and British domina-
tion of the fur trade In the North
west blocked his plah and diverted
his ambition into other channels.
Astoria grew up. not to become a
powerful commercial center and the
nucleus OF a new and separate Amer
ican civilization Oh the Pacific coast,
as Aston and President JEFFERSON
expected. but q busy little fishing
and manufacturing city with a mod
est future before 1t.
Here in New York Asros planned
the enterprise which was to make
Astoria the clearing house and the
feeder Of an even vaster fortune
than the one he founded. In his
shop on Water street. where he cured
with his own hands the skins he OBJ
tanned on trading expeditions among
the Indians OF the Adirondacks and
Canada, he began to turn over In
his mind the reports brought back
by the expedition Of LEWIS and
CLARK. He pictured string Of
trading posts across the Western
country extending to the fort built
by LEWIS and CLARK, near where
Astoria now stands.
He established his post at Astoria
In 1911, but the enterprise did not
thrive. The British trading COM
panies were too strongly intrenched.
In the war of 1912 his trading post
was seized by the enemy, who held
It for several years. Aston tried
for time to pursue his project and
then shifted his operations to the
middle West, making his two most
important posts at Mackinac and St.
Louis.
President JEFFERSON, who warmly
approved AsToB's project. wrote OF
the enterprise that he looked for
ward with great satisfaction to the
time when the descendants Of AS
toria shall spread themselves over
the whole coast, covering 1t with free
and independent Americans, uncon-
nected with us but by the ties Of
blood and interest, and enjoying,
like us, the rights Of self-govern-
ment."
But It was not Astoria's portion
to be the colonizing Gender Of the
Oregon country. Portland, much fur
ther inland. near the junction Of the
Columbia River and the Willamette
River, became the chief port Of the
first successful American colony on
the Pacific coast. = -
Never the city 1t was intended to
be, Astoria had to struggle to be-
come the city 1t is. For years the
barrier of silt and sand piled up by
the tides at the mouth of the Colum-
bia endangered shipping seeking its
wharves. Millions Of dollars have
been spent by the Government in
dredging forty foot channel or Cape
Disappointment and Baker Bay.
But II Astoria has not made itself
the center Of a China trade It has
made itself the center of the salmon
industry on the Columbia, and its
population of $4,000 persons find en-
ployment also in numbering and other
industries. Astoria has lived through
a great deal. and there is no doubt
that 1t will build stronger and better
on tha ruins of its fire.