Small Washington Towns To See...

 For us, on this trip, the smallest of towns held the greatest of treasures. We loved the hunt.

South Bend, seat of Pacific County in Southwestern Washington, is surrounded by mountains and water that "have provided sustenance and wealth first to Chinook and Lower Chehalis Indians and later to white American settlers who first arrived in the area in the 1860s."
Located on the Willapa River just upstream from its mouth on Willapa Bay, South Bend has had lumber mills and canneries and processors that brought oysters, clams, salmon, and crab to market. A railroad-fueled boom established the town in 1890, but a bust in 1893 was followed by a longer-lasting steady trend built on manufacturing, oystering, fishing, and the newly won county seat. Most of the manufacturers left South Bend in the 1930s and salmon canneries have closed, but the oyster industry remains strong, touting itself as the "Oyster Capital of the World". It was the promise of the world's largest oyster that drew us in.
The darling town has a lot going on, including two really great thrift stores, but I'm going to focus on its oysters! This massive pile of shells is used for cultch (the broken shells of which an oyster bed is formed).
Being the Oyster Capital of the World is a relatively new title. The town was built on lumber. In the 1950s however, it became apparent that the forests would not always support the area's economy. South Bend's last saw mill closed in 1953. This left the oyster industry as the primary industry for the town. In the 1950s and 1960s oyster growers, after struggling with declining native harvests at the end of the nineteenth century and then with the failure of imported Atlantic oysters, landed large harvests of Japanese oysters (Crassostrea gigas), which had been renamed Pacific oysters during the anti-Japanese hysteria of World War II. These oysters had been established in Willapa Bay in the 1920s and were able to spawn in the bay's waters. They also held up well in canning, making them available for sale year-round and at great distances from Willapa Bay.
Our stop in South Bend provided us with yet another learning experience. We knew nothing about oysters and now look at me. I even used cultch in a sentence. So very cool
And to see an oyster bed in the wild was pretty cool, too.
The seaside town of Seaview, located in extreme southwest Washington state on the Long Beach peninsula, offers quite a bit of uniqueness. Its history began in 1859 when Jonathan Stout, a cooper from Ohio, arrived. In 1880 he purchased 153 acres along the oceanfront with plans for a summer resort. The rest, they say, is history.
When Steve saw that driving on the beach was allowed, we went even farther west.
He likes to point out that this is the kind of stuff his truck was built for.
There were some strange things here. One being dozens of crabs washed ashore. What I read was that what’s really washed up on the beach are the molted shells of Dungeness crabs that have outgrown their old ones.
"When systematically counted, there may be a few dead crabs mixed in but the vast majority are molted shells." Hmmm, the gulls and I have to disagree with that. I saw very yummy looking intact crabs everywhere.
Even the vultures had to disagree.
I love visual surprises.
The Sou’wester Historic Lodge and Vintage Travel Trailer Resort called our name.
They have a fleet of over 30+ renovated Vintage Travel Trailers from the 1950s and ’60s. They vary in size from 16′ up to 40′ long with amenities ranging from simple & rustic to fully-equipped, each with their own unique aesthetic and vintage appeal. This was the best collection of this type of history I've ever seen. Oh man, right up my alley. Next time!

We are now in going home mode. There will be a few stops still ahead but Tahoe is the ultimate destination. “Chase your dreams but always know the road that will lead you home again.”

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