Columbia River Maritime Museum — Attraction in Astoria

This museum is a must see! Do not pass up the chance if you have the time. It will take at least 90 minutes to see it all! The place is packed with photos and descriptions that you just cannot find anywhere else. The history of Columbia River is as fascinating as it gets! There’s a very good hall packed with art and info about the Native American tribes of the area. There’s sections illustrating the extreme conditions that the Coast Guard life saving teams endure is absolutely mind blowing! Those ladies and gents are seriously made of the most heroic stuff possible. The area documenting the world wars and the effects on mariner’s and businesses of the PNW is hugely informative. There’s a ton of stuff for the kids to check out, but an in depth investigation of the museum is probably way too long for young children. A great deal of the displays take some time and patience to read or listen to, and many objects are not to be touched. Outside, your ticket gets you into the tour of the Lightship Columbia as well as a nice view of the USCG cutters stationed here. And last but not least, if you’re looking for souvenirs and Astoria-centric merch, it’s hard to find a store in town that does better! FYI, you don’t have to pay the museum fee to...

One of the best maritime museums anywhere in the Pacific Northwest. Wonderful displays of authentic, life-size sail- and machine-powered vessels inside. Great artifacts on display evoking the early white explorers and cartographers first mapping the mighty Columbia and its many tributaries. Very fine and informative exhibits on the Columbia as a working river over time attracting highly diverse arrays of mariners and settles. Great rooms devoted to Pacific Northwest shipyards and locally built vessels in World War Two. Great displays on the exploits of locally stationed Coast Guard members and lifeboats. Museum admission also gives visitors access to the adjacent, moored, authentic and venerable lightship Columbia once near permanently stationed 5 miles out to sea off the treacherous and deadly Columbia River bar. Check her out from stem to stern! Museum has a super-fine shop with a very large array of books for all ages about all aspects of ship building, voyages of discovery, marine navigation, lighthouses, and mariners' lore. Great stuff here to encourage young people to go down to the sea in ships, love, and conserve our...

Impressive exhibits and artifacts of boats and the perils of navigating the Columbia Bar, aka "the graveyard of the pacific". Two intact fishing boats in a stunning main room set the tone. Exhibits about navigation and the many shipwrecks over the past 150 years fill in the juicy details.

But wait, there's more! An entire hall is devoted to the original mariners of the Columbia, the Chinook culture and their reliance on canoes for trade. Several of these large vessels are also on display, and you can learn how they were made from cedar logs.

The Emerson is also on display. This rowing vessel served Emerson C. Hendrickson on his record-setting unsupported solo row from Washington state to Queensland, Australia in 2018.

I saved the final attraction for last: the lightship Columbia, docked immediately behind the main building. Not only can you walk the main deck, but also climb below to experience the crew quarters. This experience alone makes the Columbia River Maritime Museum...