people + place

productIon notes

Despite a hunDreD years passing it’s difficult for Longview to think of itself as old.

In the first place, it isn’t. Compared even to the rest of the United States, Washington State and Longview are barely adolescent. In the sweep of world history, we are infants.

Likewise our own history, if you can call it that. Longview is on a cusp where recollection and personal experience are fading with the dying of first and second generations, and begins to exist in the netherworld of hearsay, fuzzy memory, and lore. “If only my mom were around, I’d love to ask her about….” is a litany we hear often as Longview takes a centennial look at itself.

We’re too young, still, to have a textbook-style history — which requires distancing and debate and consensus building, besides a record of events — and yet too old to simply trust our memories alone. Our history is cobbled together right now with snippets from the newspaper, high school yearbooks, family memories, scrapbooks and anecdotes.

We’re in the realm of folklore, still passed mainly by word of mouth. And all the richer for it. If we are creatures of inertia, it is the inertia of motion as much as the inertia of rest. Even the

where we’ve Been • where we’re GoInG

The Long View project pairs history with modern context. To celebrate Longview’s 100th birthday, Columbia River Reader is expanding its monthly “People+Place” feature to contrast the historical “Then” with the contemporary “Now.”

“It’s important to look back and celebrate the past,” said publisher Susan Piper, “but equally important to track the changes that make us what we are today. How close are we to the founders’ vision? What remains? What’s entirely new?”

Thanks to tremendous community support (see Partner Spotlights, page 26), the Reader will present 12 months of “People+Place Then and Now” reportage, then combine and expand these features into a commemorative book. Empire of Trees: America’s Planned City most settled of us venture out, whether it’s a trip to Safeway, or a second home in Palm Springs, a day at the beach or a long Sunday drive out to Willow Grove. There are currents running through us. Perhaps the most persistent is change and adaptability. The Planned City was relentlessly forced into Plan B. Or C, or D, or E. Events intervened. People responded. Meanwhile, the values side — the spirit behind the founders’ blueprints and topographic maps — supported people, held people up. and the Last Frontier, written by Hal Calbom, with a foreword by John M. McClelland, III.

Longview’s incidents and accidents continue to fade in memory. Its grit, optimism, and resourcefulness seem still to be alive and well.

The Reader is coordinating with the Longview Centennial Committee, led by Reed Hadley, to publicize civic activities and celebrations (see Centennial Countdown, page 27) and will host a Book Launch Gala June 30, 2023.

Then And Now

1. Developing Dreams

2. Empire of Trees

3. Heavy Lifting

4. Work Force

5. Waste Not, Want Not

6. Telling Stories

7. Transport and Trade

8. Darkness and Light

9. Living and Learning

10. Community Spirit

11. Dreams Developing

12. Then and Now

Photos:

Below: Contestants in the doll contest after Easter eggs had been distributed to the children of Longview by the Lions Club, Easter Sunday, April 1927.

Opposite page: Grainart panel circa 1926; printing press worker.

PhotoS