A Different Way of Seeing ~ The Tidewater Reach

Poem by Robert Michael Pyle • Photograph by Judy VanderMaten • Field Notes by Hal Calbom

‘A county seat that just sits and sits...’

RIVER VILLAGE: CATHLAMET

Cathlamet remains the only incorporated town in Wahkiakum, the smallest of Washington’s counties, and is the site of one of the region’s oldest Native American villages. The name “Cathlamet” (Kathlamet) is said to come from the local Chinookan language referring to the area as a “rocky shore.” Cathlamet became the Wahkiakum County seat in 1854 and was officially incorporated in 1907. The old waterfront still hosts tugboat operations, boat building, and other commercial businesses.

River Pubs: The View from Maria’s

Ernesto brings a pint of Aye Aye IPA and a brace of tongue taquitos. Outside, fugitive sun on work-release from the constant cloudbank skitters the river with tinsel. A minute later, iron filings.

The railing out the window is the same color as the bottles of Cholula and Tapatio on the table. Beyond their red ranks, through the rain, Wright’s Hardware hulks beneath the longest tarpaper roof in the county: admission by appointment, call Wally; he’s probably got what you need. It rests its rangey gambrels against the biggest red camellia anywhere, carmine blossoms fixing to rot on the wet turf alongside, where a skirted old airboat holds up its end. Six Brusco tugs stand ready to push from the other side, if needed.

Here’s where they filmed Snow Falling on Cedars, because nowhere else, Humboldt County to Juneau, looked old enough. “If I had Wright’s Hardware in Hollywood,” said my friend, the production designer, “I could retire.” Cathlamet on the Columbia: a county seat that just sits and sits, and shows no sign of going anywhere, very fast.

Field Guide

to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures

RobeRt Michael Pyle Judy VandeRMaten

Robert Michael Pyle and Judy VanderMaten

On this page we excerpt poems, pictures and field notes from our own “Field Guide to the Lower Columbia River in Poems and Pictures,” The Tidewater Reach by Gray’s River resident and renowned naturalist Robert Michael Pyle, and Cathlamet photographer Judy VanderMaten. The two dreamed for years of a collaborative project, finally realized when Columbia River Reader Press published The Tidewater Reach in 2020, presenting “a different way of seeing” our beloved Columbia River. For information on ordering specific editions, as well as our partner bookshops and galleries, see pages 2 and 39.