June 3, 2022
Beach of Heaven
More than a century ago when Swedish immigrants sailed for America, the beach of heaven was where they would again see family and friends left behind. Because they would never again see them in their lifetimes. When Irene Martin's husband's great-grandmother departed, a close friend wrote a poem expressing the desire for a reunion on that beach.
I am grateful to have had to opportunity to talk with Martin for more than two hours this morning. She is a historian of the Lower Columbia, a gillnetter with three-quarters of a century of fishing knowledge, and a activist who has worked tirelessly to address the needs of a rural community facing multiple dislocations.
I first met Irene 30 years ago when I was researching Cathlamet for my master's thesis on rural communities. At that time the county was facing massive economic adjustment because the lumber products company Crown-Zellerbach, the area's main employer, had been liquidated and had pulled out.
Over three decades, how had Wahkiakum's communities fared? Martin was not a bit hesitant? What had once been the second-most Democratic County in Washington voted 60% for Trump in 2020. "It was more a matter of revenge. The Democrats have sold us out over and over and over." The icing on the cake is the urban attitude towards rural Washingtonians who log, fish, or farm - that these people are harming the lands and water that provide their sustenance.
Wahkiakum County has transitioned from a region of natural bounty and wealth - the beach of heaven - to one of the poorest counties in the state. Martin, an Episcopal priest, has also worked to address issues of food insecurity, substance abuse issues, domestic violence, and child care - all of which are directly related to the ongoing economic and social dislocations.
The logging yard on Elochoman Sough has been replaced by a marina. The C-Z mill is long gone, although the Wauna mill across the river still provides good-paying union jobs. Only a small fraction of the commercial fishing fleet remains on the Lower Columbia. The recreational fishing industry secures a larger and larger share of the permits while salmon runs remain far from recovery. Only a handful of dairy farms remain on Puget Island. Up-front costs, regulations, and low wholesale milk prices make small dairies unviable.
A bifurcated economic and structure has emerged. The children and grandchildren of the fishers, loggers, and farmers of the 1960s and 1970s make less than their parents and grandparents. Tourism-related jobs offer far less than resource jobs. People moving into Wahkiakum County tend to be retirees and distance workers, upper-middle class and educated, who value the rural landscape and recreational opportunities and have personal assets. A main asset of long-term residents, small holdings of private forest land, is increasingly devalued by Department of Natural Resources regulations which preclude logging.
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The bucolic setting of forests, streams, and fields obscures the tensions and disillusion impacting many in Wahkiakum's commuities, particularly those whose families have the deepest roots. Not surprisingly, there is a deep resentment. My reason for stopping in Cathlamet was to see, firsthand, the gap - more accurately, the chasm - that exists between urban and rural. And to ask whether or not anything can be done.
Today's ride: 15 miles (24 km)
Total: 100 miles (161 km)
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