Seaside is a city in

Clatsop County, Oregon Clatsop County () is the northernmost List of counties in Oregon, county in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 41,072. The county seat is Astoria, Oregon, Astoria. The Oregon Geograph ...

, United States, on the coast of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. The name Seaside is derived from ''Seaside House'', a historic summer resort built in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay. The city's population was 7,115 at the 2020 census.

History

The Clatsop were a historic Native American tribe that had a village named ''Ne-co-tat'' (in their Chinook language) in this area.

Indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

had long inhabited the coastal area. About January 1, 1806, a group of men from the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

built a salt-making

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

at the site later developed as Seaside. The city was not incorporated until February 17, 1899, when coastal resort areas were being settled. It is about by car northwest of

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, a major population center. In 1912, Alexandre Gilbert (1843–1932) was elected Mayor of Seaside. Gilbert was a French immigrant, a veteran of the Franco Prussian War (1870–1871). After living in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

Astoria, Oregon Astoria is a Port, port city in and the county seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1811, Astoria is the oldest city in the state and was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The county is the ...

, Gilbert moved to Seaside where he had a beach cottage (built in 1885). Gilbert was a real estate developer who donated land to the City of Seaside for its one-and-a-half-mile-long

Promenade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortification, fortress or city walls ...

, or "Prom", along the Pacific beach. In 1892, he added to his beach cottage. Nearly 100 years later, what was known as the Gilbert House was operated commercially as the Gilbert Inn since the mid-1980s. Both it and Gilbert's eponymous "Gilbert Block" office building on Broadway still survive. Gilbert died at home in Seaside and is interred in

Ocean View Abbey Mausoleum The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and A ...

in Warrenton.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Seaside lies on the edge of the

, at the southern end of the Clatsop Plains, about south of where the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook language, Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin language, Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river headwater ...

empties into the Pacific. The city is developed on both sides of the Necanicum River, which flows to the ocean at the city's northern edge. Tillamook Head towers over the southern edge of the city. Harvesting razor clams The geography associated with the gradual slope of the broad sandy beaches of Clatsop Spit provide excellent conditions for the formation of beds of millions of Pacific razor clams annually. The razor clams attract thousands of visitors to Seaside Beach each year. Waves attract surfers all year round from the challenging point break off the tip of Tillamook Head to the sandy shores at "the cove" parking lot at Ocean Vista Drive.

Climate

Seaside has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(Köppen ''Cfb''), typical

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

climate, bordering very closely on a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(Köppen ''Csb''). It receives rainy winters and mild-to-cool summers. Mean high temperature in the warmest month, August, is roughly . The warmest heat waves, however, occur in September. The hottest day on record was , which occurred on both September 23, 1943 and September 24, 1974. The coldest temperature ever recorded was which occurred on December 8, 1972.

Tsunami inundation zone

Part of Seaside is located in a tsunami inundation zone. Among other preparation, the City of Seaside has embarked on a program in which residents above the zone are asked to volunteer to store within their homes barrels of medical supplies, water purification systems, emergency rations, tarps, and radios, with each barrel having enough supplies to last 20 individuals for at least 3 days. As of January 2017, there are 119 barrels within volunteer households and a waiting list of interested households. Seismologists estimate that there is a one in three chance that Seaside will be hit by an earthquake and tsunami within the next fifty years.The Really Small Ones
''New Yorker'', Kathryn Schulz, Nov. 4, 2016. On Tues. Nov. 8, 2016, Seaside citizens voted 65% to 35% to issue $99.7 million in bonds to move the remaining three schools out of the tsunami inundation zone.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 6,457 people, 2,969 households, and 1,565 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 4,638 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.1%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.6%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.8% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.1%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 5.8% from other races, and 3.1% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 12.4% of the population. There were 2,969 households, of which 24.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.3% were non-families. 38.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.16 and the average family size was 2.83. The median age in the city was 41.5 years. 20% of residents were under the age of 18; 9.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.7% were from 25 to 44; 28.6% were from 45 to 64; and 17.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.3% male and 51.7% female.

Arts and culture

Seaside holds an art walk the first Saturday of each month from March through December. Several galleries are located along Broadway street in the historic Gilbert District. The Seaside Jazz Festival (formerly the Oregon Dixieland Jubilee) was a long-running annual festival that featured some of the most popular

Trad Jazz Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain that flourished from the 1930s to 1960s, based on the earlier New Orleans Dixieland jazz style. Prominent English trad jazz musicians such as Chris Barb ...

and Swing bands in the US and Canada.

Annual cultural events

Seaside hosts an annual

4th of July Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

celebration which includes a parade, outdoor concerts, and one of the largest fireworks displays on the west coast. Every spring until 2016 Seaside hosted the Dorchester Conference, a convention of Oregon political activists, typically conservative, independent, or center-right. This convention was founded in 1964 by then-state representative

Bob Packwood Robert William Packwood (born September 11, 1932) is an American retired lawyer and politician from Oregon who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1969 to 1995. He resigned from the U.S. Senate under threat of expulsion, in 1995 ...

as a forum for all Republicans statewide. In the 1990s, it became dominated by members of the conservative branch of the party. Over the years the conference has attracted visits from presidential candidates, debates between Republican primary candidates, and discussions of wider political and social issues. It is run by an independent board and is not formally affiliated with the Oregon Republican Party. The Miss Oregon Pageant, the official state finals to the Miss America Pageant, takes place annually at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center. Seaside Beach Volleyball, the 2nd largest Beach Volleyball Tournament in the world takes place annually on the 2nd weekend of August. Started in 1982 the tournament has grown each year. In 2022 Seaside Beach Volleyball had over 1,800 teams and 192 courts for the four days of tournament play. The annual Salt Maker's Return is held in September. The themed event celebrates Seaside history. Five men of the Lewis and Clark expedition needed nearly two months to make the equivalent of of salt; it was critical for them to be able to preserve meat for the winter and their several thousand-mile journey home to the East.

Media

Newspaper

*'' Seaside Signal''

Radio

* KSWB — 840 AM ( Classic Hits) * KBGE — 94.9 FM ( AAA) * KCYS — 96.5 FM (

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

) * KCRX — 102.3 FM (

Classic Rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

) * KMUN — 91.9 FM

Education

It is in the Seaside School District 10. The comprehensive high school of that district is Seaside High School. Clatsop County is in the boundary of

Clatsop Community College Clatsop Community College (CCC) is a public community college with facilities in Astoria and Seaside, Oregon. The college's service area includes Clatsop County, portions of Columbia and Tillamook counties and Pacific and Wahkiakum counties ...

Transportation

*Seaside has two major highways,

U.S. Route 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a major north–south highway that traverses the states of California, Oregon, and Washington on the West Coast of the United States. It is part of the United States Numbered Highway Syst ...

and U.S. Route 26. *Seaside is served by an intercity bus system. * Seaside Municipal Airport

Notable people

* Deborah Boone (born 1951), member of Oregon's House of Representatives * Ken Carpenter (1926–2011), American football player * Betsy Eby (born 1967), painter * Charles Irving Elliott (1892–1972), Aviation Pioneer *

Karl Marlantes Karl Arthur Marlantes (born December 24, 1944) is an American author and Vietnam War veteran. He has written four books: '' Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War'' (2010), ''What It Is Like to Go to War'' (2011), ''Deep River'' (20 ...

(born 1944), author, businessman and decorated Marine veteran. * Ruth Radelet (born 1982), singer and musician of Chromatics * Ormond Robbins (1910–1984), author * John Schlee (1939–2000), golfer * Norton Simon (1907–1993), industrialist and philanthropist * E. E. Smith (1890–1965), author *

Tsin-is-tum Tsin-is-tum, also known as Jennie Michel (c. 1814–1905, Clatsop), was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American folklore, folklorist based on the Pacific Coast of Oregon. Called "Last of the Clatsops" at the time of her death in 1 ...

(c. 1814–1905), Native American folklorist *

Mark Wiebe Mark Charles Wiebe (born September 13, 1957) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and PGA Tour Champions. Early life Wiebe was born in Seaside, Oregon and grew up in Escondido, California. He attended ...

(born 1956), golfer

References

External links

*
City of Seaside Visitors Bureau

Entry for Seaside
in the '' Oregon Blue Book''
Seaside Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control 1899 establishments in Oregon Astoria, Oregon micropolitan area Cities in Clatsop County, Oregon Cities in Oregon Oregon Coast Populated coastal places in Oregon Populated places established in 1899 Seaside resorts in Oregon