Астория, Орегон: История старейшего города на западе США.

Astoria is a port city and the 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 northwest corner of Oregon, and Astoria is located on the south shore of the Columbia River, where the river flows into the Pacific Ocean. The city is named for John Jacob Astor, an investor and entrepreneur from New York City, whose American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site and established a monopoly in the fur trade in the early 19th century. Astoria was incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on October 20, 1856.

During archeological excavations in Astoria and Fort Clatsop in 2012, trading items from American settlers with Native Americans were found, including Austrian glass beads and falconry bells. The present area of Astoria belonged to a large, prehistoric Native American trade system of the Columbia Plateau.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805–1806 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure southwest of modern day Astoria. The expedition had hoped a ship would come by that could take them back east, but instead, they endured a torturous winter of rain and cold. They later returned overland and by internal rivers, the way they had traveled west. Today, the fort has been recreated and is part of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. In 1811, British explorer David Thompson, the first person known to have navigated the entire length of the Columbia River, reached the partially constructed Fort Astoria near the mouth of the river. He arrived two months after the Pacific Fur Company's ship, the Tonquin. The fort constructed by the Tonquin party established Astoria as a U. S., rather than a British, settlement and became a vital post for American exploration of the continent. It was later used as an American claim in the Oregon boundary dispute with European nations. The Pacific Fur Company, a subsidiary of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, was created to begin fur trading in the Oregon Country. During the War of 1812, in 1813, the company's officers sold its assets to their Canadian rivals, the North West Company, which renamed the site Fort George. The fur trade remained under British control until U. S. pioneers following the Oregon Trail began filtering into the town in the mid 1840s. The Treaty of 1818 established joint U. S. – British occupancy of the Oregon Country. Washington Irving, a prominent American writer with a European reputation, was approached by John Jacob Astor to mythologize the three year reign of his Pacific Fur Company. Astoria (1835), written while Irving was Astor's guest, promoted the importance of the region in the American psyche. In Irving's words, the fur traders were "Sinbads of the wilderness", and their venture was a staging point for the spread of American economic power into both the continental interior and outward in Pacific trade. In 1846, the Oregon Treaty divided the mainland at the 49th parallel north, making Astoria officially part of the United States. As the Oregon Territory grew and became increasingly more colonized by Americans, Astoria likewise grew as a port city near the mouth of the great river that provided the easiest access to the interior. The first U. S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Astoria in 1847 and official state incorporation in 1876. Astoria also had a significant population of Indians, especially Sikhs from Punjab; the Ghadar Party, a political movement among Indians on the West Coast of the U. S. and Canada to overthrow British rule in India, was officially founded on July 15, 1913, in Astoria.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.11 square miles (26 km2), of which 3.95 square miles (10 km2) are covered by water.

Astoria lies within the Mediterranean climate zone (Köppen Csb), with cool winters and mild summers, although short heat waves can occur. Rainfall is most abundant in late fall and winter and is lightest in July and August, averaging about of rain each year. Snowfall is relatively rare, averaging under a year and frequently having none. Nevertheless, when conditions are ripe, significant snowfalls can occur. Astoria's monthly average humidity is always over 80% throughout the year, with average monthly humidity reaching a high of 84% from November to March, with a low of 81% during May. The average relative humidity in Astoria is 89% in the morning and 73% in the afternoon. Annually, an average of only 4.2 afternoons have temperatures reaching or higher, and readings are rare. Normally, only one or two nights per year occur when the temperature remains at or above An average of 31 mornings have minimum temperatures at or below the freezing mark. The record high temperature was on July 1, 1942, and June 27, 2021. The record low temperature was on December 8, 1972, and on December 21, 1990. Even with such a cold record low, afternoons usually remain mild in winter. On average, the coldest daytime high is whereas the lowest daytime maximum on record is and the most snow in 24 hours was on December 11, 1922.

As of the 2010 census, 9,477 people, 4,288 households, and 2,274 families were residing in the city. The population density was The 4,980 housing units had an average density of The racial makeup of the city was 89.2% White, 0.6% African American, 1.1% Native American, 1.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 3.9% from other races, and 3.3% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 9.8% of the population. Of the 4,288 households, 24.6% had children under 18 living with them, 37.9% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.3% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.0% were not families. About 38.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.15, and the average family size was 2.86. The median age in the city was 41.9 years; 20.3% of residents were under 18; 8.6% were between 18 and 24; 24.3% were from 25 to 44; 29.9% were from 45 to 64; and 17.1% were 65 or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.4% male and 51.6% female.

Astoria operates under a council–manager form of city government. Voters elect four councilors by ward and a mayor, who each serve four year terms. The mayor and council appoint a city manager to conduct the ordinary business of the city. The current mayor is Sean Fitzpatrick, who took office in January 2023. His predecessor, Bruce Jones, served from 2019 to 2022.

The Astoria School District has four primary and secondary schools, including Astoria High School. Clatsop Community College is the city's two year college. The city also has a library and many parks with historical significance, plus the second oldest Job Corps facility (Tongue Point Job Corps) in the nation. Tongue Point Job Corps center is the only such location in the country which provides seamanship training.

The Astorian (formerly The Daily Astorian) is the main newspaper serving Astoria. It was established , in 1873, and has been in continuous publication since that time. The Coast River Business Journal is a monthly business magazine covering Astoria, Clatsop County, and the Northwest Oregon coast. It, along with The Astorian, is part of the EO Media Group (formerly the East Oregonian Publishing Company) family of Oregon and Washington newspapers. The local NPR station is KMUN 91.9, and KAST 1370 is a local news talk radio station.

The early 1960s television series Route 66 filmed the episode entitled "One Tiger to a Hill" in Astoria; it was broadcast on September 21, 1962. In recent popular culture, Astoria is most famous for being the setting of the 1985 film The Goonies, which was filmed on location in the city. Other notable movies filmed in Astoria include Short Circuit, The Black Stallion, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Benji the Hunted, Come See the Paradise, The Ring Two, Into the Wild, The Guardian and Green Room.

Actor Clark Gable is claimed to have begun his career at the Astoria Theatre in 1922. Leroy E. "Ed" Parsons, called the "Father of Cable Television", developed one of the first community antenna television stations (CATV) in the United States in Astoria starting in 1948. The fourth album of the pop punk band The Ataris was titled So Long, Astoria as an allusion to The Goonies. A song of the same title is the album's first track. The album's back cover features news clippings from Astoria, including a picture of the port's water tower from a 2002 article on its demolition. The pop punk band Marianas Trench has an album titled Astoria. The band states the album was inspired by 1980s fantasy and adventure films, and The Goonies in particular. That film inspired the title, as it was set in Astoria, the album's artwork, as well as the title of their accompanying US tour (Hey You Guys!!). Two U. S. Navy cruisers were named USS Astoria: A New Orleans class heavy cruiser (CA 34) and a Cleveland class light cruiser (CL 90). The former was lost in the Pacific Ocean in combat at the Battle of Savo Island in August 1942, during World War II, and the latter was scrapped in 1971 after being removed from active duty in 1949.