The Astoria Column was dedicated on July 22, 1926 as the climactic event during that year’s three day Founders’ Celebration (Morning Oregonian, 22-July-1926).

Patterned after Trajan’s Column in Rome, circling the column is a depiction of the history of the area, beginning with before the white people arrived, and ending with the arrival of the railroad in Astoria.

The 125 foot tall concrete column stands atop the 600 foot Coxcomb Hill. The spiral staircase consists of 164 steps, and the view from the top is amazing.

The Astoria Column is also a good place to get married.

English-Canadian explorer David Thompson, representing the North West Company, navigated the entire length of the Columbia River from its source in Canada to the Pacific Ocean, arriving at the partially constructed Fort Astoria on July 14, 1811. He was the first European to travel the entire length of the Columbia.

Between 1784 and 1850, Thompson traveled more than 55,000 miles while exploring about 1.5 million square miles of North America.

The North American Exploration David Thompson Bicentennials were celebrated in 2011 to recognize the accomplishments of possibly the greatest land geographer of all time:

Thompson’s accomplishments helped define North America both geographically and imaginatively. His achievements include the surveying in many of the townships of Ontario and Quebec; the determination of large sections of the boundary between Canada and the United States; the establishment of the Columbia basin fur trade; exploration and mapping of a vast area of western North America and the documentation of the nature, history and culture of much of the continent.

Columbia River map with watershed highlighted was created by Wikimedia Commons user Kmusser, and is used here under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.