Clatskanie Heritage Days

The parade steps off at 11 a.m. on the Fourth of July from Nehalem and NE 5th Street in Clatskanie, in Columbia County, Oregon. In 2023 the VFW American Legion Clatskanie Post led it. Behind came marching bands, horses, farm vehicles, fire trucks, law enforcement patrol cars and dozens of floats, with Columbia County Sheriff’s deputies and local volunteers guiding them toward Clatskanie City Park. Ed Franklin coordinated the parade for the volunteer firefighters. In 2016 he described the crowd as “a mass of people four and five deep, from curb to yard, from 7th street on South Nehalem to the bridge on North Nehalem and even a good size group along 5th street.”

The parade down Nehalem Street

Franklin said more than 100 entrants had turned out in past parades, and that many of them sign up only on the morning itself. He listed who comes: “the log trucks, dump trucks, antique tractors, the fire trucks, the kids showing their talents.” Others come from out of town, such as “the Astoria Clowns, the Astoria Regatta float, usually a crowd favorite, courts of princesses and queens from other towns.”

The parade once formed in the parking lot of Clatskanie Elementary School at 815 S Nehalem. A renovation of the school took away much of that lot, so the volunteers split the staging. Horses, walking units, the Honor Guard and the Grand Marshal, who always leads, still gather at the grade school. Floats and mechanized entries form behind the Middle/High School on Bel Air Drive. Franklin said the route was chosen for a practical reason: “since it is all downhill it is easier on the walkers and easier on vehicles going downhill so overheating of motors is less of a problem.”

In 2016 the Grand Marshal was the Kiwanis Club. The parade judges are townspeople who win the honor by bidding at a local school auction. They pick first, second and third place in each category, and the winners are announced from the stage in the park. Franklin’s own favorite part was watching the children see “the big rigs honking their air horns and the fire trucks with their lights going and the firefighters waving and passing out candy.”

Noon to dark in City Park

The 2026 schedule, billed by the organizers as a celebration of Heritage Days and America’s 250th, filled the park from noon on. Dennis Harris played on the stage. The Rich Larsen Memorial Kiwanis Bingo opened, and the Clatskanie Farmers Market ran until 4 p.m. At 12:30 p.m. an opening flag ceremony featured Native American storyteller Scott MacGregor.

Children had a kids center, magicians, a photo booth, and a game truck parked beside the 142nd simulation demonstration trailer. Down at the skate park, volunteers demonstrated skate park etiquette and a work bench. A cartoon caricature artist drew free portraits through the afternoon. The free drawings were first offered in 2023, the same year the Donkey Races returned at 3:30 p.m.

The sports ran in the afternoon. A 3-on-3 basketball tournament played in the parking lot by the pool, and a softball game started at 1 p.m. on the field along 5th Street by the skate park. The logging show ran from 1 to 4 p.m. A rubber ducky race was set for the Clatskanie River, at a time to be determined by the tide.

At 4:30 p.m. the button raffle was drawn on the main stage. The $10 Heritage Days button also brings savings at local businesses. The 234th Army Country Band played from 7 to 10 p.m. Fireworks followed at dark, paid for in part from donation jars set out in Clatskanie businesses. Ten days later the organizers thanked the Coast Guard for a flyover. Sarah Johnson of Clatskanie PUD, a committee member, has said that the park events are family-friendly and that most are free.

Cars, pies and a dog stroll in June

The celebration opens a week or more before the Fourth. On June 27, 2026, more than 100 classic cars and trucks filled City Park for the car show, which was free to enter and came with live music, vendors and a 50/50 raffle. Owners competed in 24 award categories and for a People’s Choice award. A spectator who liked one car could buy a My Choice Trophy and hand it to the owner on the spot. The Heritage Days Committee took the show over from the Clatskanie Cruisers, who planned it in earlier years. Pie in the Park, from the Clatskanie Chapter T PEO, ran alongside, and the farmers market was open that morning at Cope’s Park.

The outdoor showing of Zootopia 2 was rained out that night and moved to July 2 at dusk, presented by Clatskanie Parks & Recreation and CMW Books. Strutt Your Mutt walked dogs through the park on June 28. In 2023 the week also held a hypnotist show at the Birkenfeld Theater, an All Class Reunion at the City Park gazebo and a “Reunion in the Restaurants.” Johnson said, “Heritage Days has a long tradition of bringing family members back to Clatskanie to celebrate the 4th of July where they grew up or to visit family that makes Clatskanie their home.”

Since 2022 the committee has run an art contest for local artists aged 13 to 19, and the winning design sets each year’s theme. The first winner drew the Clatskanie Castle, also known as the Thomas J. Flippin House. In 2023 Kaydence DeCaro drew the parade passing the Birkenfeld Theater, a building that carries I.O.O.F. Hall letters and houses City Hall. The year’s theme became “The Best Show In Town.”

Two artists won in 2024. Bayleigh Lopez drew the welcome sign: “The sign by the hotel is something everybody sees when they drive through town.” Kylee Smith won the car show logo with a classic car in “a beautiful red glow and a firework show in the background.”

The Clatskanie Chamber of Commerce oversees the work, and a small volunteer committee carries it out. Debi and Greg Smiley were its co-chairs in 2023. Chamber board director Nikole Young said, “Donations fund the event, and planning committee members oftentimes donate their own money to cross the Heritage Days finish line.”

A pool for the city park

The Chamber’s own page says the tradition dates to the early 1900s. It shows a photograph, provided by Debbie Hazen, of a Fourth of July parade from that time.

Young dates Heritage Days itself to 1959. “There had been multiple drownings, including drownings of children, in the Columbia River, so bringing a pool into town was a top priority for all citizens. The result was barbeque and baseball fundraiser,” she said.

An older history from the Heritage Days website, reprinted in The Chief in 2016, places the start two years earlier. In the spring and early summer of 1957, it says, several young people drowned in the rivers, ponds and sloughs of the Lower Columbia. By mid-June a drive had begun, led by the Clatskanie Volunteer Firemen, to build a swimming pool in the city park, where children could learn to swim under trained lifeguards. On the Fourth of July hundreds gathered in the park to eat barbecue, cheer their baseball teams and raise money. By Labor Day the pool was open, inaugurated with another barbecue and a swimming party.

That history goes on to trace what grew from the fundraiser. The barbecue and booths became a way for service and youth groups to raise money, and former residents made a habit of coming home each Fourth. By the late 1960s the festivities ran several days, with a big parade, PeeWee rodeos, musical programs and a royal court. The celebration was then called the Clatskanie Scramble, and was later renamed Clatskanie Heritage Days.

The volunteer firefighters association has worked on the parade since 1978, Franklin said. In the 1990s the Chamber and the Heritage Days Committee were adding a classic car show with 50s music, a log show, an old-fashioned soda fountain and the Pie in the Park baking contest. Some years also brought a talent show and canoe races. Franklin joined the parade as a volunteer fireman around 1989, and 2016 was his last year running it.

On July 4, 2026, the Clatskanie Pool was open for a free swim from 1 to 4 p.m.