©1997 Mary Garvey
Mary grew up on the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon and knew the (primarily salmon) fisheries along its lower reaches. A huge body of water comes down a broad estuary near Astoria, creating one of the most dangerous river-mouth bars in the world. She says "This is just a fisherman put-putting down the river in a small boat on a day when the weather is very beautiful and the river is very blue. I remember as a child in Astoria seeing these massive quantities of fish going up conveyor belts from the ships and almost being spat out. The bit about rowing all night from Willapa Bay is straight out of a comment in a newspaper story… some woman said her grandfather had done that. Sturdy people in these parts… still are; but the Finns were legendary."
January Men and Then Some
Gordon – Spanish guitar
Forrest Sherman – tin whistle
It's not very far to Astoria's Bar
But a very long journey it can be
It can start at the mouth of the mighty blue river
But the River still shines and shimmers in the light
When they rowed all night and fished in the morning
And lived in Willapa Bay
When the tide is rough so very, very rough
So rough that you cannot stand
It drives the little fish right into the nets
And boats right into the sand
In the wind and the rain, the labor and the pain
We know what the fishing here is worth
It's worth more than gold when they suck 'em from the hold
It's worth all the treasures of the earth
Astoria Bar is recorded on the album Herrings in the Bay