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Tansy Point, Oregon, Columbia River looking upstream.
Astoria is in the background.
Image taken September 27, 2009.
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Tansy Point ...
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Tansy Point is located on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, just downstream from Warrenton and the Skipanon River, and upstream from Hammond and Point Adams.
The name came from the Tansy Ragwort weed which grew in abundance on the point.
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Early Tansy Point ...
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According to Oregon Geographic Names (MacArthur and MacArthur, 2003), in 1839 Sir Edward Belcher plotted Tansy Point on his charts and called it "Raccoon Point", presumably in reference to the HMS Raccoon which visited the area in 1813.
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U.S. Coast Pilots ...
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"Tansey Point" is mentioned in the 1862 U.S. Coast Pilot:
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"...
Young's bay lies between the eastern part of the Clatsop beach (called Tansey Point) and Point George. Into it empty Young's river, discovered, examined, and named by Broughton; Lewis and Clarke's river, examined by them in 1805; and one or two small streams or sloughs.
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The Clatsop Beach of the mid 1860s was the sandy beach around Point Adams.
The 1869 U.S. Coast Pilot mentions "Tansey Point" as the location of "Buoy No.4" of the Columbia River.
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"... No.4. -- Iron buoy, black, marking north side of Tansey Point, in fifteen feet of water. Last buoy bears west by north half north, one and three-fourths miles; Scarborough Hill, north-northwest, three-fourths mile; Tansey Point, south by west, three-fourths mile.
From the 1889 U.S. Coast Pilot:
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"...
Tansy Point. -- This is the low point on the south side of the river a little over two miles east by south half south (E. by S. 1/2 S.) from Fort Stevens. It is low, marked by small sand dunes with low marshy ground behind it, through which drai Tansy and Alder Creeks. There is a broad low-water sand beach in front of the point, and the three-fathom curve lies three hundred and forty yards outside the shore-line. A black buoy marks the north side of the channel abreast of Tansy Point, and there is deep water and a strong current in the channel-way between the buoy and the point.
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At the mouth of Tansy Creek, southeastward of the point, there is a large cannery and quite a settlement along the shore.
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Columbia River from Tansy Point, Oregon.
Image taken September 27, 2009.
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Tansy Point, Oregon, Columbia River looking downstream.
Cape Disappointment is in the background.
Image taken September 27, 2009.
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Observation Platform, Tansy Point, Oregon.
Astoria is in the background.
Image taken September 27, 2009.
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Eben H. Carruthers Memorial Park, Tansy Point, Oregon.
Image taken September 27, 2009.
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From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...
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