Just as a visit to Washington, D.C. is incomplete without a day or two at the Smithsonian, anybody who lives or visits here shouldn’t miss our museums.

The Smithsonian is, of course, an astounding complex of 17 museums, galleries and the National Zoo — in some cases quite widely separated. By the same token, Pacific and Clatsop counties boast a complex of museums devoted to an array of fascinating historical and industrial subjects.

Unlike in the Smithsonian, here you won’t turn a corner and encounter the Hope diamond, the Spirit of St. Louis or Dorothy’s ruby slippers from “The Wizard of Oz.” However, the combined collections in local Columbia-Willapa institutions achieve a “wow factor” unparalleled in the Pacific Northwest. It takes at least a long weekend to visit them all, but doing so is a unique and enjoyable dive into the depths of this place.

Aside from May being Museum Month, now is a particularly apt time to celebrate local ones. Living in Ilwaco as I do, the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum is always top of mind. It has become a more and more important center of peninsula life — not just its impressive past — under a series of leaders: Noreen Robinson, Hobe Kytr, Betsy Millard and Madeline Matson.

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Living in Ilwaco as I do, the Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum is always top of mind. It has become a more and more important center of peninsula life — note just its impressive past — under a series of leaders: Noreen Robinson, Hobe Kytr, Betsy Millard and Madeline Matson.

If you haven’t discovered it, you should. First-time visitors are always amazed at the museum’s collections and professionalism. As an avid fan of the Ilwaco Railway & Navigation Co. — the peninsula’s much-loved and mourned narrow-gauge railroad that met its demise in 1930 at the hands of its corporate owner — its restored passenger car and other artifacts never fail to thrill me.

The Chinook Observer is well represented in the museum, most recently by institutional and personal donations of our bound archives, decades of photos in various formats, documents and much else. Newspapers have been called the first draft of history. In the case of Pacific County, which lies beyond the outer periphery of the Seattle and Portland media markets, the Observer and a handful of other news organizations have written the only draft of history. I’m proud to have all this work — the brains and labor of generations of dedicated journalists — preserved at our local museum.

I won’t endeavor to review all our great Pacific County museums. A good overview may be found at www.visitlongbeachpeninsula.com/museum-month-2024. But I will say that the Northwest Carriage Museum in Raymond is another active and enthusiastic institution, well meriting a visit. I also over the years have admired and supported the Pacific County Museum in South Bend. If you pass that way coming and going from Puget Sound, both these north county institutions deserve your attention.

Two of Clatsop County’s museums are about to be expanded, and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Few would question the preeminence of the Columbia River Maritime Museum, which isn’t just the class act in our corner of the Pacific Northwest, but compares favorably with maritime museums along the entire West Coast. It’s difficult to know what a typical person thinks when they hear or read the word “maritime,” but in the context of this museum — when it’s functioning at its best — maritime encapsulates a vast swath of regional culture and economy. While it doesn’t always triumph, its storytelling touches upon heroism, disaster, ingenuity, artistry and an array of other essential human themes. Its forthcoming addition of a gallery devoted to the Indigenous seafarers of the Northwest and an entire building to display and interpret dozens of vessels donated by local people will take CRMM to an entirely new level.

Housed up the hill in Astoria’s former city hall, the Clatsop County Historical Museum gets only a fraction of the visitation of the CRMM, but houses well-considered exhibits on the local immigrant experience, the intrusion here of the racist Ku Klux Klan, and much else. It, along with the Flavel House Museum and the Uppertown Firefighters Museum, is a perfect introduction to the oldest White American settlement west of the Mississippi.

But it’s the Oregon Film Museum in the limelight now, with a major expansion to a new site that will earn glowing reviews in coming years.

The film museum will no doubt highlight “The Goonies,” Steven Spielberg’s ever-popular 1985 tale of childhood adventure. Astoria’s movie history is bracketed in 1922 by Clark Gable’s pre-movie acting there and “Star Wars” star Daisy Ridley’s 2023 drama “Sometimes I Think About Dying.” In between are “Kindergarten Cop,” “Free Willy” — also partly filmed in Pacific County — and more. Oregon as a whole has been the setting for dozens of other movies and TV shows, of which my personal favorite is “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Have no fear of Nurse Ratched — it’s sure to be a fun place to visit, eventually replacing the small museum currently housed in Astoria’s old jail.

I imagine some will scoff at my affection for museums — as I know my daughter did as a teenager when we spent endless, rewarding (for me) hours in the British Museum in London. But the fact is that history — and our museums that preserve and rejoice in it — is among our most important assets. Throw in Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, and museums support dozens of direct jobs and hundreds of people who earn some part of our income from the visitors who come to partake in one of the Pacific Northwest’s most historic places.

Our museums are well worth your time and support.