Long Beach is famous for the "World's Longest Beach," so everyone that visits the area has to walk down the beach, or if you have a four-wheel drive vehicle you can drive down the beach. The only problem is that there is about a 100-foot section of soft, dry sand that you have to cross to get to the wet sand that is hard-packed and suitable for driving. I had a rented Jeep, but before I attempted to cross the soft, dry sand I looked under the front of the vehicle to verify that I had four-wheel drive. Just to make certain that I would not get bogged down trying to cross the soft sand, I backed up and obtained sufficient speed to glide across the dry section of sand and safely arrived at the hard-packed wet beach. We drove up and down the beach for awhile enjoying the ocean and then headed back across the dry, soft sand to the road. Unfortunately, the vehicle stopped about ten feet short of the asphalt road! How could this be? When I noticed that only the front wheels were spinning, I looked under the back of the vehicle. Much to my surprise, the Jeep only had front-wheel drive! I did not even know that Jeep built a vehicle with only front-wheel drive. Fortunately, someone came along in a four-wheel drive Dodge Ram with a long tow strap and pulled our Jeep onto the pavement.
Not only is the "World's Longest Beach" found in Long Beach, but Long Beach is also home to the "World's Largest Chopsticks," the "World's Largest Fry Pan," and the "World's Largest Spitting Razor Oyster."
In addition, Marsh's World Famous Free Museum is located in downtown Long Beach. Marsh's Museum is somewhat like Wall Drug Store in South Dakota (i.e., a tourist trap).
Of course, most people stop at Marsh's Free Museum to see World Famous "Jake the Alligator Man." A young woman that I visited with outside of the store told me that Jake was found in Africa about 50 years ago and smuggled out of the country before the find could be recorded. According to the young woman, Jake is believed to be several million years old and is the missing link that Dr. Louis Leaky was looking for at Olduval Gorge. She went on to say that Jake is living proof that Darwin's theory of evolution is correct and people are descended directly from alligators. I then asked her if that was true, why do we still have both alligators and people on this planet. She had a blank look on her face, then responded that she would have ask her professor that question.
There are also various statues scattered around town and the sides of several building are painted with large murals. (I only photographed a representative sample of the statues and murals, but people in this part of the world love chainsaw-art.) The murals are part of Pacific County Muralogue that covers the entire county. Brochures describing the murals are available from visitor centers in the area.
Did I mention that there is a large quilt store conveniently located right downtown? At lease they have a nice men's waiting room well stocked with Motor Trent, Hot Rod, Outdoor Life, Field & Stream, etc. However, I was a little worried when I saw copies of Hawaii and War and Peace in the reading room.
Located just outside of Long Beach is the Pacific Coast Cranberry Research Foundation that is open to the public and they offer free self-guided walking tours. While on the tour I learned that cranberries have been grown in Washington since 1883, and although there are over 200 different varieties, only about 10 varieties are produced commercially. However, my biggest surprise was that cranberries do not grow in water! About 95% of the time the fields are flooded (wet harvest) and the cranberries float to the top and about 5% of the time the cranberries are picked when the field is dry (dry harvest). Only the dry harvested cranberries are sold in bags in the stores, all others are used for juice, sauce, etc.
Located on the east side of the peninsula is the Willapa Bay Interpretive Center (a replica of an oyster station house) and the Port of Peninsula, which is where a number of the oyster boats dock. There are large piles of oyster shells piled on the beaches and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has construed interesting kiosks just south of the oyster piles with information about the history of the area and how oysters are grown and harvested. And, when you get tired of reading signs, you can always pig out on blackberries that grow wild in great abundance throughout the area. Or, you can always visit a lavender farm to view the flowers, but spring is the best time of year when it is not so dry and hot.
Pacific County was the third County in Washington Territory and Oysterville served as the county seat from 1855 to 1893. However, because of Oysterville's remote location and small population, the residents of Pacific County wanted to county seat moved to a different location. Therefore, early on Sunday Morning, February 5, 1893, the South Bend Raiders showed up at the Oysterville Courthouse, removed all of the records, and moved the county seat to South Bend where they constructed a beautiful new courthouse that is still in use today.
The entire community of Oysterville is now on the National Register of Historic Places and contains a store and Post office (oldest continuously operating Post Office under the same name in Washington), church (built in 1892), one-room schoolhouse (third school on this site was built in 1908 - first two burned down), and an oyster cannery that now has an interpretive center. There is also some interesting beach art just north of the cannery.
Leadbetter Point State Park in at the north end of the Peninsula and the end of the road. There are no ferry services from the point to other destinations, so the only way off of the peninsula is to return back to Long Beach.
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