I have always enjoyed The Goonies. It has everything I want in a fun adventure movie: an old treasure map, secret passages, booby traps, criminals, a pirate ship, and a group of kids who decide that the best response to a hopeless situation is to go looking for One-Eyed Willie’s treasure.
I have seen it enough times that there are no surprises left, but that has never stopped me from enjoying it. Part of the reason is the adventure, but another part is the setting. The town at the beginning of the movie looks as though old stories ought to be hiding there.
That town is Astoria, Oregon.
The filmmakers arrived in 1984 and stayed only a few weeks, but Astoria had already been collecting stories for generations. Its history spans Native communities and fur traders, fishermen, immigrants, fires, shipping, and one of the most famous movie houses in America.
That makes Astoria worth exploring even if the Fratelli family never shows up.
Before There Was an Astoria
People had lived around the mouth of the Columbia River for thousands of years before Americans began building settlements there. Clatsop and other Chinookan communities used the river for transportation, fishing, trade, and communication with neighboring peoples.
The Columbia was not simply a river running through an undeveloped region. It was a major highway long before Europeans and Americans arrived.
Lewis and Clark reached the area in late 1805. Their expedition built Fort Clatsop near present-day Astoria and spent the winter there before beginning the return journey east in March 1806.
Their journals describe a difficult winter filled with rain, damp clothing, sickness, hunting, trading, and long stretches of uncomfortable weather. They depended heavily on local resources and interactions with Native people.
The expedition left, but American interest in the Columbia River continued to grow.
Within five years, another group arrived with a very different goal.
They wanted to make money.
John Jacob Astor and the Fur Trade
John Jacob Astor was already one of the wealthiest businessmen in the United States when he decided to expand his fur-trading empire toward the Pacific.
His Pacific Fur Company sent employees west by land and sea. In 1811, they established Fort Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia River.
The settlement became the first permanent American trading post on the Pacific Coast.
Astor himself never visited.
That is one of the little pieces of history I enjoy. A town that eventually became known around the world was named after a man who never walked its streets or saw the river beside it.
His trading venture did not last long either.
During the War of 1812, the Pacific Fur Company sold the post to the British North West Company. The settlement was renamed Fort George, and control of the Pacific Northwest remained disputed between Britain and the United States for years.
Eventually, the name Astoria returned and stayed.
A City Takes Shape
Astoria grew because of its location.
The Columbia River reaches the Pacific Ocean beside the city, making the area an important point for ships entering and leaving the river system. Trade moved through the region, ships needed supplies, and people found work along the waterfront.
Geography also shaped the town in another way.
There was a narrow stretch of level ground between the Columbia and the steep hills behind it. Businesses crowded near the waterfront while houses climbed the slopes above town.
Some streets were built over pilings, and parts of downtown extended over the riverfront.
Astoria became the seat of Clatsop County, and as the nineteenth century progressed, it grew from a trading outpost into a busy port community.
Shipping was important, but another industry eventually became closely connected with the city.
Salmon.
Salmon Changes the Town
During the late nineteenth century, salmon canning expanded rapidly along the Columbia River.
Fish were caught in enormous numbers and carried to canneries where workers cleaned, processed, packed, and shipped them.
By 1883, thirty-nine canneries were operating along the lower Columbia River. Together, they processed more than 40 million pounds of salmon that year.
That kind of industry needed a large workforce.
Fishermen worked the river. Cannery laborers processed the catch. Boat builders repaired vessels. Dockworkers moved supplies and finished products. Merchants sold clothing, food, equipment, and household goods.
People began arriving from many parts of the world.
That is where Astoria becomes particularly interesting to anyone studying family history.
Immigrants Build Communities
Chinese workers became an important part of the salmon-canning industry during the nineteenth century.
Many worked long hours in difficult conditions while also facing discrimination and laws that limited their rights and opportunities. Yet their labor helped make the Columbia River salmon industry possible.
Astoria also developed a large Finnish community.
Many Finnish immigrants worked as fishermen and settled around Uniontown. By the early twentieth century, Astoria contained one of the largest Finnish populations in the western United States.
Norwegian, Swedish, Croatian, Italian, and other immigrant families also became part of the region.
They formed neighborhoods, churches, social organizations, businesses, and extended family networks.
For genealogists, that tells us something important.
When an ancestor appears in Astoria, we should ask why.
Perhaps a brother had arrived first. Maybe someone from the same Finnish village had written home about fishing work. A new arrival might have stayed with relatives until he could find a job. Neighbors on a census page might turn out to have come from the same place overseas.
The record gives us the individual.
The community may explain how that person got there.
The Fire of 1922
Astoria faced one of its greatest disasters on December 8, 1922.
A fire broke out downtown and spread rapidly through buildings and beneath sections of the city built on wooden pilings.
Much of the business district burned.
Stores, offices, hotels, and other buildings disappeared. Streets were damaged, businesses were displaced, and the city faced the enormous job of rebuilding.
Events like this are especially important when we are researching a family.
Suppose a business suddenly disappears from a city directory after 1922. A merchant changes occupations. A family moves to another neighborhood. Property ownership changes unexpectedly.
The answer might not be found in a family record at all.
It might be found in the town's history.
Astoria rebuilt its downtown, and many of the buildings visitors see today date from the years following the fire.
The Astoria Column
Only a few years later, another familiar landmark appeared above the city.
The Astoria Column was dedicated in 1926 on Coxcomb Hill.
The 125-foot tower contains a spiral mural showing scenes from the history of the Columbia River region. Visitors can climb a long circular staircase to an observation deck overlooking Astoria, the Columbia River, and the surrounding landscape.
From there, it becomes easy to understand why this location has attracted people for so long.
The river provided transportation and food. The ocean opened the region to trade. The hills gave people a place to build above the waterfront.
Nearly every chapter of Astoria's history is connected in some way to the land and water surrounding it.
Crossing the Columbia
For many years, travelers driving along the Pacific Coast Highway could not simply continue across the Columbia River.
They had to take a ferry.
That changed in 1966 when the Astoria-Megler Bridge opened between Oregon and Washington.
The bridge completed a major missing connection on U.S. Highway 101 and changed transportation through the region. It also became one of Astoria's most recognizable landmarks.
By then, the fur traders were long gone, the salmon industry had changed, and Astoria was entering another period in its history.
Then Hollywood came to town.
The Goonies Arrives
In 1984, director Richard Donner and his production crew were searching for a location for a new adventure movie.
They found Astoria.
Filming began that fall, and several places around town became part of The Goonies.
One of the best-known was the Walsh family home.
The house was not built for the movie. It dates to the nineteenth century and had already stood on the Astoria hillside for decades before Sean Astin arrived to play Mikey Walsh.
That makes the attic scene even more enjoyable to me.
Mikey discovers an old treasure map among things stored in the house. Of course, One-Eyed Willie and his map were created for the movie, but the house itself already had a past.
Real people had lived there.
Families had looked through those windows.
Children had grown up on that hillside.
The movie simply gave the house one more story.
The Jail, the Streets, and the Chase
The opening of The Goonies also used several recognizable Astoria locations.
The building used for the jail was the old Clatsop County Jail. It later became the Oregon Film Museum.
The Fratelli family's escape sends the movie through parts of town before the main group of children is introduced.
The Flavel House appears, and other local buildings and streets help create the opening sequence.
That was a smart way to begin the movie.
Before anyone starts searching for treasure, we spend a few minutes moving through the community where the story will begin.
Then the movie takes us to the Goondocks, introducing Mikey, Mouth, Data, Chunk, and the rest of the group.
Their adventure begins because their neighborhood is threatened.
Finding One-Eyed Willie's treasure might save their homes.
For a movie filled with wild situations, that gives the adventure a surprisingly simple beginning.
The kids do not want to lose the place where they grew up.
Out to the Oregon Coast
The production did not stay entirely in Astoria.
Filming also took place around Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park.
Haystack Rock appears as the Goonies search for the location connected with the treasure map. The rugged coast became part of the journey toward the old restaurant and the underground passages.
Some of the behind-the-scenes photographs from the production show what the conditions were actually like.
The crew is bundled in coats and rain gear. The ground is wet. Wind and cold appear to have been constant companions.
That makes the finished movie even more interesting because the Oregon coast does not look polished or artificial.
It looks like the Oregon coast.
The giant pirate ship and underground caverns were filmed later on studio sets in California.
The adventure began in Oregon, but One-Eyed Willie was waiting on a soundstage.
Astoria After the Movie
The Goonies opened in 1985 and became one of those movies that continued finding new audiences long after its original theatrical run.
Home video helped.
Cable television helped.
Parents who had watched it as children eventually showed it to their own children.
And people began visiting Astoria.
They wanted to see the jail, the streets, the coast, and especially the Walsh house.
For local residents, that attention has sometimes created problems. The house is a private residence, and the surrounding neighborhood is still a place where people live their everyday lives.
Visitors need to remember that.
Still, it is remarkable that a movie filmed for a few weeks in 1984 continues to bring people to Astoria decades later.
The old jail now celebrates Oregon's film history.
The town marks Goonies Day.
People travel great distances because a childhood movie made Astoria part of their own memories.
What Genealogists Can Learn From Astoria
Astoria also leaves us with a useful family history lesson.
When we find an ancestor living somewhere, we should learn something about that place before moving on.
Look at the industries.
Study the neighborhoods.
Find out who was arriving and who was leaving.
Read about disasters, new businesses, transportation changes, immigration patterns, and major employers.
Then look at the family again.
A fisherman may have followed relatives to Astoria.
A cannery worker may have lived beside people from the same homeland.
A merchant may have rebuilt after the 1922 fire.
A family may have moved when an industry declined.
Those details may never appear on a birth certificate or marriage record, but they can help explain the choices our ancestors made.
Sometimes genealogy becomes clearer once we understand the town the family lived in.
Why I Still Enjoy Going Back
I started with The Goonies because I enjoy the movie.
There is something fun about following those kids from an attic in Astoria all the way to One-Eyed Willie's pirate ship. They have no idea what they are getting themselves into, and that is part of what makes the adventure work.
Now there is another reason I enjoy the setting.
When I see Astoria in the movie, I know there is much more behind those streets and houses than what appears on the screen.
Long before Mikey found his treasure map, Native families lived beside the Columbia. Fur traders built a post. Immigrants arrived looking for work. Fishermen went out onto the river. Cannery workers packed salmon. Merchants opened stores. Fire destroyed part of downtown. Families rebuilt and continued living on those hills.
Then Hollywood arrived and added another story.
That may be what I like most about places like Astoria.
You can begin with something as simple as a favorite movie and discover that the real story goes back much further.
Learn More
The Oregon Encyclopedia: The Goonies
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/the-goonies-film/
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park
https://www.nps.gov/lewi/
The Oregon History Project
https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/
Clatsop County Historical Information
https://www.clatsopcounty.gov/939/History
The Astoria Column
https://astoriacolumn.org/
