The village rests comfortably on the inland side of the Long Beach Peninsula, nestled on the bank of Willapa Bay (formerly called Shoalwater Bay) north of Ocean Park. Modern-day motorists need only follow Sandridge Road north to the Oysterville sign.
By the summer of 1854, after the word got around about the prime oyster beds and the opportunities that abounded in the new settlement, the village had become overwhelmed by fortune-seekers, fishermen, shopkeepers and tradesmen. Single men came first, followed by married men who settled homesteads and eventually sent for their families. Within a few short months the population of Oysterville swelled to more than 500, and within time the new community could boast of three hotels, a school, a church, boat shops, blacksmith stables, barbershops, three saloons, a tannery, sail shops and no fewer than four general stores.
In just one year Oysterville was proclaimed the county seat of Pacific County, until 38 years later when that distinction was stolen literally.
In the meantime Oysterville continued to thrive, despite what were often horrendous transportation problems. Mail came once a week via the Peninsula’s equivalent of the Pony Express: a lone rider treking all the way from Unity (now Ilwaco), making his way along the beach on the Pacific side and across to Oysterville on an old Indian trail. Eventually mail was brought by stagecoach, but even then schedules were governed by the tides.
Pedestrian travel was by stage, on horseback, in small boats and in horse-drawn vehicles, but the Peninsula still had no roads.
Oysterers were paid in gold coin. Legend has it that, since the nearest bank was in faraway Astoria, much of the gold was either lost on the long journey to the bank or buried somewhere in and around Oysterville. Despite assiduous digging, however, no treasure ever has been found.
This booming, burgeoning village, unfortunately, was destined to self-destruct because of the very nature of its economy, its remote location and a shift in the political wind.
The Oysterville of today maintains that spirit of grace and charm that has come to be associated with many quaint tiny villages which, through good years and bad, have survived for more than a century.
In 1976 the community was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Today, many of the town’s finest old homes are being meticulously preserved by descendants of their builders, and newcomers to the area are working hard to make major restorations to other structures.
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