Svenson, Oregon

Not sure exactly where the above photo was taken, but this area looks a lot like it...

Wikipedia: Svenson, Oregon

Svensen is an unincorporated community on the Columbia River in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. According to Oregon Geographic Names, it is named after Peter Svensen, an early settler. There was a post office in Svensen from 1895 to 1944.[1]

Oregon State Archives - A 1940 Journey Across Oregon

At 92.5 m. [West of Portland] is a junction with an improved road.

Right here to SVENSON, 0.7 m. (10 alt., 100 pop.), less a town than a series of fishing wharves, extending into the Columbia River, which broadens to a width of five miles. Tied up at these docks are many fishing crafts. These small boats, their engines hooded for protection from spray and weather, ride restlessly in the tide's movement. Net drying racks stretch at length over the salt soaked planking, where fishermen mend their linen nets between catches.

It is from these docks, and the many that closely line the river's south shore from this point to Astoria, a distance of eight miles, that a large portion of the salmon fishing fleet puts out.

The principal method of taking fish in the Columbia is by gill netting. The gill netter works with a power boat and a net from 1,200 to 1,500 feet long. On one edge of the net are floats to hold it up and on the other edge weights to hold it down and vertical in the water. Fish swarming upstream strike the net and become entangled in the meshes, held by their gills. The gill net fishermen usually operate at night; at such times the river presents a fascinating spectacle, dotted with lights as the boats drift with the current.

Seining operations are employed on sand shoals, some of them far out in the wide Columbia estuary. One end of the seine is held on shore while the other end is taken out into the river by a power boat, swung around on a circular course and brought back to shore. As the loaded net comes in, teams of horses haul it into the shallows, where the catch is gaffed into boats. Seining crews and horses live in houses and barns on the seining grounds. Fishing crews often work in water to their shoulders.

Trolling boats are larger than gill netters and cross the Columbia bar to ply the ocean waters in their search for schools of salmon, and for sturgeon, which are taken by hook and line. They carry ice to preserve their cargo, as they are sometimes out for several days.

Mysterious are the life and habits of the salmon which provide the lower Columbia with perhaps its main industry. Spawned in the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries, the young fish go to sea and disappear, returning four years later to reproduce and die where they were spawned. Each May large runs of salmon come into the river and fight their way against the current; each autumn the young horde descends. Full grown King Chinook salmon weigh as much as 75 pounds each.

Until 1866, the salmon were sold fresh or pickled whole in barrels for shipping. In that year the tin container came into use. By 1874, the packing industry had become an extensive commercial enterprise. Artificial propagation, to prevent fishing out of the stream, began in 1887. Today, about 3,500 fishermen are engaged in various methods of taking fish in the Columbia River district, and about 1,800 boats of various sizes and types are used. It has been estimated that as many as 20,000 persons now depend upon the industry for a living. The value of the annual production , most of which is canned at the processing plants at Astoria and elsewhere on either side of the river, is estimated at ten million dollars.

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