Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Westport

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
Westport Wauna Volunteer Fire Department - Westport OregonPhoto: Tedder · CC BY 3.0
–Not graded
History · Westport

Westport’s post office opened in 1863, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1981 on.

1863first post office
0on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Tedder · CC BY 3.0
Quick answers

How Westport began

When was Westport founded?

1863

The Westport post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 319163 years
Founding year: the first Westport post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Westport’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Westport are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Westport’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Westport’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Westport, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Westport yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Westport is an unincorporated community and census-designated place on the Columbia River in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census, Westport had a population of 319. Westport is connected to Cathlamet, Washington, across the river via the Wahkiakum County ferry to Puget Island. U.S. Route 30 passes through the community, connecting it to Astoria to the west and Clatskanie to the east. Westport is named after "Captain" John West, a millwright and lumberman who settled in the area in the early 1850s. West was a native of Scotland, emigrated to Canada as a young man where he worked in a sawmill on the St. Lawrence River and then came to Oregon via California during the g…

Its first post office opened in 1863. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 321 in 2010, 319 in 2020.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Westport, 1863 to 1981

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1863Post officeThe Westport post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1959Post officeThe Westport post office closes
  5. 1981On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Westport, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Puget Island from the north2022Puget Island from the northWestport Wauna Volunteer Fire Department2009Westport Wauna Volunteer Fire Department
On the map

Westport on the map in 1981

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Westport.

Westport on the 1981 USGS map1981Astoria sheet · 1:100,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Westport.

Famous people

Famous people close to Westport

Nobody well known was born in Westport itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
R
Raymond CarverPenman, poet, screenwriter, novelist, prose wri… · b. 1938
Holly MadisonAmerican television personality · b. 1979
G
George AmickAmerican racing driver · b. 1924
K
Karl MarlantesAmerican businessman and novelist · b. 1944
Cole EscolaAmerican comedian, actor, and playwright · b. 1986
David KortenWriter, economic adviser, sustainability advoca… · b. 1937
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Westport had its own post office from 1863 to 1959.

Westport
1863–1959
18601940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Westport’s history

What year was Westport founded?

The Westport post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (2), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.