The Chinook Observer is a weekly newspaper serving the
Long Beach Peninsula
The Long Beach Peninsula is an arm of land on the southern coast of the state of Washington in the United States. Entirely within Pacific County, it is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the south by the Columbia River, and the east by ...
of
Washington state
Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washingto ...
.
History
The newspaper is named after
Chinook, Washington
Chinook is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 457 at the 2000 census and increased to 466 at the 2010 census.
History
Chinook was the site of the first court in Pacific County in 18 ...
, where the paper was founded in 1900 by George Hibbert and Frank Gaither.
Hibbert sold the paper to John and Margaret Durkee in about 1923, who sold it to Bill Clancey in 1933, adding James O'Neil as a co-owner in 1937. O'Neil moved the paper to
Long Beach, Washington
Long Beach is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,392 at the 2010 census.
History
Long Beach began when Henry Harrison Tinker bought a land claim from Charles E. Reed in 1880. He platted the town and call ...
in 1938.
The paper was purchased by Craig and Geri Dennis in 1984, then purchased in 1988 by the
East Oregonian
The ''East Oregonian'' (''EO'') is a daily newspaper published in Pendleton, Oregon, United States and covering Umatilla and Morrow counties. The ''EO'' was the first-place winner of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association General Excellence ...
Publishing Company, now called the
EO Media Group and printed at
The Daily Astorian
''The Astorian'', formerly known as ''The Daily Astorian'', is a newspaper, published in Astoria, Oregon, United States, established in 1873, .
Matt Winters — a 1983 graduate of the
University of Wyoming College of Law
The University of Wyoming College of Law is the law school of the University of Wyoming and the only law school located in Wyoming. It is situated in the Rocky Mountains in Laramie, Wyoming at 7,165 ft. between the Laramie Mountains and Snowy ...
— became the paper's editor in 1991, and remained in that position as of 2019.
In 2018, the Chinook Observer won the statewide Public Service Award from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association in recognition of its coverage of immigration issues and ICE enforcement activities.

The original
Linotype machine
The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing; manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for individual uses. Li ...
, a
Mergenthaler, was taken out of service in the 1970s and is on loan to the
Columbia Pacific Heritage Museum
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
in
Ilwaco, Washington
Ilwaco ( ) is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 936 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1890, the city was home to the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company along the Long Beach Peninsula, with its core economy ba ...
.
References
External links
* {{official website, chinookobserver.com
*
History of Chinook, George Hibbert, Pacific County Historical Society, 1979!-- to be consumed into this article -->
Library of Congress "Chronicling America" entry* Several items in
The Washington Newspaper', Vol. 7 (1921)
Newspapers published in Washington (state)
Pacific County, Washington
Newspapers established in 1900
1900 establishments in Washington (state)