Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Altoona, WA

Altoona is a census-designated place in Wahkiakum County, about 27 miles northwest of Cathlamet, the county seat, and the CDP also includes the communities of Carlson Landing and Dahlia.

Altoona first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2010 U.S. census with 39 residents, and its population grew to 56 in the 2020 census.

Altoona was one of six fish-buying stations and canneries located within a six-mile stretch of the lower Columbia River, in an area around Grays Bay where 39 canneries once operated before the Columbia River salmon industry declined in the 1940s.

Danish immigrant Hans Petersen named Altoona after Altona, Germany, a major fish-processing city on the Elbe River.

In 1903, Petersen purchased 830 acres and founded the Altoona Mercantile and Fish Company Cannery, which by 1910 was the fourth-largest salmon cannery on the Columbia River.

Altoona became a major stop for steamers and fishing boats traveling between Astoria and Portland, and it was accessible only by boat — no direct road reached the community until the early 1950s.

In 1935, the Columbia River Packers Association, known today as Bumble Bee Foods, purchased the cannery and moved its headquarters to Altoona, but the cannery closed in 1947 as the salmon industry declined, and the derelict building eventually collapsed into the Columbia River during a windstorm in the late 1990s.

The Altoona CDP covers about 5.09 square miles, all land, at an elevation of about 505 feet, and it has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate with very wet winters — averaging about 100 inches of precipitation a year.

The 2020 census recorded 34 housing units and 15 families in Altoona, with a median age of 75.1 years and more than half of residents over age 65.

Altoona students are served by the Naselle-Grays River Valley School District, a K-12 district of about 300 students.