A Deeper Look: Praying for Columbia County

Columbia County Courthouse

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Isaiah 52:7

To give more context to the counties we explore, I have been attempting to divide the state into regions. What a challenge! Some divisions are obvious, like the east and west side of the Cascade Mountains, and the three-county Metro area, but sometimes the lines are fuzzy. The North Coast region is made up of Clatsop, Tillamook and sometimes Lincoln Counties, depending on your source of information. One state agency includes Columbia as well. While it doesn’t border the Pacific Ocean, it, along with Clatsop County, make that little bulge in the Northwest corner of the state.  

Bordered on the south by Clackamas and Multnomah, it is close enough to the Metro area that some communities, notably St. Helens, are bedroom communities for Portland. Its north and eastern edge is the Columbia River with Clatsop to the west. It is a hemmed-in county - by the coast range to the west, the Columbia River to the north and east, and the metropolis of Portland to the south. Technically Columbia County is considered part of the Portland/Vancouver Metro area, although the area’s economy is heavily timber, agriculture, tourism, and river transportation.

Columbia County highlighted

One thing that unites all counties included in the North Coast region is a history of isolation. For several years after pioneers settled in the area along the coast and the upper Columbia River (after the best farmland in the Willamette Valley was taken), the only way to connect with the Willamette Valley and the outside world was by boat (river or ocean-going) or overland on rough trails. Eventually, in the early twentieth century, roads such as Highway 101 going south and the Salmon River Highway going east, created easier ways to travel. The entire region is rural and with less income than most of the state.

In the early 1920’s the Jensen family helped establish the First Lutheran Church in St. Helen’s. This is still a thriving church. Mr. Jensen, the father, had been born in Denmark and was a longshoreman. With so much of the county border being the Columbia River, longshoremen were in demand.

\An interesting bit of history is that the longshoremen of Columbia County joined those of the Portland docks in the West Coast Waterfront Strike, which nearly shut down the shipping industry for 82 days in 1934. It was said to be the most devastating work stoppage in Oregon history, stopping commerce and laying off 50,000 workers. And this was during the Great Depression. It ended when the union got some concessions including shorter hours and better pay for their members.

In 1927, just a few years after the Lutheran Church was established, a three-week tent meeting revival resulted in the St. Helens Christian Church being established with nearly 80 members to start.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, like Washington County’s, is a long-established one and they also include Joe Meek in their ancestry as he was the first Sheriff of Oregon.

 Sheriff Brian Pixley is the 33^rd sheriff of the County.

Thomas Jefferson once called the office of Sheriff the most important elected office in the county.  No matter who actually sits in the office at any given time, this is a constitutional office with a wide variety of duties and authorities and a tremendous potential for defending the liberties of the people with broad powers. Those powers include the power to arrest, commit to prison, serve as the ministerial officer of the courts, and to carry out its directives, including relieving people of property upon court order and their personal liberties upon probable cause.   As an elected official, the sheriff has always had tremendous authority and responsibility for protecting the rights of all. Columbia County Oregon Sheriff - CCSO History

Financial issues have plagued the sheriff’s office in recent years, but they have managed to keep things going.

The county is governed by a three-member commission. They are elected for four-year terms. Currently the commissioners are Casey Garrett, Henry Heimuller, and Margaret Magruder.

How do we pray for Columbia County?

I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season, and there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel 34:26.

Pray any spirit of isolation or rejection be removed from the entire region.

Pray for economic increase and prosperity.

Pray for the County Sheriff and the Commissioners.

Pray revival will come again to the town of St. Helens and surrounding areas – that the old wells of past revivals will be opened.