The ports of Kalama and Longview will celebrate their 100-year anniversaries in July after putting the events on hold due to COVID-19.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., July 24, the Port of Kalama will have music, mini-golf, kid’s games, tours and food.
In the 1920s, the port mostly leased property to tie mills, shingle mills and other timber operators. By the 1960s, it was the new center for the area’s wheat industry and leased a new terminal to North Pacific Grain Growers Inc. and adding a second terminal in the 1980s for Peavey Grain Company.
The Port of Longview’s celebration will be from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., July 31. It will have food, tours of the port and the new “White House” headquarters, giveaways and games, port spokesman Dale Lewis said.
Both passenger boats and freight came through the port in the early years. When World War II started, the port became the main supply base for lend-lease shipping to Russia. Every week, three to four full shiploads of government-issued war equipment left port docks for Russia and Great Britain.
The port started constructing new docks to handle the military shipments, and in 1950 was the first on the Pacific Coast to be granted “Terminal Port” status, designating it as one of only six ports in the transpacific route. The port continued to expand, building Berth 7 in 1967, buying 266 acres of property in Willow Grove in 1968, and finishing Berth 8 in 2000.
Port’s Industrial Rail Corridor was officially opened for business in 2005 and a $10 million expansion in 2014. The port bought 275 acres at Barlow Point in 2010 and is continuing to expand projects.