Author to speak about Astoria’s Greenwood Cemetery

Published 6:52 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

The Lewis and Clark National Park Association has invited author Michael Leamy to speak at 2 p.m. Aug. 10.

He will appear at the Netul River Room of the visitor center at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. Admission to the park is free for this event.

He has published “Between the Dates, Echoes from the Silent City that is Greenwood.” It explores the history of the Lower Columbia River, drawing from records more than a century old, featuring stories of people who made that history. Some were prominent, others more obscure, but all are buried at the Greenwood Cemetery south of Astoria.

He and his wife Lynda have been caregivers for the cemetery for more than 40 years. 

Greenwood is a historic pioneer cemetery established in 1891. It occupies a part of a donation land claim whose documentation was signed by President Ulysses S. Grant. The 30-acre cemetery lies on a knoll overlooking Youngs Bay, and gives a panoramic view of the

valley and surrounding hills, with views of the mouth of the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean.

Leamy was raised in rural Oregon as a farm boy. He has been a teacher in public and private schools, as well as home schools. He has also been a steamfitter, plumber, farmer and cemetery sexton. 

He describes Greenwood as “the archive of the life stories of thousands of people who lived, labored, and died in the Pacific Northwest” and says it is the resting place for “heroes and scoundrels, victims and victimized, the prominent and the obscure.”

The event is sponsored by the Lewis and Clark National Park Association and hosted at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. The Fort Clatsop Bookstore is a program of the LCNPA, a nonprofit supporting education at the park since 1963. The bookstore is located inside the visitor center at 92343 Fort Clatsop Road, in Astoria.

For details, log on to FortClatsopBookstore.com or LewisAndClarkNPA.org.