Head to the River Beaches for Fun in the Sun

This memoir from longtime Lewiston resident Richard Scully provides a sense of how area beaches were central to life in Lewiston and Clarkston back when the river flowed freely.

When I grew up in Lewiston in the 1950’s, the rivers and their beaches were the heart of our community. Clarkston had a number of sandy beaches from the “Three Ponds complex” near the golf course on upriver to the Highland beach out from Highland Avenue. The largest and most heavily used beach by swimmers was the Clarkston beach, the remnants of which is now called Chestnut beach. Each summer it was covered with swimmers, especially high schoolers. Clarkston beach was exceptionally large and had a lifeguard stand, a floating deck with a diving board, a sandstone concession stand and a grassy park just steps away. Beach View Park, just up the hill from Clarkston beach was very popular for picnics for hungry swimmers. Highland beach was moderate sized and was often used by boaters as well as swimmers.

Lewiston Beach was directly across the river from Clarkston Beach, had fewer swimmers and was often used as a base for water skiing. The Hells Canyon Boat Club, which had a large membership of local boaters, was housed in a brick building at the upper end of Lewiston Beach. For a time in the 1960s my dad was the club “commadore”.

Some of the highschoolers liked to swim from state to state, between Lewiston Beach and Clarkston Beach. Another really fun activity was inner-tubing from Asotin to Lewiston or Clarkston—a distance of 6 miles.

–Richard Scully