Altoona Washington Map

About Altoona, Washington

Altoona is a locality in Wahkiakum County, Washington, United States. It is a small community with a population of 56. The population density is 4.2 people per km². Altoona is located at 46.2697°N, 123.6212°W. It observes the Pacific Time (America/Los_Angeles) timezone. ZIP code: 98643.

Altoona rises from the damp, timbered earth where the steep shoulders of Altoona Hill descend toward the wide, gray expanse of the Columbia River. It lies 35.5 miles west-northwest of Longview, WA (from Longview, WA: bearing 285°T), and is situated 10.0 miles east-northeast of Astoria. The air here holds a heavy, salt-tinged moisture that clings to the fir needles and moss, softened by the proximity of the Miller Sands Range just a mile away. To the west, the landscape yields to the marshy, low-lying reaches of the Lewis And Clark National Wildlife Refuge, a sanctuary where the tides dictate the pulse of the mudflats and the movement of the waterfowl. Beyond the immediate tree line, the hidden folds of Eden Valley provide a sheltered contrast to the exposed, river-facing slopes, creating a terrain defined by deep shadows and the persistent, rhythmic erosion of the water.

History in Altoona is measured in the splintered wood of old pilings and the ghosts of the cannery days, when the river served as the primary artery for a booming, labor-intensive economy. While the grand scale of that industrial era has quieted, the remnants of those maritime ambitions remain etched into the shoreline, where the current continues to shift the sediment around the nearby Miller Sands. Life here moves with the deliberate pace of the tides, far removed from the bustle of the interior, and residents often look toward the distant, serene waters of Jetty Lagoon when seeking the stillness of a mirror-calm surface. The local character is forged by this intersection of river commerce and wild refuge, a place where the work of the day is always framed by the vast, indifferent beauty of the Pacific Northwest sky.

About This Altoona Map Page

This page provides an embedded street and satellite map of Altoona, Washington. Coordinates: 46.269739, -123.621217. Live weather conditions are sourced directly from the National Weather Service. Real-time local and world news feeds keep the page current.

Detailed location data for Altoona includes the ZIP code (98643), telephone area code (360), county seat of Wahkiakum County (Cathlamet), and school district assignment (Naselle-Grays River Valley School District).

Location data is drawn from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and cross-verified against 2020 US Census records by coordinate proximity. Population figures are sourced from the 2020 US Census.