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Remember the Beach by Richard Scully Lewiston Tribune, June 22, 2025

The beach photo on billboards seen around the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley recently is perhaps the most prominent reminder of what the valley was like before the Corps of Engineers modified the river banks and islands, required riparian landowners and private marinas to accept buyouts of their property and then flooded the river channel with Lower Granite Reservoir.

Prior to 1975, the Clarkston Beach was a prominent icon for all those who lived in Clarkston, Lewiston and surrounding small communities. Every sunny summer day there would be scores of swimmers and sunbathers enjoying the spacious, white sand beach and the cool Snake River water. A lifeguard watched over the scene and many swimmers hauled out on the floating diving board raft. Some jumped from the raft, others dove from the board into the deep, clean water.

At the top of the beach there stood a cinderblock building that hosted a concession stand, changing rooms and showers. When leaving the beach, there was a faucet and drain for washing sand from legs and feet. And beyond the beach was a grassy space shaded by mature hardwood trees and parking area. Everyone enjoyed the river, beach and amenities.

In Jeri Jackson McGuire's 2015 book, titled "Images of America -- Clarkston," is a chapter titled "Where Did the Beach Go?" This chapter contains several pre-Lower Granite Dam beach photos with explanatory captions. It also shows what was left of the Clarkston Beach after "slackwater came and destroyed the old beach."