Small Cities in Washington: Kelso

 

The weather forecast called for some dry days in late December (2025)! This was too good to miss, so I took a road trip south to the Columbia River. My first stop was the city of Kelso, which is on the east side of the Cowlitz River across from Longview. Here are some views around town. 

 

Central Kelso 

 

Downtown Kelso from Cowlitz Way (WA-4) bridge

(Kodak Ektar 100, Zeiss Ikon ZM camera, 50mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens at ƒ/2.8) 

BNSF tracks under Cowlitz Way bridge (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

The Cowlitz River flows between Kelso and Longview. After Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, an immense amount of mud and ash flushed down the Toutle Rivers and into the Cowlitz. Ultimately, about 65 million cubic yards of sediment dropped into the lower Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers (from Robert I., Topinka, L, Swanson, D. (1990). "Eruptions of Mount St. Helens: Past, Present, and Future". U.S. Geological Survey Special Interest Publication).

 

Bingo at the FOE club, S. Pacific Avenue

Clock shop, 514 S. Pacific Avenue

300 1st Avenue (50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

407 N. Pacific Ave

103 Crawford Street (50mm Jupiter-8 lens)

406 1st Avenue (50mm Jupiter-8 lens)

North Kelso

 

Family Daily Store (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens)

Taqueria, 1009 N. Pacific Avenue (50mm Summicron lens)

Skeleton man on patrol duty, 305 N. Kelso Avenue 

620 M 3rd. Avenue

 S. River Road and S. Pacific Avenue

1400 S. Pacific Avenue

Mobile home off S. River Road

514 S. Pacific Avenue

Near the south end town, Douglas Street (50mm Summicron lens)

 

This ends a quick look at the City of Kelso. I was pleased to see many mid-20th century houses, many with Arts and Crafts architectural details. Some of the city look pretty good, but some of it is rough. 

I took these pictures on Kodak Ektar 100 film with a Zeiss Ikon ZM rangefinder camera and various lenses. Some frames were with my 1962 Soviet 50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens. Stopped down to ƒ/4 or ƒ/5.6, it does remarkably well. On internet scale, of course, it is difficult to see if one lens is "better" or "sharper" than another. The Zeiss Ikon camera has a large, clear viewfinder and an amazingly accurate auto exposure function. 

Northeast Photographic in Bath, Maine, developed the film and scanned it with a Noritsu system. The Noritsu extracts impressive resolution from the negatives, and the files are clean. I assume there must be an infrared dust/scratch function that cleans blemishes. The Noritsu files have an odd warm tone, but I corrected them with the auto color function in Photoshop Elements 2024. (Note: Elements will let you crop, rotate, change color, and do some other adjustments on 16-bit TIFF files. But many functions require you to convert to 8-bit color, so Elements is limited if you want to retain your original 16-bit files.) 

This is a continuation of my irregular series on Washington towns and cities. I will expand the series to include Oregon cities.  

From the Archives: Good Stuff in Pass Manchac, Louisiana, 1997

Ai Statement 2026:

None of the photographs you will ever see here on Urban Decay are generated by or modified by Artificial Intelligence (Ai). They are the genuine image recorded somewhere on earth at some time. I clean lint and scratches manually on some film pictures using the heal tool in Photoshop CS5 and CS6, but the rest of the photographs are as recorded on film. Occasional digital photos are from cameras old enough to not have any embedded Ai software.. 

Dear Readers, you can trust that what you see is real (or was if the site has been demolished).

---

Pass Manchac

Pass Manchac is the waterway (pass) between Lakes Ponchartrain and Mauripas in southern Louisiana. Many drivers zip over the pass on Interstate 55 without paying much attention. But locals in the know pull off into the little community of Manchac to eat at the famous Middendorf's restaurant. It has been in business since 1934, surviving hurricanes, floods, the Great Depression, and the interstate highway system. 

The rest of the unincorporated community consists of some interesting little stores and swamp tour companies.

Middendorf's serves the best fried flounder (whole fish with head) I have eaten anywhere. It oozes over the boundaries of a dinner plate. The catfish is also remarkably good.

Reno's Seafood: fresh shrimp, crabs, crawfish, and beer. I wish I had tried the boudin.

Local sign-making at its best. I miss south Louisiana. It is culturally and gastronomically so interesting.

I took most of these photographs in 1997 on Kodachrome 25 film with my Leica M3 camera and the 35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-RF lens. This was the spectacular 8-element model, which is now a coveted collectors item. The RF means this version was equipped with goggles to adjust the view in the viewfinder of the Leica M3 camera. Leica also sold a version without the goggles for their M2 and M4 cameras, which had a different viewfinder. 

I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner.

Leica M3 camera with the superb 8-element 35mm ƒ/2.0 Summicron-RF lens

South Park Neighborhood, Seattle, Washington (Sea 09)

Seattle's South Park district is a compact neighborhood tucked between the west side of the Duwamish Waterway and the bluffs that rise steeply to Highland Park. The main thoroughfare running north-south is 14th Avenue South. Several Boeing factories are next to the Duwamish, and Boeing Field is across the River. 

South Park (from Google Maps)

The earliest European settlers settled the bottomlands along the Duwamish river in the 1850s. In the late 1800s, South Park was an agricultural community of Italian and Japanese immigrants. Industry developed along the banks of the waterway in the 1920s, with Boeing's first factory just to the north. World War II brought rapid growth of aircraft at Boeing Field and shipyards along the river. In the 1960s, the area began to attract Hispanic immigrants. 

During my short time looking around in October 2025, I could see the strong Hispanic influence in the stores and restaurants. Here are some examples.

Unicorn Ranch, 9021 14th Avenue S

The owner here had some interesting sculpture on the Unicorn theme.

Multiservisios, 9011 14th Avenue S (21mm ƒ/4.5 Zeiss Biogon-C lens)

Multoservisios, 9011 14th Avenue S (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens)

Werner's Auto Repair, 9001 14th Avenue S (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens)

Werner's Auto Repair (25mm ƒ/4 Snapshot Skopar lens)

Time for lunch, 8709 14th Avenue S (25mm ƒ/4 Snapshot Skopar lens)

Closed shop (25mm ƒ/4 Snapshot Skopar lens)

Pros Tires, 8620 14th Avenue S (25mm ƒ/4 Snapshot Skopar lens)

This ends out too-rapid cruise through South Park. 

I took these photos on Kodak Portra 160 film exposed at EI=100. I used my Leica M2 camera with 21, 25, 35 and 50mm lenses (yes, I take too much equipment with me on an outing). 

The 50mm lens is the ƒ/2 Dual-Range (DR) Summicron from 1968. This is version 2 of the Leitz Summicron series. It was made as either a single range focus body or a more complicated dual-range version. I rarely use the close-up function but take the goggles with me in the camera bag. 

Many photographers love the way that these Version 2 lenses render their subjects, especially portraits. Mine has pristine coating and is totally clean inside. The contrast is a bit softer than modern lenses. 

50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens with close-up goggles to allow close focussing

This Summicron-DR lens will mount on all of the original film M bodies, the M3, M2, M4, M4-2, M4-P, and M6. I have read that it will not mount on the digital Ms, but do not have details. It will not mount properly on the Zeiss Ikon ZM camera, and the goggles would not line up with the viewfinder windows. 

The 25mm is the surprisingly competent little ƒ/4 "SnapShot" thread-mount lens from Voigtlander (made by Cosina). It is contrasty and, yes, of course it is "sharp."

Hillbilly Coffee, Littlerock, Washington

Yes, coffee is always a good idea

After a few hours of hiking or mountain biking in the Capitol State Forest and you are in serious need of a coffee, what to do? If you have come out of the hills via Waddell Creek Road SW or Mima Road SW, turn east onto 128th Street SW, drive about three quarters of a mile, and you come upon Hillbilly Beans, the "Cawfee Shack in Littlerock, WA." Look for the "Espresso Bar" sign, an old Dodge truck, various signs, and wood cows. Good stuff!

Was this once a neon sign?

The Hillbilly Cawfee truck 

Pull up to the cow and order your espresso

Yup, coffee makes friends

Trail to Fuzzy Top mountain in the Capital State Forest. This may be old growth (i.e., never logged).

The Capital Forest is criss-crossed with gravel roads suitable for mountain biking. And a select number of trails take the hiker to various peaks. It is a nice resource just a few miles southwest of Olympia. 

I took the coffee pictures on Fuji Acros 100 film with my Leica M2 and the terrific 4th generation 35mm ƒ/2 Summicron lens (the last pre-aspherical design). The view of the trail to Fuzzy Top mountain was with my brand new Zeiss Biogon 21mm ƒ/4.5 ZM lens. It is a Leica M mount lens based on the famous Zeiss Biogons of the 1960s (such as the 38mm version used on the Hasselblad SWC camera). Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film, and I scanned it with my Nikon Coolscan 5000 film scanner.. 

Olympia in the Morning, Part 2 (Oly 05)

Let us continue our morning walk through downtown Olympia, Washington. It is quiet, and most stores are closed. I saw only 5 or 6 homeless people his time. Two years ago, there were 10s or 100s of them. How did the city purge them? Regardless, downtown Olympia is still grungy.

206½ 4th. Avenue

Dumpster on 4th. I bet that stuff looks better than most of my wardrobe. 

Capitol Way view south

Alley parallel to 4th. Avenue (25mm ƒ/4 Color Skopar lens)

My favorite Olympia alley (25mm ƒ/4 Color Skopar lens)

Jefferson Street view north. I have not yet seen a train, but I occasionally hear horns, usually at night.

Frog Pond Grocery in the historic South Capitol district (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens).

Argh! Another Taco truck, this time on Plum Street. The fire system is for the hot sauce? 

Well, enough of exploring downtown. Time to walk home and have another coffee.

State Avenue view west (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens).

Proceed north and soon you reach East Bay. On many mornings, it is as still as a mill pond. The buffleheads, mallards, and surf scoters love it here.

East Bay from Olympia Avenue NE (50mm ƒ/2 Summicron-DR lens). 

Swantown Marina is in the distance.

The Bigelow neighborhood has charming traditional cottages from the early 20th century. It is not as elegant as South Capitol, but is more modest and is free from the background drone of I-5.

 

Traditional cottage on Quince Street (25mm ƒ/4 Color-Skopar lens)

Historic Quince Street house

This ends our walking tour around Olympia with Kodak Gold 100 film (another one of my experiments with expired film). I used Pentax Spotmatic F and Leica M2 cameras. We will see more of Olympia in future updates. Thank you all for walking along.