Vintage Clam Box From Oregon Surprises Yakima, WA Resident

The Warrenton Clam Company was a very popular brand in the early 1900s and was a pioneer of clam canning practices that are still used today. The company closed down in the mid-1930s, so how did a box from the Warrenton Clam Company end up on my doorstep last week? This is a fun tale to tell.

A Surprise Package on My Yakima Doorstep

I ordered some Conan the Barbarian comic book collections on eBay, and I came home from work one day and saw the box sitting on my doorstep. I had forgotten all about my order, but laughed out loud upon opening the box used to mail my collectables, not realizing that the box itself was a collectable.

No Clams… Just Crom!

I posted the pictures of the box and the contents on my social media with the following comments:

"Sweet, my Warrenton Clams finally arriv… wait a min, DAMN IT CONAN!"

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And in a post to a comic collectors group I'm a member of in the PNW, with the quote:

"No Clams… just Crom!"

(NOTE: Crom is a deity in the world of Conan by Robert E. Howard).

READ MORE: What Happens When You Search 'Yakima' On Shopping Sites?

I didn't think much of it until a friend made the comment:

"Now I'm going down the clam rabbit hole; The Warrenton Clam Co. closed at the beginning of WWII. I'm shocked that box has survived the last 80 years just to be used to ship Conan merch."
– Adam David

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The Mystery of the Oregon Clam Box

Then came all of the requests from my friends to have the box (which is still in my possession). Adams' post intrigued me about where the box came from, or has been, over the past 80 years before it was used to mail stuff from Portland, Oregon to Yakima!.

I reached out to the eBay seller about the box and its history, and he was as surprised when he found them as I was.

"I buy storage units for a living, and there was a big stack of them in the unit, and yes, I thought they were great too, because I'm in Oregon. There is an old cannery in Astoria that is really cool to walk through as well and see all the old stuff!"
– TurnTableMable

I believe the eBay seller is referring to the Hanthorn Cannery Museum, where you'll find a lot of information about clams, but probably not so much about Conan.

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If you want to learn more about Conan, this fun video should do the trick, and make you laugh.