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Camas

October 2, 2025
Customer Al Schmid of Washougal strolls the aisles at Lutz Hardware in Camas on Monday afternoon. (Amanda Cowan/The Columbian)

Lutz Hardware celebrates 75 years of family ownership in Camas

On Christmas Day of 2022, Aaron Lutz received word from one of his regular customers that the family had lost water service at their house due to freezing weather. Lutz didn’t hesitate to act, temporarily pausing his own holiday festivities to save somebody else’s.

October 2, 2025
Jasmine Nesbitt, of Redmond, Ore., harvests a large pumpkin on opening day Sept. 20 at Bi-Zi Farms Pumpkin Patch in Brush Prairie. (James Rexroad/ for The Columbian)

A variety of Clark County farms offer pumpkins, mazes, more to kick off fall

Western Washingtonians are a funny bunch. We spend much of the year complaining about the rain, but after a mere three months of summer, we go bananas with excitement at the first sign of fall. When flame-orange pumpkins appear in stores and in fields, gray weather isn’t far behind — yet all we can talk about is pumpkin spice and fuzzy sweaters. October’s pumpkin patches, harvest festivals and other autumn celebrations offer us a brief window to flirt with the idea of coziness while still soaking up sunshine. Yes, it’s technically fall, but you can feel summer’s last kiss on your cheek and it’s absolutely glorious. So embrace the paradox! Get out your plaid flannel shirts and sturdy boots because it’s time to revel in the season’s fleeting beauty.