An Astoria couple is looking to parlay the region’s farming and other traditional industries into a unique stay on the Hess family homestead near Miles Crossing.

Shalan Moore and Steven Hess, a fourth-generation member of the homestead, are creating Astoria Farms Inn, a five-room bed-and-breakfast in an 1890 farmhouse along Wireless Road. The farmhouse is set amid several hundred acres of agricultural land the Hess family owns on a peninsula between the Youngs and Lewis and Clark rivers.

Surrounding the house is pasture land with dairy cows and sheep. Eagles and other birds populate the nearby trees, drawn in part by the seafood byproducts spread on pastures for nutrients.

The house has a history of hosting travelers, all the way back to Chinese immigrants employed to build the region’s dikes and troops during wartime, Hess said.

The idea for a bed-and-breakfast at the house has been kicked around for a while, he said. But the idea came to a head when the Schauermanns — a family known for their work with the Gateway Community Church and North Coast Christian School, who lived there over the past 27 years — began moving out.

“They didn’t know what was going to happen to the house after they left,” Moore said of the Hess family. “The main idea was to bring it back into the family and use it for something that would not play down the industrial farming side of it.”

People batted around the concept of an Airbnb or similar rental, but they decided a traditional bed-and-breakfast would better incorporate the site’s history, including farming, metalworking, logging and other traditional industries of the North Coast, she said.

The couple, who will stay on-site, plan to grow a small garden next to the house and raise chickens, goats, pigs and other animals. They will provide much of the bed-and-breakfast’s food, along with optional tours to nearby farmlands and other businesses, including metalsmiths and boat-builders.

“It’s all about experiences, getting out without too much liability,” Hess said. “I’m going to teach them how to chop wood. I’ve got a buddy in Seattle … never chopped wood in his life, never split a piece of wood, which some people have never done. He loved it. He’s addicted to it.”

Hess envisions kayaking trips in surrounding waterways or visits to a nearby archery range. Moore said they hope to also create an all-inclusive venue for weddings and other events.

Hess and Moore are working on the house, planting the garden and planning on a soft opening in August.

The bed-and-breakfast will have an occupancy of 12, which is less than the Schauermanns, who raised 13 children at the house.

Family patriarch Chris Schauermann recently retired as pastor of the Gateway Community Church. He and his wife, Shary, who renovate and flip houses, recently purchased a farm in Newberg, where they plan to plant a hazelnut orchard or grapes and host events for their 40 grandchildren.

“There’s some sentimental things going on,” Schauermann said of leaving the family home in Miles Crossing. “That house is awesome.”

Their son, Angelo Schauermann, was recently voted in as the new pastor of Gateway Community Church. Chris Schauermann said he and Shary plan to keep a regular presence on the North Coast.