OPINION
6A
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2005
“If we’re going to build the thing, let’s make it last 50 years.”
Some of the logs have split a bit, and there are a few gaps in the walls where
the wood has shrunk or settled, but a half-century later, Fort Clatsop is still bring-
ing the Lewis and Clark story to life for thousands of visitors.
On Sunday, some of the people responsible for building the replica fort gath-
ered to share their memories of the project, 50 years to the day after its dedication.
The tiny log structure that is now the centerpiece of the new Lewis and Clark
National Historical Park began as a seemingly far-fetched idea of a brand-new
service group with lots of enthusiasm but no money or fort-building skills.
It grew into a community-wide project supported by a variety of groups and
individuals, who lent money, supplies and labor to make the idea a reality.
While our region celebrates the achievement of obtaining a new
national park, the time also is ripe to recognize an earlier success
that was no less impressive. It is the preservation of Long Island in
Willapa Bay.
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cially name the “Don Bonker Cedar Grove” in honor of the retired
Washington state congressman who led efforts to save one of the
West Coast’s outstanding places.
The 274-acre Cedar grove is the last remnant of a maritime forest
that covered the coasts of southwestern Washington and northwest-
ern Oregon thousands of years ago. Today, some of the cedars are as
old as 900 years. It is rare that such an ancient grove has survived
this long, both through natural threats and those imposed by man-
kind.
50 years ago — 1965
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tion of relocating the twisting Columbia River highway between Astoria and
Knappa.
The commission approved realignment and widening of 3.5 miles of US 30
between Burnside and a point east of Knappa High School where the new align-
ment will join a previously rebuilt segment of the highway.
The new alignment will cut through three mink ranches in the Svensen area,
and construction work will not begin until mink pelting is completed next winter,
for fear of disturbing the mink.
Robert B. Nash of Everett and Steve Miscoe of Seaside, diving
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short distance south of the slide which fell off the face of the moun-
tain last winter, a green starboard light of the type which burned oil,
and must have come from a sailing vessel.
One person who saw the lamp stated it could have been from the
Upada or Upata. There is a chance it could have come from the same
ship as the bell which was recently recovered.
Astoria’s 45th annual Regatta celebra-
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with selection of Sheryl Bettendorf as 1965
Regatta queen in ceremonies at Astoria
High School.
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was all that was heard from Queen Sheryl
when the royal robe was place on her shoul-
ders at a private ceremony in a small room
near the auditorium where her Regattaland
subjects were awaiting her triumphant re-
turn.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015
Community opens their
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The stories will
remain long after
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Creek and over the hills just
south of John Day, those who were
ordered to evacuate recall details they
probably never will forget.
Dean Elliott, who lost his home
of 53 years, remembers the sound of
the wind. It was like a locomotive, he
said.
His wife, Betty, recalls how the
oxygen was sucked out of the air and
she could hardly breathe.
Mike Mannell, who was woken by
a friend, tells how he ran through the
smoke to put a sprinkler on his Har-
ley-Davidson and another sprinkler
on his neighbor’s house.
If his friend hadn’t woken him that
morning, says Mannell, whose cabin
he had been building for six years
burned to the ground, “I probably
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And with tears in his eyes, the
neighbor, Bryan Nelson, whose
home Mannell saved, calls Mannell
a “hero.”
These stories abound in the can-
yon. They are told and retold to
friends, relatives, restaurant waitress-
es, store clerks. They are told because
people in this community know each
other, and most importantly, they care
about one another.
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Day, has burned 69,606 acres — about
109 square miles. It has destroyed 39
homes. More than 200 people had to
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Aug. 12.
For nearly two weeks, Blue Moun-
tain EagleVWDIIHUV&KHU\O+RHÀHUDQG
Angel Carpenter have kept a running
list of all the donations, services, of-
fers of homes and other resources
available to those who were affected
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ing into the Eagle’s Facebook page
throughout the region, asking how
they can help.
That’s what you do in a crisis.
Angel Carpenter/Blue Mountain Eagle
Six-year-old Dalia Nicodemus of Canyon City shows a poster she
made for the firefighters who’ve been working on the Canyon Creek
Complex fire.
I MPRESSIONS
That’s what
you do in a
crisis.
sponding to this crisis, I have hope that
we will do just as well when disaster
N ANCY
hits us on the coast.
M C C ARTHY
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Forest Service, Oregon Department of
Forestry, Grant County Sheriff’s Of-
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expected to occur 50 to 75 miles off- informed. In only a day or two, when
shore and trigger a tsunami that would LWZDVREYLRXVWKH¿UHFRXOGQ¶WEHFRQ-
WUROOHGORFDOO\QHDUO\¿UH¿JKWHUV
wipe our communities off the map.
It seems that, no matter where from throughout the region responded,
you live, some sort of disaster looms, and two incident commanders trained
threatening to destroy all we hold WR VXSHUYLVH PDVVLYH ZLOG¿UHV WRRN
charge.
dear.
Meanwhile, local volunteers
The difference between the North
Coast and Eastern Oregon, however, is opened their hearts, wallets and homes
that the Cascadia earthquake happens to those who needed immediate help.
Where I live, they say not to count
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on outside help being able to reach us
possibility here every 300 days.
We are constantly in the emergency for several weeks — or even months.
planning mode on the coast. We worry We will be on our own to cope.
This experience, in this small com-
about where we would evacuate to es-
cape the wall of water heading toward munity, shows me that it can be done.
Danger everywhere
The details of our potential crisis
us 15 minutes after the earthquake
Where I live — on the North Ore- drops the ground out from under us. will be different. We will have differ-
gon Coast — we are a small commu- We gather “go bags” — backpacks ent stories to tell. Instead of a wall of
nity, too. Most all of us have ties to ¿OOHG ZLWK HPHUJHQF\ VXSSOLHV ZH ¿UHZHPD\EHÀHHLQJDZDOORIZDWHU
each other — through family, work, test out evacuation routes leading to- ,QVWHDGRI¿UHFRQVXPLQJRXUKRPHV
volunteer activities, civic duties or ward ground higher than 80 feet and it will be an enormous ocean wave.
But I hope — and expect — the
friendship.
we organize Community Emergency
We also have emergencies. Usu- Response Teams to help us deal with community response will be the same.
DOO\ LW¶V ÀRRGLQJ RU ZLQGVWRUPV LQ the immediate crises that will occur We will take care of each other.
Because that’s what communities
the winter because it rains so much ZKHQ SHRSOH ¿QDOO\ UHDFK SUHHVWDE-
do in a crisis.
along the coast, where we live on a lished gathering spots.
Nancy McCarthy is the former edi-
narrow band of land between forest
Hope for the future
tor of the Seaside Signal and the Can-
and ocean.
After observing and reporting on non Beach Gazette. She has been the
Our largest, overriding concern,
however, is the potential Cascadia how John Day and Canyon City area interim editor of the Blue Mountain
Subduction Zone earthquake that is residents and emergency crews are re- Eagle for the past month.
B Y
Live life as a series of revelations
Paul’s point is that we’re
cognitive creatures who are
most sophisticated when we
fundamentally
ignorant
rely on rationality.
about many of the biggest
et’s say you had the chance to be- choices of our lives and that
The most reliable de-
come a vampire.
cision-making guides are
it’s not possible to make
more “primitive.” We’re
With one magical bite you would purely rational decisions.
historical creatures. We
gain immortality, superhuman strength “You shouldn’t fool your-
have inherited certain life
and a life of glamorous intensity.
self,” she writes. “You have
scripts from evolution and
Your friends who have undergone no idea what you are getting
culture, and there’s often a
the transformation say the experience into.”
lot of wisdom in following
is incredible. They drink animal blood,
The decision to have a
David
those life scripts. We’re so-
not human blood, and say everything child is the purest version
Brooks
cial creatures. Often we un-
about their new existence provides of this choice. On average,
them with fun, companionship and people who have a child suffer a loss dertake big transformational challenges
meaning.
of reported well-being. They’re more QRW EHFDXVH LW IXO¿OOV RXU GHVLUHV EXW
Would you do it? Would you con- exhausted and report lower life satisfac- because it is good for our kind.
We’re mystical creatures. Often
sent to receive the life-altering bite, tion. And yet few parents can imagine
even knowing that once changed you going back and being their old prepa- when people make a transformational
could never go back?
rental selves. Parents are like self-ful- choice they feel it less as a choice and
7KH GLI¿FXOW\ RI WKH FKRLFH LV WKDW ¿OOHG YDPSLUHV 7KHLU ULFK QHZ OLYHV more as a calling. They feel there was
you’d have to use your human self would have seemed incomprehensible something that destined them to be with
this spouse or in that vocation.
and preferences to try to guess wheth- to their old childless selves.
Most important, we’re moral crea-
er you’d enjoy having a vampire self
So how do you make transforma-
and preferences. Becoming a vampire tional decisions? You have to ask the tures. When faced with a transforma-
is transformational. You
right questions, Paul ar- tional choice the weakest question
would literally become
gues. Don’t ask, Will I may be, What do I desire? Our desires
Parents
a different self. How can
like parenting? You can’t change all the time. The strongest ques-
you possibly know what
know. Instead, acknowl- tions may be: Which path will make
are like
it would feel like to be
edge that you, like all me a better person? Will joining the
this different version
people, are born with an military give me more courage? Will
self-
of you or whether you
intense desire to know. becoming a parent make me more ca-
fulfilled
would like it?
Ask, Do I have a pro- SDEOHRIVHOÀHVVORYH"
Our moral intuitions are more du-
In her book “Transfor-
found desire to discover
mative Experience,” L.A. vampires.
what it would be like to rable than our desires, based on a uni-
Paul, a philosophy pro-
be this new me, to expe- versal standard of right and wrong. The
person who shoots for virtue will more
fessor at the University of North Caroli- rience this new mode of living?
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As she puts it, “The best response reliably be happy with her new self, and
decisions that are a bit like this. Life is to this situation is to choose based on will at least have a nice quality to help
¿OOHG ZLWK IRUNV LQ WKH URDG LQ ZKLFK whether we want to discover who we’ll her cope with whatever comes.
Which brings us to the core social
you end up changing who you are and become.”
point. These days we think of a lot of
what you want.
Live life as a series of revelations.
People who have a child suddenly
Personally, I think Paul’s descrip- decisions as if they were shopping
become different. Joining the military tion of the problem is ingenious but choices. When we’re shopping for
is another transformational experience. her solution is incomplete. Would you something, we act as autonomous crea-
So are marrying, changing careers, im- really trust yourself to raise and nurture tures who are looking for the product
migrating, switching religions.
a child simply on the basis of self-reve- that will produce the most pleasure or
In each of these cases the current lation? Curiosity is too thin, relativistic utility. But choosing to have a child or
selecting a spouse, faith or life course is
you is trying to make an important and ephemeral.
decision, without having the chance
I’d say to really make these deci- not like that. It’s probably safer to ask
to know what it will feel like to be the sions well you need to step outside “What do I admire?” than “What do I
future you.
the modern conception of ourselves as want?”
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times News Service
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Courtesy of Clatsop County
Historical Society
Admiral Lawrence Barber of
Astoria is facing a “critical” coin Portland crowns Sheryl Bet-
shortage and according to a local tendorf 1965 Regatta queen
bank spokesman the situation “is go- in ceremonies at Astoria
ing to get worse before it gets better.” High School Thursday night.
Local merchants have been “cry-
ing” for coins for the last few months but lately the situation has been
growing worse.
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branch, said Monday his bank has only enough coins for one or two
days of normal operations.
“It’s a nation-wide shortage,” Brame said. “Mints are not pro-
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system has had to cut its allotment of coins to banks way down,” he
said.
75 years ago — 1940
Not until he had lined up Al Sehorn, Aero club swimming coach of Port-
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the Astoria Regatta did William Seeborg, chairman of the water sports, satisfy a
burning desire to have the biggest water show ever presented here.
A special platform, 15 feet off the water in front of the marine stadium,
will be erected to accommodate the sensational stunt diver. Sehorn will sat-
urate his clothing with gasoline. For a moment after a match is touched to
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plunges into the river in complete darkness, save for the light of the “human
torch.”
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day and Saturday of next week.
Axel Englund, chairman of the speedboat races, said today that
35 outboard speedboats and 12 to 15 of the more powerful and faster
inboards are virtually assured for the pits, when racing time arrives
next week. Because there will be no motor or boat inspection, per-
mitting any “outboard powered” boat capable of 30 miles an hour
to compete, many of the “hell-divers” are reported devising special
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boards.