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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 2016
HISTORIC
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Cannon Beach History Center and Museum
The Log Cabin Restaurant.
The Log Cabin Restaurant
Theme survives through Morris’ Fireside in Cannon Beach
By ELAINE TRUCKE
Special to The Daily Astorian
H
ave you ever wondered why
Morris’ Fireside Restaurant
in Cannon Beach is a log
cabin?
Well, the answer is pretty cool.
In that very spot sat an old local
favorite, The Log Cabin Restau-
rant (shown here.) The Log Cabin
Restaurant’s original structure was
built by Paul Bartels for his sister,
Marie, in 1921.
Before electrical power was avail-
able in the evening hours, the restau-
rant used oil lamps at the tables. The
restaurant sold ice cream sodas and
milk shakes, sundaes for 15 cents,
and banana splits for 35 cents.
The building was replaced by the
current Morris’ Fireside Restaurant,
whose owners, Tom and Suzy Mor-
ris, liked the cabin feel and have kept
it for all of these years.
They still have the original fire-
place built by Bartels, a longtime
resident who was well-known for his
specialty fireplaces.
Elaine Trucke is the executive di-
rector of the Cannon Beach History
Center and Museum.
Crabs safe after toxin scare, but prices plummet
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A toxic algae
bloom that shut down the West
Coast’s entire shell¿ sh industry
may actually be good news for crab
lovers, some crabbers believe.
The price for crabs has plummet-
ed because people are hesitant to
buy them after the highly-publicized
toxin scare, The Oregonian reported.
But the creatures are safe to eat.
“The consumer is going to get
a far superior product,” said John
Corbin, head of the Oregon Dunge-
ness Crab Commission. “They’re
going to get a great, stuffed-full
crab right now.”
Oregon’s
crabbing
season
opened Jan. 1, months after the typ-
ical date. It was delayed by an algae
bloom that mixed with the “blob” of
unusually warm El Ni ño waters.
Fishing didn’t resume until a
couple weeks after the crabs test-
ed negative for domoic acid three
times.
But even with the toxin, the
crabs would have been safe to eat.
The creatures store domoic acid
only in their guts, or “butter,” and
not in the meat, according to Hugh
Links, director of the Oregon Crab
Commission.
When Dungeness crabs tested
positive for domoic acid in the ear-
ly 1990s, 2003 and 2004, the crab
industry kept on harvesting. Razor
clams and mussels keep the poison
in their meat, so they were unsafe
to eat, but crab ¿ shers simply killed
the crabs, ditched the butter and
sold the meat.
This year was different because
of Asia’s newfound appetite for
the crabs. For the past eight years,
Chinese crab buyers have paid
high-dollar prices for live crabs to
export to Asia. According to Corbin,
about 40 percent of Oregon’s crabs
have been sent to China alive in the
last few years.
So crab ¿ shers decided they’d
rather wait until the toxin cleared,
allowing them to sell live crabs.
“We didn’t want to go down that
road and lose that live market,”
Corbin said. “We opted to stay put
until we were sure the crab were in
excellent shape.”
The delay meant Dungeness
weren’t available for the holiday
season, when many families make a
crab dinner and Dungeness can go
for $13 a pound. Crab season was
delayed in California, too, and still
hasn’t opened.
“When you miss that window,
the whole season is kind of shot
anyway,” said Lyf Gildersleeve,
who owns Flying Fish Market in
Portland. “It’ll be ¿ ne for the next
month or two months, but as we get
further into the spring, crabs are
available, I’ll have them for retail
and they won’t sell. It’s unbeliev-
able.”
The opening price for crab is ne-
gotiated with the state just before
the season’s start. It was $2.90 per
pound this year, down from $3.10
last year.
“We’re hoping they’ll go up,
but our production is dropping off
already,” said crabber Rick Lillien-
thal, who estimated he pulled in
about 45,000 pounds two weeks
into the season. “They’ll work out.
It’s going to take a little while for
people to get over their fears.”
Winterfail
?
M
aybe the cold, wet weather is taking a toll on folks.
Verbally accosting a high school basketball referee in Warrenton?
Throwing rocks at elk in Seaside? Urinating in front of a business
in Astoria at 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon, then sitting on a bench, drinking a
beer?
2 p.m.? Police yourselves, people ...
9-1-WHAT?
THE BEST OF THE WORST CALLS TO ASTORIA 911 DISPATCH
Follow reporter Kyle Spurr on his 9-1-What? Twitter watch, where a few
of the sometimes head-scratching calls to area dispatch take center stage. The
full feed is at www.twitter.com/9_1_WHAT.
W hile other n ew spa pers give you less, The D a ily Astoria n
GIVES
YOU
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