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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 13, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2016 O T N N WARRE WELCOME TO O I A TOW C I L E N THAT OFFERS A D RDABLE LIFESTY O F F A D N LE US A s grandson of a Pacifi c Northwest sawmill worker, the feeling in Warrenton and Hammond of working people living well in a sensational nat- ural setting gives me a sense of content- ment. Grandpa and g randma would have felt at home there. A My family has tremendous affection for Warrenton, based on everything from sea- food to sailboats to Camp Kiwanilong. If all you know of Warrenton is its big stores and auto dealerships, get off U.S. Highway 101 and explore. Camp Kiwanilong, a thriving frontier outpost for young people back beyond the soccer fi elds, became a vital part of my daughter Elizabeth’s life for the best part of a decade. Like Warrenton in general, it completely rejects pretension, but is full of fun, mutual sup- Matt port and confi dence. It Winters attracts kids from hun- dreds of miles away — including my nephews Garrett and Wynston from Dallas — and yet remains a genuine bar- gain. It gets my strongest possible endorse- ment. (www.campkiwanilong.org) owadays, I mostly observe Warrenton and Fort Stevens State Park — named after fi rst Washington Territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens — from my living room window in Ilwaco, about 10 miles across the broad expanse of the Columbia River estuary. A quarter-century ago, I loved wandering Warrenton’s mooring basin with its expensive but apparently forgot- ten sailboats. They sparked daydreams of liv- ing aboard and popping out into the Pacifi c for some blue-water cruising. (I admit to continu- ing fantasies about spending my years between 70 and 90 sailing a Nauticat 44 around the by-then ice-free waters of the Arctic Ocean ...) Less fantastically and far more affordably, Warrenton still provides some of my favorite fi sh. There can be few small towns in America with better opportunities to buy pure and deli- cious fresh and canned seafood. And, of course, all our local ports offer perfect access to go out and catch it ourselves. It’s impossible to over- emphasize just how lucky we are in this region — how amazingly blessed. It’s a delicious life. Contributed Photos Falls Brand is an uncommon salmon can label from Hammond’s Point Adams Packing Co., founded in 1920. N wenty years ago, near the start of my minor obsession with the history of the Northwest seafood industry, I found and bought a nearly complete set of old canning labels from Hammond’s Point Adams Pack- ing Co. They were glued to boards, perhaps as a school or county fair exhibit, but peeled off easily enough. Even after decades of trad- ing, I still have a big one on my offi ce wall: “FISHBO, A Natural and Unadulterated 100 Per Cent Pure Fox and Kennel Food, Fit for Human Consumption.” Talking at the time with a Point Adams retiree, he told a familiar story of being ordered by an owner or foreman to burn the contents of the cannery’s label room — in retrospect like burning $100 bills. Equally sought after, by at least some of my eccentric fellow collectors, are items from Warrenton Clam Co., which used to be located near the present-day marina. In something of a consortium with the Wiegardt family of Wil- lapa Bay, the Sigurdsons canned razor clams from Washington, Oregon and Alaska for a wasn’t going well, “due to strikes among the clam diggers, extremely heavy seas, and unfa- vorable tides.” ommercial razor clam harvests continue here in the 21st century, though on a much-reduced scale compared to the glory days. An estimated 15 percent of Clatsop County razor clams are sold commercially, while in Pacifi c County, for-profi t digging is limited to the Willapa Spits, small tidal islands near the mouth of the bay. (The spits have been closed to harvesting for two years due to slightly ele- vated levels of the marine toxin domoic acid.) However, other species of clams are safe and abundant inside Willapa Bay — includ- ing manilas, softshells, cockles, bent-noses, butters and gapers. Since about 2000, some of these have become a major part of Willapa’s economy, supplementing oysters. Shellfi sh grower Warren Cowell, a friend who exemplifi es Willapa’s do-it-yourself ethos, published this concise manifesto earlier this week: “So this is how we dig clams, on our hands and knees. This is how I got what I have today. Decades of hard work. No inheritance. No handouts. No grants. No subsidies. I did it with my back and my tenacity. Now we have to fi ght politically to keep what we have. To those more entitled, self-righteous individuals in the differ- ent government agencies, and especially those non government organizations that want to keep me from farming the way we always have, I have only this to say to you: You can kiss my muddy ass! I’m not going anywhere!” Past generations of clam-men and women are applauding. Let’s make sure there are always places in our region for clams and all who dig them. — MSW Matt Winters is editor and publisher of the Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal. C A dump-truck load of razor clams awaits processing in Warrenton Clam Co.’s Nahcot- ta plant, circa 1930. T Contributed Photo ABOVE: A Warrenton Clam Co. label from 1930 advertises that the company’s prod- ucts were awarded first-place medals at the Universal Exposition in St. Louis, Mis- souri, in 1904 and at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland in 1905. BOTTOM: A World War I-era Warrenton Clam Co. letterhead advertised the company’s product line — not just razor clams, but also salmon, berries and string beans. couple generations, from around 1900 until about the outbreak of World War II. Housewives were encouraged to write for a free recipe book that calls Warrenton razor clams “wholesome little vegetarians. ... They dig into the clean white sand and there the clam diggers hunt them at the exact moment when the receding tide covers them with a foot or less of sweet salt water, washing them clean and adding to their fresh fl avor of min- gled sea and sunshine.” A 1921 trade journal reported resumption of canning after World War I, during which “practically all of the members of the War- renton Clam Co. volunteered for military ser- vice.” But the renewed clam pack that year 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 Founded in 1873