OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2016
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
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 — 2006
Georgia-Paciic’s Wauna mill has been picked as the site of a new
paper machine that will add dozens of new jobs to the facility, bringing
some welcome news following the recent announcement of widespread
layoffs.
Wauna won out against four other western Georgia-Paciic mills for
the machine, which will produce paper towels for the company’s high-
end brand lines such as Brawny.
As a visiting family peers in among the half-inished rooms
of the new Fort Clatsop replica, Sean Johnson, clad in buck-
skin breeches and linen shirt like the original Corps of Discov-
ery members he portrays, fetches some kid-sized Lewis and
Clark clothes for the children to try on.
Many staff members at Lewis and Clark National Historical
Park have years of experience at the local landmark. But John-
son can truthfully say his has been a lifelong “job.”
As the son of Curt Johnson, the park’s former chief inter-
preter, and Rosemary Johnson, a longtime park volunteer,
Sean Johnson irst greeted visitors as an infant, swaddled up
American Indian-style like Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, the
Corps of Discovery’s youngest member.
Next month, Johnson leaves the park and Clatsop County
for a new adventure as a United States soldier. In two weeks,
he trades the buckskin for olive drab as he enters basic train-
ing at Fort Knox, Ky.
“I’m deinitely going to miss this place,” he said.
A pair of threatened western snowy plover chicks found in abandoned
nests have been released back into the wild after the Oregon Coast Aquar-
ium raised them to adulthood.
One was turned loose on the beach in Oregon near Florence, where
it came from, and the other near Leadbetter Point in Washington, said
aquarium spokeswoman Cindy Hanson.
50 years ago — 1966
Mayor Harry Steinbock and a Daily Astorian representative
rode in the first clown car that followed the pilot car across the
bridge. Behind the clown cars, the first private vehicle in line was
a Washington-licensed car driven by Bill Campbell, Raymond
Wash., with Mrs. Campbell.
Last chance for a ferry ride brought thousands of people to
the area during the week preceding the bridge opening, July
24-28. Thursday, the inal day for ferry runs, the ferries car-
ried 952 vehicles and 5,596 passengers across the river, and the
M.R. Chessman on its inal trip was close to capacity with 445
passengers. Most of them rode across and back again, for a sen-
timental farewell journey.
“It was a busy day but there was no dificulty, although a lot
of tears were shed,” one veteran ferryman commented.
Tourist I made its maiden run in May, 1921, carrying 14 automobiles.
Capt. Fritz Elfving’s 25 years of Columbia River ferry business began
with that trip.
Build a bridge for $6 million?
They could have done it in 1934, when Astorians irst began
to talk seriously about building the trans-Columbia bridge.
But the bridge idea didn’t sell for a long time. Attempts at
bridge planning were conducted in 1934, 1941 and 1944, but it
wasn’t until 1953 that the ball really started rolling.
Gov. Mark Hatield today called President L.B. Johnson, informing
him Russians had been seen in possession of salmon inside the 12-mile
limit Saturday and urging him to seek “prompt remedial action.”
75 years ago — 1941
A lost battalion of hungry, cold, wet California infantry,
members of the Blue defense army, made its way out of the
Paciic County wilderness Tuesday after being lost since Sun-
day, third army headquarters announced.
The troopers trailed out of the deep timber, just as Major
Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, third army corps commander, had
organized civilians and soldiers into a huge searching party to
look for the missing men.
The men went into the woods Sunday with only two rations
and were suffering from cold and exposure, aggravated by
hunger when they escaped from the woods. The country in
which they were lost lies on the headwaters of Deep River, and
area is virtually untouched by loggers and known only to a few
veteran woodsmen.
Justice William O. Douglas of the United States supreme court is the
No. 1 entry in the Astoria Salmon Derby this year just as he was last
year. He and his family are at present at Seaview as guests at the home
of Emory Neil with whom the distinguished jurist went to college at
Whitman.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
On the Oregon
road to California
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
S
ummer vacation is something of
an anomaly when you live in a
vacation town. You are working
in the community when everyone else
is coming here for fun. It is a real-life
Bizarro world and if you follow the
logic, when you are on vacation, you
should go someplace where every-
body else is working.
But that wouldn’t be very much
fun.
So that’s why we took a vacation
to other places where people go to
vacation.
Traveling with a dog — Lucy the
min-pin — adds another layer. One
hotel we stayed at made us sign a
$300 wee-wee clause. When you’re
a dog owner you’ll
sign anything.
First stop was
Eugene, where we
ate braised lamb and
pita sandwiches at
Albee’s NY Gyros
and walked Lucy for hours before she
emptied her bladder.
We lunched in Grants Pass, with
its “caveman” motif (I still don’t
know what that’s about) and main
street banner reading “It’s the Cli-
mate,” hung in 1920, conceived and
paid for by local road contractor John
Hampshire.
We irst visited Ashland in 1991
when it was a sleepy little village.
It’s changed — today it is a mini-me-
tropolis illed with beautiful homes,
streets, stores, scenery, along with
high ire risk and heat. No, we didn’t
see a show. We worked to train Lucy
to be a cafe dog, and she performed
admirably, cozying under our feet as
we sipped Americanos and read the
Ashland Daily Tidings.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
The imposing whirlpool of Mendocino’s coast.
Cruising I-5
In Oregon you learn that if you’re
going to travel I-5 to Cali, do it in the
early morning or late afternoon when
the heat moderates.
Oregonians warned us: “Vacation-
ing to the state of California is known
to cause cancer and birth defects or
other reproductive harm.” But hey,
there is life after Tom McCall. While
we thought we might wilt along I-5
through Weed, Redding and Chico for
Highway 20 to Mendocino.
Mendocino is a Sunset Magazine
destination known far and wide for
its sturdy headlands, swirling ocean
waters and Andrew Wyeth homes. A
getaway from urban life? Not always.
When we were last there, it was 1991
and the tiny city was illed with ilm
trucks as Hollywood types lensed the
Julia Roberts ilm “Forever Young.”
A quarter-century later, we didn’t
see any ilm trucks but every restau-
rant and cafe was packed, reservations
mandatory. A cabin for rent in the cen-
ter of town was the perfect place to
bivouac, as Lucy enjoyed a private
courtyard and we soaked in the hot
tub.
Goodwill
Lucy was our goodwill ambas-
sador wherever we went, though we
kept a close hold on her leash as we
strolled those daunting and dangerous
cliffs with swirling waters hundreds of
feet below, creating a dizzying Hitch-
cockian whirlpool missing only the
Bernard Herrmann score.
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
Sculpture in Grants Pass cele-
brates Oregon tradition.
What you do when traveling with
a dog in Florence.
Mendocino is a portrait of a vaca-
tion town, replete with an interna-
tional clientele, including two visi-
tors from our old stomping grounds
of New York City. They seemed baf-
led we had no itinerary — theirs was
a winery visit, a garden tour and every
potter along the coast.
We had been warned about the
long distances from California to Ore-
gon along Highway 101, but it was
something we had to experience. We
spent a tiring but glorious day trun-
dling up the coast, bypassing Eureka,
Crescent City and Trinidad as we
headed north. Bandon, Coos Bay,
Paciic City, Bay City — all went by
faster than you can say “beach bill.”
By end of day we pulled into the
Best Western and signed our prom-
ises to keep Lucy well behaved or
else. Florence is a wonderful small
city with boats and bars and a bay. We
dined at the spectacular Bay Depot
— we were advised to make reserva-
tions months ago, and we did — and
returned back to the hotel to either
watch the tail end of the Democratic
convention or “The Real Housewives
of Melbourne,” I’m not sure which.
On my return, standing in a long
line at the Paciic Way, I didn’t
think, “I wish this line would hurry
up, grrr, c’mon.” Instead I waited
patiently. Another peculiar local
experience I’ve come to enjoy: stop-
ping the car in the middle of the
road and chatting with pedestrians
through the window. I think they
call that “tarrying.”
My wife considered it the ultimate
victory when I returned to Gearhart
and accidentally left my cellphone at
home.
I understand why some people
would go on vacation when all the
others come to town. And maybe it
does make sense to go into the city
when it’s a hot weekend and every-
body else is at the beach. You might
be able to elbow some of those out-
of-towners in Portland off the line at
some of the city’s trendier restaurants.
You might be able to have a quiet
night without irecrackers, surreys and
surging crowds.
With Hood to Coast around the
corner, we’ll just blend in with a nod
and a wink. We’re getting our sum-
mer vacation right were we live, Fido
by our side.
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s
South County reporter and editor of
the Seaside Signal and Cannon Beach
Gazette.
Back home
My takeaway was a perspective on
where we live — the South County,
Seaside, Cannon Beach and Gearhart.