DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 197
ONE DOLLAR
Beaches
undergo
a spring
spruce up
5,000 volunteers clear
56,000 pounds of trash
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
ghost story illuminated by a campfire during the Ghost Stories
David Snower, an Oregon Ghost Conference attendee, tells a
nce and the second time it has called Seaside home.
Bonfire event on Friday in Seaside. This is the sixth annual confere
PARANORMAL IS NORMAL AT
The annual SOLVE Spring Oregon Beach
Cleanup celebrated the 50th anniversary of
the Oregon Beach Bill by removing 56,000
pounds of litter and marine debris from the
Oregon Coast on Saturday, event organizers
said. The Oregon Beach Bill was a landmark
piece of legislation granting the public recre-
ational access to all Oregon beaches.
Nearly 5,000 volunteers scoured the
coastline at 45 locations from Fort Stevens
State Park south to Brookings.
“Marine debris is one of the biggest
issues facing our oceans and beaches,” said
SOLVE CEO Maureen Fisher. “Every piece
of trash picked up today has a tremendous
impact on the health of Oregon’s wildlife
and coastal communities.”
See CLEANUP, Page 4A
GHOST FEST
Tour explores
Seaside’s own
haunted history
Daily Astorian/File Photo
The state will resume hazing cormorants
on the Oregon Coast to protect salmon.
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Another rude
awakening for
cormorants
S
EASIDE — When it comes to study-
ing paranormal activity, one of the most
important elements to understand is quite
normal.
It’s history, according to Rocky Smith, the
organizer of the sixth annual Oregon Ghost
Conference.
“It’s the interest in this history that con-
nected me to this place. It’s asking the question,
‘W hy do ( paranormal) things happen here?’” he
said.
He explained this to about 100 paranormal
enthusiasts huddled together on a crisp Friday
night around the postcard mural on the corner
of Edgewood and Oceanway s treets.
Friday was the fi rst day of the three-day
conference, where about 800 people from
around the country came to listen to paranor-
mal lectures, share ghost stories and even do
a ghost investigation in the Bridge Tender on
Broadway.
In this moment, participants gathered to
experience the different haunted nooks and
crannies along the P romenade and downtown
streets .
Nancy Thompkins traveled from Anacortes,
Washington, to the conference intrigued for that
reason. Her interest in ghosts began when she
saw one when she was a child, she said.
“I like history and knowing what happened
where,” Thompkins said. “You can feel a resid-
ual energy in a place like this. You can feel it,
but you don’t know why.”
See GHOST FEST, Page 4A
Oregon Ghost Conference Director Rocky Smith points to a
historic building
while giving a ghost tour to conference attendees on Friday in
Seaside.
tour filled with
Rocky Smith, Oregon Ghost Conference director, gives a ghost
und.
Turnaro
e
Seasid
the
at
historic information on Friday
Campaign to protect
salmon starts again
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
Cormorants facing possible death by shot-
gun blast at their colony near the mouth of the
Columbia River don’t seem to have started
house-hunting in less dangerous neighbor-
hoods farther down the coast.
But as the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife once again prepares to coordi-
nate non lethal hazing projects at various Ore-
gon estuaries this spring, biologists will watch
for changes in cormorant colonies south of the
river.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which
manages the massive double-crested cor-
morant colony on East Sand Island, began a
culling program in 2015 in an effort to man-
age the growing colony and reduce the num-
ber of young salmon the birds were estimated
to consume annually. That year, the Army
Corps’ contractors killed a total of 2,346 adult
See CORMORANTS, Page 7A
Park gift shop manager has natural love of history
Neal takes over
shop duties at
Fort Stevens
J
efferson, Iowa; Ames, Iowa;
and Fort Stevens were all
settled or built in a span of 10
years beginning in the mid-
1850s. The three places with
ties to the Civil War era helped
Laura Neal — who was raised
in Jefferson, went to college in
Ames and now works at Fort
Stevens — develop a natural
love of history.
Neal, 24, became the
Friends of Old Fort Stevens’
gift shop manager in January.
She replaced Jim Forst, who
retired after holding down the
fort’s store for 15 years.
She certainly is no stranger
to seeing historical areas from a
visitor’s point of view.
Neal’s father is a high
school history teacher in Iowa.
As a child, Neal spent many
vacations touring historical
sites around the country with
her family.
Though she never visited
Fort Stevens, she spent a lot of
time in southern Oregon. The
scenery and recre-
In 2016, she became
ational opportunities
an interpreter, allow-
stuck with her as she
ing her to host kayak
made her decision to
tours on Coffenbury
move to the W est.
Lake, wildlife view-
After earning an
ings on the Tressel
environmental sci-
Bay Trail, talks at the
ence degree with
Peter Iredale ship-
a minor in biology
wreck and tours of
Laura Neal
from Iowa State
the fort itself, among
University,
Neal
other things.
moved west in summer 2014 to
“It’s fun being involved in
work part time at Fort Stevens. the behind-the-scenes aspect of
“Oregon really stood out that,” Neal said.
to me as the best,” she said.
For her current position,
“When I came out here for the she ensures there’s wood at
interview, it just felt like the campsites throughout the park,
right fi t.”
orders items for the store, man-
She spent most of that fi rst ages bookkeeping and hosts
summer cleaning and maintain- tours on busy days.
ing areas throughout the park.
Neal said she hopes to orga-
nize more events and post signs
that help visitors understand the
historical signifi cance of vari-
ous sites.
She recently organized a
history quest, in which visitors
can follow an informational
pamphlet leading them to let-
ters throughout the park. After
fi nding the last letter, they then
scramble them to fi nd a word
matching a site at the park. The
site will have a hidden box,
which holds items they can
redeem at the store for a prize.
“We have a lot of forts and
batteries, but people don’t nec-
essarily know what they are,”
Neal said. “It’s a fun way to
teach the kids about history.”
— Jack Heffernan