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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 2018)
1B THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2018 CONTACT US ewilson@dailyastorian.com (503) 325-3211 ext. 257 COMMUNITY FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorian IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON WHAT IS IT? arrah Billings found a golf ball-sized spherical object on the beach Saturday on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. She doesn’t know what it is, and so far, nobody else does, either. There are several things we know it isn’t, anyway. It is not: ambergris (whale barf), the inside of a golf ball or baseball, a black walnut or a tar ball from an oil spill. A Goo- gle image search was similarly unenlightening; Mr. Google pro- claimed the object to be a Christmas Rum Ball, or perhaps a Cocoa Rum Ball. So what is it? If you know, please contact the Ear at 503-325- 3211, ext. 257, or ewilson@dailyastorian.com F UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER an Mitchell was driving along Wireless Road in Astoria, on her way to Fort Clatsop and the Netul River. She was hoping for a shot of Saddle Mountain in the distance, because the “sky was so pretty,” when seemingly out of nowhere, she came across a rather unusual sight for this neck of the woods. “Who would have expected longhorned cattle?” she inquired. “It was amazing.” So, where did they come from? “I asked them, but they didn’t tell me a lot,” Jan recalled. “They just looked at me a lot.” J SWEET SVEA-JADE ur sweet Svea-Jade was diagnosed with moderate to large heart murmur at just 3 weeks old,” Angel Finley wrote. “She was immediately put on heart failure medication.” The murmur is caused by a hole in the wall separating the two lower chambers of the heart (tinyurl. com/VSDinfo). “After 20 months of monitoring her growth and the size of the murmur,” Angel continued, “it has become time for her to have open heart surgery on Feb. 9, as the mur- mur hasn’t produced any progress towards healing, and her growth has plateaued.” Svea-Jade is pictured as a baby with Angel and her husband, Evan, and in a more recent photo. “We are unable to stay at the Ronald McDonald House due to availability and with the short notice,” Angel explained. “We are asking for help, as we are having to get a week-long stay at the nearby University Place Hotel … (and) pay for our food and any follow-up visits in the weeks after.” “We just make it, and just can’t afford the extras,” Angel told the Ear. The Finleys are on a fixed income, and Evan is vision-impaired disabled, and is only allowed to work a certain number of hours per month. Svea-Jade’s insur- ance covers her surgery and hospital stay, but not much else. There is a GoFundMe page to help with the addi- tional expenses, and you can donate at tinyurl.com/svea- jade. Even if you’re unable to help, please share the page. In case you’re wondering how the baby got her unusual name, “she is named after my great-great-grandmother, Svea, and Jade Morgan, who passed in a car wreck two years ago,” Angel wrote. “I was her nanny when she was young, and had been with her that morning before she passed. I found out the very next day I was pregnant with our sweet princess, and Jade has been watching out for her since.” ‘O WHERE ARE YOU, MISHAWAKA? LOCAL BREVITIES rom the Tuesday, Jan. 26, 1897 edition of The Daily Morning Astorian: • Some alarm has been expressed for the safety of the American schooner Laura Madsen (pictured), 382 tons, Capt. Rasmussen, 70 days out from Salaverry, Peru, sugar laden for Vancouver (B.C.) … The passage, it is said, is usually made in 40 or 50 days … Note: The 140-foot vessel was OK. She didn’t meet her demise until October 1905. She arrived at Port Barrow, Alaska, in August, and unloaded her cargo of “whalebone, ivory, furs, etc.” There was an early freeze that year, and the ship, stuck at anchor for six weeks, was crushed by the ice around it (tinyurl.com/140LMadsen). • Cryptic Coasting Notes: One young man, while going down Franklin Avenue at a swift pace, was thrown from his sled by a bro- ken plank in the roadway and pitched onto his side, the sled itself being broken. A young lady also was thrown from a bob-sled and severely injured. It is thought that neither one was dangerously hurt. Note: You’re not the only one who’s confused. Severely injured, but not dangerously hurt? • The barkentine Tam O’Shanter … early yesterday morn- ing broke her anchor chains (at Knappton) in the easterly gale and floated downstream. She crossed the channel near Fort Stevens in perfect safety, her sails were unfurled, and she glided downstream and out to sea past Fort Canby (Cape Disappointment) as though piloted by an old hand … and in the afternoon was brought inside again. Note: This 592-ton vessel was built at North Bend by A. M. Simpson in 1875. She was still afloat in 1900, but after that, it’s any- one’s guess what became of her (tinyurl.com/tamo1875). • The Astoria Land and Investment Co. has some bargains in west side property … They also have a 7-room house to rent in Asto- ria at $15 per month ($423 now), a 12-room house at $15 per month, and a modern equipped house of 11 rooms at $30 per month. Note: Looking at current Astoria rentals on Zillow.com, a 3 bed- room, 2.5 bathroom house goes for $1,400 a month. Scary, isn’t it? F un rerun, first ran Jan. 27, 2012: Where is Misha- waka? Inquiring minds wanted to know, so Mr. Goo- gle was consulted. A historic post office was mentioned, along with a map showing the location, which appears to be near Elsie, off Gronnell Road. Close-up, Mr. Google thinks the Mishawaka post office is a tree (see photo inset). Not helpful. The U.S. Geologi- cal Survey Geographic Names Information System refers to Mishawaka as a “populated place,” which means scat- tered buildings and human population in an area with no legal boundaries. Also not very helpful. The Ear finally turned to Liisa Penner at the Clatsop County Historical Society to find out the real story. “Mishawaka was a farming community,” Liisa wrote in reply. “J.S. Dellinger’s 1896 Astoria City Directory lists 40 men there, all farmers except for one carpenter (G. W. Miller) and one blacksmith (A. J. Adams). Names of women and children were omitted, but all together made a sizable number of people in the area. “Mishawaka was primarily a name for a post office in the home or store of one of the residents, where people in the area could pick up their mail. The 1888 Oregon State Gazetteer describes it this way: “‘Mishawaka. A country post office on the Nehalem river in Clatsop County, 38 miles southeast of Astoria, the county seat and bank location, and 20 miles south of Olney, its shipping point, by water. It contains a water power flour mill. Population, 25. Mail, weekly. J.J. Lynch, postmas- ter and farmer.’” Just of few of the other distinguished residents were the justice of the peace, H.W. Birchard, a fruit grower, A. Furtado, and the flour mill owner, E.L. Jones. “Astor Anderson, the constable,” Liisa noted, “later spent time in the penitentiary for embezzling funds from the post office, which proves that not all the interesting people in the county were from Astoria.” SAILDRONES SET SAIL n Australian research group, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will be using three unmanned self-sailing aquatic drones, made by Saildrone of San Francisco (saildrone.com), to explore and study vast expanses of the Southern Ocean (tinyurl.com/dronesail). Two are pictured, being tested, courtesy of CSIRO. Powered by wind, the Saildrones’ electronics are sun-powered, and they can stay at sea for a year at a time uploading marine, atmo- spheric, ocean carbon and biomass data the whole time. They have ship avoidance systems so they won’t get nailed by a passing con- tainer ship, and can operate either autonomously or be remote-con- trolled via satellite. Most importantly, the Saildrones will be “delivering real-time data back to scientists that was previously impossible to collect,” according to CSIRO Research Group Leader, Andreas Marouchos. A WHEN THE ROOSTER CROWS … he Ear has been remiss, and neglected to mention the Jan. 18, 1882 wreck of the American bark, Harvest Home. Capt. A. Matson was sailing with a light cargo to Port Townsend, Washing- ton, from San Francisco at the time, according to a report in Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1895). About 8 miles north of what was then called Cape Hancock (now called Cape Disappointment), they were sailing along in what Lewis & Dryden’s calls “thick weather.” What no one aboard knew was that the chronometer (which determines longi- tude by means of celestial navigation) was malfunctioning. They only became aware of the problem after the man on watch happened to hear a rooster crowing in a nearby farmyard. Of course, it was way too late by then, and they ran aground. The wreck is pictured, courtesy of “The Long Beach Peninsula,” by Nancy L. Hobbs and Donella J. Lucero. Happily, when day dawned, all hands just hopped off the ship and walked ashore. They didn’t even get their feet wet. The Har- vest Home stayed put, “affording considerable interest to the thousands who summer on the beach.” T HE CARED F o, where was the on-the-ground national news coverage of the impending tsunami in Alaska Monday night? Nowhere, that’s where. But no matter, because Larry Pestrikoff of Ouzinkie, Alaska (pictured), had it covered. For around two hours after the tsunami alarm sounded, he held his cell phone to his window overlooking the harbor, broadcasting live on Facebook, waiting for the wave that never came. The visual is pretty much a view of nothing, since it was night- time, but while he was filming, he talked. And talked. His sooth- ing voice gathered 4,000-plus Facebook users and news outlet lis- teners in the process. As of Wednesday morning, the video (fb.me/ larry.pestrikoff) has been viewed by 153,000 people. Among the myriad of topics he covered was his Christmas credit card debt. Seth Schrenzel of Gerlach, Nevada, thought Larry ought to have some reward for helping people through those tense hours, so he set up a GoFundMe account to help pay Larry’s bills (tinyurl.com/FundLarryP). But Larry didn’t broadcast to be famous, or to get financial assistance. As Schrenzel himself said, Larry did it “because he was there, and he cared.” S COMMUNITY NOTES TODAY Balloon Release — 5 p.m., Warrenton City Park baseball field, 300 S.W. Alder Ave., Warrenton. For Trevor Secord, on the one-year anniversary of his death. SATURDAY Sit & Stitch — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Homespun Quilts & Yarn, 108 10th St. Bring knitting, crochet or other needlework projects to this community stitching time. All skill levels welcome. Columbia Northwestern Mod- el Railroading Club — 1 p.m., in Hammond. Group runs trains on HO-scale layout. For information, call Don Carter at 503-325-0757. N. Holladay Drive, Seaside. Free session, all ages, for those who love to sing karaoke. Refreshments served. For information, call 503- 738-7911. Spinning Circle — 1 to 3 p.m., Astoria Fiber Arts Academy, 1296 Duane St. Bring a spinning wheel. For information, call 503-325-5598 or go to astoriafiberarts.com SUNDAY Karaoke — 7 to 8 p.m., Seaside Lodge and International Hostel, 930 National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Support Group — 2 to 3:30 p.m., Seaside Public Library, 1131 Broadway. Family to Family Support Group, for anyone with friend or loved one suffer- ing from a serious brain (mental) illness. For information, contact Myra Kero at 503-738-6165, or k7erowood@q.com, or go to nami. org Group discusses issues facing re- ligious faith in the modern secular world. All are welcome. For informa- tion, call 503-861-2421. knitting, crocheting, embroidery and quilting. All are welcome. For information, call 503-325-1364 or 503-325-7960. Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8 p.m., Seaside American Legion, 1315 Broadway. For information, call 503-738-5111. No cost; suggested $5 tip to the instructor. MONDAY Chair Exercises for Seniors — 9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in- formation, call 503-325-3231. Seekers Group — 6 to 7:30 p.m., Pioneer Presbyterian Church, 33324 Patriot Way, Warrenton. Scandinavian Workshop — 10 a.m., First Lutheran Church, 725 33rd St. Needlework, hardanger, Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m., Bob Chisholm Senior Center, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside. Suggested do- nation $3 for those older than 60; $6.75 for those younger than 60. For information, call Michelle Lew- is at 503-861-4200. See NOTES, Page 4B