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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 27, 2018
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
COUGAR DRUM SONG
n Ashland woman’s Facebook post about her encounter with
a cougar in her living room (bit.ly/couchcat) has been picked
up by the news media — not just because it’s unusual enough to
have a large wild animal decide to take a snooze behind your
couch, but because of how Lauren Taylor decided to handle the
situation.
The cat, who wandered in through an open door, wound up
behind the couch after being startled by Lauren’s housemate.
Once there, she settled in for a nice, cozy nap — for six hours.
Lauren went outside and took the photos shown (and several oth-
ers) through the window behind the couch, and when the cat woke
up for a minute, Lauren “communicated using feline-speak eye
blinking to calm her,” which she said was reciprocated. Which is
all very nice, but the cat seriously needed to leave.
“I sent telepathic pictures of the routes out of the house via
open doors and the route out the backyard, across the creek,
through an open field, and back up into the hills,” Lauren wrote.
“We got guidance that the way to rouse her and get her to leave
… was through drumming.”
The cat apparently agreed, as she strolled out and headed for
the hills. Where she will hopefully stay.
A
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
WHAT ABOUT JAKOB?
n Tuesday, Ken Smith of Michigan dunked his rear
bike tire in the Pacific Ocean at Seaside’s Turn-
around, and headed off on his 4,000-mile Ride for
Jakob across America to Bar Harbor, Maine. No small
feat for a 70-year-old, even one in great shape, but he’s
motivated by his love for his grandson, Jakob, who just
turned 16.
When Jakob was born, “he was perfect,” Ken said.
“No problems whatsoever. When he was 2 months old,
for whatever reason, he developed six to eight seizures
a day.” Despite a neurologist’s dire predictions, Jakob
has never needed a wheelchair, but he does not speak,
and needs constant supervision and assistance. Even so,
Jakob goes to public school, and is developing social
skills.
Jakob’s father, Jason Smith, is a firefighter, and it’s
a high-risk profession. Worried about who will take care
of Jakob when they are gone, or can no longer take care
of him, Jakob’s parents set up a trust provide for his
future care.
That’s when Ken realized “I had to do something
to help,” and decided to do the bike ride — which he
estimates will take 60 to 75 days — to raise money for
Jakob’s trust fund. “I’ve been blessed with excellent
health,” he said in a Mannatech Inc. press release, “and
I decided to use my heart, lungs and legs to help provide
for Jakob’s future care.”
“I’m really pumped about it,” Ken admitted. To
donate, there’s a GoFundMe page set up at bit.ly/Ride-
4Jakob. Ken has already raised what he needs for the
ride, so all donations collected at GoFundMe will be sent
directly to Jakob’s trust fund. You can follow Ken’s jour-
ney at fb.me/rideforjake
“All I can do is put it in the Lord’s hands,” Ken added.
“It’s a faith walk. A lot of people are praying for me, and
will help me, and it will happen.”
O
rom the Friday, July 27, 1883 edition of The Daily Astorian:
• M. J. Kinney, of the Astoria Packing Company, has a
young bear, which was sent him from Chilcat, Alaska, and arrived
in good trim on the Idaho. It will probably furnish us with another
and longer item, as soon as it gets big enough to chew up a small boy.
Note: Marshall J. Kinney, who was from an Oregon pioneer fam-
ily, was the president of the Astoria Packing Company, which ran the
Kinney Cannery, built in 1879 in Uniontown, between Fifth and
Seventh streets. By 1881, the cannery was often thought to be the
largest cannery in the world. His wife, Narcissa, a dedicated mem-
ber of the Temperance movement, was fond of “Christianizing”
members of her husband’s large corps of fishermen. (bit.ly/kinneys)
F
ast week, when Darwin Meiners was pulling old linoleum
up in a 12 by 12 foot upstairs room in his house, he discov-
ered newspapers from 1941 covering the flooring below. Most
were issues of The Oregonian, but the rest were the Astorian
Budget.
He’s fairly certain the newspapers were laid there by his
grandfather, who owned the house from 1940 to 1942, when
they moved into Astoria to be closer to medical care for their
sick child.
Rumor has it that the four-bedroom house — which is on the
Lewis and Clark River — was built in 1915 using the wood from
an old cheese factory that originally sat on the same foundation.
And the rumor might just be true, as the full daylight cement
basement has a trough down the middle, probably used to wash
waste into the river.
After his grandparents left, the house was out of the family
for decades. Then one day in 1975, Darwin was driving by, and
saw the house, which is on three acres, was for sale. He couldn’t
resist, and bought it for $19,000. Needless to say, you couldn’t
buy an outhouse for that in Astoria these days.
“Not sure what I’m going to do with all of them after I finish
going through them,” Darwin said of the newspapers he found. “I
really enjoy looking at the sale ads and classifieds.”
L
BYE BYE BEACHES
THE COLLECTION
aritime writer Peter Marsh found an interesting tidbit: One
of the Astoria Marine Construction Company’s earliest
motor yachts, Phantom (pictured), was featured as a “SoCal
Classic” on TheLog.com recently.
“This lovely motor yacht was a familiar sight at Portland
wooden and classic boat events,” Peter explained. Built in 1936,
the 50-foot luxury yacht — with a double-planked cedar exte-
rior and a mahogany paneled interior — was designed by Joseph
Dyer (owner of AMCCO) for Dr. Wallace Haworth.
Requisitioned by the Navy in 1941 to patrol the Columbia
River, Phantom was painted gray and fitted with a machine gun.
In the 1980s, she was stolen and abandoned on the Columbia
River bar. It took three years for wooden boat enthusiast Chuck
Kellogg to restore her. “He was the leading organizer of various
boat preservation groups, especially the PT boat,” Peter noted. Kel-
logg, 80, died in 2014 when he was accidentally killed by a train.
Phantom was bought in 2017 by Rick Ingold and Dean Kiser
of Newport Beach, California, where, in the same year, she won
“People’s Choice Over 40 Feet” and the “Harbor Masters Award”
at the Newport Beach Wooden Boat Festival. (bit.ly/phant1, bit.
ly/amcco, bit.ly/ckellogg)
M
KINNEY’S BEAR
WALL TO WALL HISTORY
he aftereffects of the devastating 2011 Japanese earthquake
and tsunami can still be felt on Japan’s coastline, and it’s
something to think about in relation to Oregon’s coast when the
Cascadia Subduction Zone finally lets “The Big One” loose.
Even now, eight years later, only 24 of 70 beaches in three
prefectures in the tsunami zone are open to the public, The Asahi
Shimbun reports (bit.ly/24beaches). Some beaches had their sand
stripped away, and/or just disappeared; others are too badly dam-
aged, became seawall construction zones, have water quality
issues, or have no escape routes, and are considered too risky to
open. Photos of the city of Rikuzentakata, one of the hardest hit in
2011, are shown before and after the tsunami, courtesy of GeoEye.
Miho Mitsui, who lives in Rikuzentakata, took her two daugh-
ters to Hirota beach when it finally opened July 20. “Until this year,
we were disappointed at being unable to go into the sea, especially
with the water so clear,” she said. “I want to come here every day.”
T
ack in June, The New York Times ran a story about
Uniontown artist (and owner of the old Snug Har-
bor bar), Arvi Ostrom, and his 1995 “deathbed plea” to
his grandson, Ken Carlson: “Can you take care of the
collection?” (bit.ly/ArviO). His grandson agreed, hav-
ing no idea what a herculean labor of love he’d taken on.
The article covers Ostrom’s life and work, and Carlson’s
struggles over the years to keep his promise.
Another close-up study of Ostrom is a richly illus-
trated video, “Portrait of an Unknown Artist,” created by
Ken Carlson and Ben Saboonchian (bit.ly/ArviOvid).
The artist is pictured in a screen shot.
From the video: “Arvi drew because he loved to draw.
And that’s basically the gist of the whole thing — he just
had this passion for art,” Carlson said. “… He owned a
tavern, and he wasn’t just satisfied with just owning a tav-
ern. He really wanted to do art.”
“What he left was a huge body of work that no one
realized he had left,” he continued. “I mean, we all just
thought it was going to be like a hundred or 200 pictures
… (but) there’s paintings, drawings, sketches, carvings,
and there’s about 10,000 of those. This does not happen.
This is like a once in a lifetime happening, to find this
big of an unknown artist’s collection that’s intact.” All of
the work has stayed together, and remained in the family.
None have been sold.
“He’s been gone for many years now, and he seems
to have left a mark in Astoria,” said Ostrom’s daughter,
Jean Montgomery, “and one of the things he left all of
us to appreciate was the fact that his art has lived on lon-
ger than he has. And I think that’s very nice.”
JUST A START
B
he Washington coast will soon have its second tsunami ref-
uge — the first being the Ocosta Elementary School near
Westport — now that federal funding of $2.2 million has been
approved to help build a vertical evacuation tower for the
Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe in Tokeland (bit.ly/shoaltower).
The steel structure, designed by Degenkolb Engineers to
accommodate almost 400 people, will have two platforms that
are 40 and 50 feet above grade, higher than the anticipated wave
height of 32 feet, and its pilings will go down 45 to 50 feet.
“This is exciting not just for the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe,
but for the entire state,” said Maximilian Dixon of the Washing-
ton Emergency Management Division. “… This is just a start,
though, and we need many more of these structures up and down
the coast.” So does Oregon.
T
COMMUNITY NOTES
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
Model Railroading Club — 1
p.m., in Hammond. Group runs
trains on HO-scale layout. For in-
formation, call Don Carter at 503-
325-0757.
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
Karaoke — 7 to 8 p.m., Seaside
Lodge and International Hostel, 930
N. Holladay Drive, Seaside. Free
session, all ages, for those who
love to sing karaoke. Refreshments
served. For information, call 503-
738-7911.
SUNDAY
Seniors Breakfast — 9
a.m. to noon, Astoria Moose
Lodge, 420 17th St. Cooked to
order from menu, includes coffee.
Cost is $5 for seniors 62 and old-
er, $7.50 for those younger than
62. Breakfasts are open to the
public. Proceeds after expenses
help support local and other char-
ities.
Angora Hiking Club — 2
p.m. summer potluck and meet-
ing, 563 Niagara Ave. Bring a
dish, with serving spoon, to serve
6 to 8 people and a beverage.
Board members should arrive 30
minutes early to help set up. For
information, call Doug and Celia
Balcomb at 503-325-7043 or go to
angorahikingclub.org
Line Dancing — 5:30 to 8
p.m., Seaside American Legion,
1315 Broadway. For information,
call 503-738-5111. No cost; sug-
gested $5 tip to the instructor.
MONDAY
Chair Exercises for Seniors —
9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior Center,
1111 Exchange St. For information,
call 503-325-3231.
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 Suzanne Bja-
ranson at 503-861-4202.
Scandinavian Workshop — 10
a.m., First Lutheran Church, 725 33rd
St. Needlework, hardanger, knitting,
crocheting, embroidery and quilting.
All are welcome. For information, call
503-325-1364 or 503-325-7960.
Columbia Senior Diners —
11:30 a.m., 1111 Exchange St. Cost
is $6. For information, or to have a
meal delivered, call 503-325-9693.
Senior Lunch — 11:30 a.m.,
See NOTES, Page 4B