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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2018)
1B THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 2018 CONTACT US ewilson@dailyastorian.com (503) 325-3211 ext. 257 COMMUNITY FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorian IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON FISHING AT THE FALLS I t’s that time of year again: The Alaska Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Brooks Falls brown bears are out fishing for sockeye salmon again, and you can watch their antics, thanks to the National Parks Service’s live webcams at Explore.org (bit.ly/ bearfalls). A screenshot is shown. If you’re wondering just how much one bear can eat, the web- site says that on days when there are scads of salmon migrating upstream to spawn, a large, dominant male can munch his way through more than 30 fish a day. SOMETHING OF BEAUTY A storian LaRee Johnson wants everyone “to take notice of the beautiful floral hillside garden up 11th Street by the Astoria Senior Center. There are a growing variety of flow- ers from tall stately sunflowers, to dahlias, poppies, nasturtiums, glads and sweet peas, plus many more to beautify our walk up the hill.” The garden is shown. “This display of natural beauty is compliments of Mr. Larry Miller,” she explained. He is pictured, courtesy of astoriase- niorcenter.org. “You’ll see him working almost daily planting, or watering or weeding. Stop by and thank him for this gift to the community. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone took such pride, and planted something of beauty” for all to enjoy? “Another reason Astoria is a real community,” she added, “people like Mr. Larry.” DISLOCATED DELIVERY J ust for fun, a rerun from August 2103: The Astoria Clown Car was stuck in the desert out in Shaniko for decades, and Jeff Daly was on a mission to bring it home. Jeff’s sister, Molly, was sent to live at the Fairview Hos- pital and Training Center when she was not quite 3 years old (wheresmolly.net). “One of the reasons the Astoria Clowns were formed,” Jeff said, “(was) so my dad could go to the Salem institution to visit her in clown disguise, since he was forbidden to see his daughter as a father … This car took them on that trip in 1957.” The 1948 Chrysler was originally a mortuary limo. “The clowns bought it for $250 (in 1955) and painted it orange, top to bottom,” Jeff explained. “They traveled thousands of miles throughout the Northwest and Canada promoting the building of the bridge to nowhere, the Megler.” The car wound up in Shaniko when town developer Ed Martin bought it for $700. For four years, no one responded to Jeff’s calls about the vehicle. Finally, he reached Mar- tin’s widow, Joan, who was willing to sell it for $500. Wolfie (aka Greg Smith, pictured inset), owner of the Dancing Wolf Ranch in Wamic, offered to deliver the car to Astoria. All he wanted in return was a shot at some clam digging. But first, he had to cut his hay. Then there weren’t any clam tides. Then the hay was still wet. Then Wolfie fell off his trac- tor and dislocated his shoulder. Then Wolfie’s ranch caught fire, and two helicopters and 14 fighting units were trying to put it out. The next projected delivery date was on a Sunday. This time Wolfie had been startled by two rattlesnakes while loading the car on the trailer, and he slipped and fell and dislocated his shoulder. Again. But … he banged his shoulder into a nearby barn wall to fix it, and delivered the car as promised. You can see it jauntily tooling around Astoria, home again at last. ngee Hunt, who lives in rural Astoria, initially had a hard time believing her own eyes when she looked out the win- dow last Thursday. Two bobcats were playing in her back yard, about 15 yards from the house. Her first thought was, “Oh, they’re super beautiful!” followed almost immediately by, “Oh! They’ll eat our cats!” She called the game warden, who told her it was very rare for bobcats to be seen during the day, especially since they are nor- mally scared of people — and that’s when more folks are out and about. He figured they were probably youngsters, and just curi- ous. As long as they weren’t being aggressive (and they weren’t), there wasn’t a problem. Naturally, he advised Angee to keep her pets safe inside, especially at night. Between humpback whales, deer, elk and even cougars and coyotes, and now bobcats, you never know what kind of crit- ter you’re going to see around Astoria. “It was quite shocking,” Angee recalled. PAYING IT FORWARD: SKÅL! ‘G F autical writer Peter Marsh brought an interesting tidbit to the Ear’s attention: The last ship Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used in his attempts to reach the North Pole, Maud, has returned to Norway. And, quite the journey it’s been. Maud, a polar ship built specifically for Amundsen’s (pictured inset) second expedition to the Arctic, was launched in Vollen, Nor- way, on June 7, 1917. He christened her with a block of ice, saying, “You are made for the ice.” In 1918, when Amundsen set off from Norway, his plan was to deliberately get Maud stuck in the ice, and then hopefully drift across the North Pole, doing scientific research all the while. But even after several years of being ice-bound during two separate ventures, he never did reach the North Pole, and left the expedition in 1921. With Oscar Wisting now in command, Maud made more unsuc- cessful attempts at the North Pole before arriving in Nome, Alaska, in 1925, only to find Amundsen’s creditors wanted to take the ship. Wisting whisked the ship away before they could, but they caught up with him when he landed in Seattle. Maud was seized and sold to the Hudson Bay Company. The once-famed expedition ship was reduced to becoming a floating warehouse and wireless radio station before sinking to the bottom in 1931, while moored in Cambridge Bay, Canada. Where she proba- bly would have stayed, if not for the Maud Returns Home project. They raised Maud in 2016, then this summer towed her across the Atlantic Ocean to Norway. She is now being towed up the Norwegian coast, and is expected to arrive at her hometown of Vollen on Aug. 18, where she will hope- fully be displayed at a new museum. Maud is pictured, arriving in Norway, courtesy of Jan Wangaard leader of the project; the proj- ect’s website provided the photo of Maud in her prime. “It brings joy to our hearts,” Wangaard said, “to see Maud, still proud after all these years, see her old homeland once again.” (Maritime-Executive.com, MaudReturnsHome.no, fb.me/ maudreturnshome) A LOCAL BREVITIES STILL PROUD N SUPER BEAUTIFUL rom the Friday, Aug. 10, 1888 edition of The Daily Morning Astorian: • Street railway cars 7 and 8 arrived on the Bonita yester- day … No. 4 of the street cars will arrive this morning. When Nos. 7 and 8 arrived yesterday, 128 men asked Fred Newell where Nos. 5 and 6 were. They are summer cars, and will be here after awhile. Note: The Astoria Street Railway Company had just begun using horse-drawn street cars in May that year, along three miles of track on Commercial Street. The photo inset is courtesy of Oregon Encyclopedia. (bit.ly/Astocar) • While digging spuds for dinner, at Wells, Benton Co., last Saturday, Mary A. Carter found a $10 gold piece of date 1837, and bought some tobacco for her dear husband to smoke while she kept right on digging. • McMahon’s circus will exhibit at Alderbrook today and tomorrow; two performances each day, at 2 and 8 p.m. … Five cars and five coaches will run, and the steamer (Clara Parker) will leave the Main street wharf every half hour. Note: McMahon’s circus appears to have had several names in its history. The Journal-Times of Racine, Wisconsin, has the answer: “Joseph McMahon, for example, had to change the name of his circus every year, so the people wouldn’t associate him with the foul characters he brought to town the previous year …” McMahon was accidentally shot and killed in 1897, when a deputy sheriff thought the showman was reaching for a gun. He wasn’t. (bit.ly/joemcm1, bit.ly/joemcm2) • The old (Astoria) custom house square fence is being replaced by a new one. The cow-styles at the entrances are a thing of the past. … The Dayton council passed an ordinance last week, prohibiting cows grazing on the streets, and now some of the Daytonites threaten to “bust the charter.” • Some one has started a yarn that 30 unprotected young women of Walla Walla (Washington Territory) have gone over to the beach and camped there and are well armed, and that it is certain death for a man to go or come within 200 yards of their tents. It may be so. Most anything is likely to happen these days. erry Swenson and I have been representing the Swedes at meetings for the Scandinavian monument planning here in Astoria,” Terry Arnall of Astor Lodge No. 215, Vasa Order, wrote. Gerry is “Swedish by marriage.” “Gerry told me she won the $1,000 raffle prize at the Asto- ria Scandinavian Mid-Simmer Festival this year,” Terry added, “and she is donating the prize to the Astoria Scandinavian Heri- tage Association for the planned Scandinavian Heritage Park. Wow! That’s nice of her!” The park’s architectural and engineering fees have already been covered, so now they’re fundraising for the actual construc- tion. Details are online at astoriascanpark.org. “I wanted to share the money with the Scandinavian commu- nity,” Gerry explained, “and the best way to do that was to pass it on to the Scandinavian Park project.” A GENTLER, KINDER WAY S tudying fragile soft-bodied deep-sea creatures without hurting them was a problem waiting to be solved. Now there’s a new Poké Ball-like robot with a rather menacing-looking five-fin- gered grabber that gently encloses the creatures in a box — so they can be studied in their own environment — before releasing them unharmed, ScienceNews.org reports (bit.ly/squishygrab). The device is pictured in a screen shot, courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. The robot, which has been successfully tested, is mounted on a remotely operated vehicle, and controlled via joystick by an operator on a nearby ship. Future plans include adding 3-D cam- eras, DNA-swabbing, and tagging instruments. Considering that practically zilch is known about these soft deep-sea denizens, “almost anything we come up with,” marine biologist George Matsumoto said, “is going to be useful information.” COMMUNITY NOTES SATURDAY Lower Columbia R/C Soci- ety — 8:30 a.m., Jim’s Roadhouse Grill, 1605 E. Harbor St., Warren- ton. Local Academy of Model Aero- nautics (AMA) chartered radio con- trol model aircraft club meets for breakfast and business. All model aircraft enthusiasts are welcome. For information, call 503-458-5196 or 503-325-0608. Chinook Indian Nation Coun- cil Meeting — 11 a.m, Chinook Nation Tribal Office, 3 E. Park St., Bay Center, Washington. Members are asked to arrive on time. Meet- ing is open to all tribal members; attendees should bring a potluck item. For questions, call 360-875- 6670. 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. 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 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 older, $7.50 for those younger than 62. Breakfasts are open to the public. Proceeds af- ter expenses help support local and other charities. Metal available to experiment with; coal provided. No charge; dona- tions to Camp 18 Loggers Memorial Museum welcome. For information, contact Mark Standley at 503-434- 0148 or Herman Doty at 971-306- 1043 or ringinganvildesign@gmail. com Blacksmith Enthusiasts Meet — 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Camp 18 Blacksmith Shop, 42362 U.S. High- way 26, Seaside. Participants can bring own forge and anvil setup. 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 k7e- rowood@q.com, or go to nami.org 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. See NOTES, Page 4B
