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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2018)
1B THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2018 CONTACT US ewilson@dailyastorian.com (503) 325-3211 ext. 257 COMMUNITY FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorian IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON QUITE AN ADVENTURE HAIR-RAISING ‘W e thought you might want to alert people living near our location at Fourth Street and Jerome Avenue in Astoria — especially people who have had a pet go missing lately, or have pets out at night — that there is a coyote occasionally mov- ing through the 6-acre wooded ravine adjacent to our house,” Todd and Maria Wendler wrote. “Beginning early in the summer we started periodically hearing what sounded like the classic yipping and baying, but we weren’t really convinced until last night when we heard the unmistakable call from what seemed like right outside our win- dow. Talk about hair-raising! On this occasion, as with the earlier episodes, the time was about 4 a.m. We were certain enough the first time we heard it to start locking our cats in at night.” Good advice. WHAT HAPPENED TO JOANIE? S ept. 30 marks the 35th anniversary of the date that Warrenton High School student Joan Leigh Hall, 17, went missing. The teen was supposed to assist tutoring children at 2 p.m. that day at Warrenton Grade School, but never showed up — which was puzzling, since Joanie was a reliable girl, and the night before had been elected president of the sheriff’s office’s student Explorers program. Law enforcement inter- viewed family, friends and Joanie’s fellow students to find out if anyone had seen her. One young man, Mike, said he’d dropped Joanie off at the Mini-Mart around 2 p.m., and she was going to walk to the grade school. Yet a girl at the Mini-Mart said she saw Joanie get into a car with a young man and leave. The girl later changed her story, saying it wasn’t Joanie, after all. Three of Mike’s friends claimed they saw Joanie with him and his car around 4 p.m. the afternoon she vanished. All three of them later changed their stories, saying it was not Joanie they’d seen with him. Scratching your head? No wonder. You can read some police reports yourself, and find other links about the case and its many twists and turns, at bit.ly/JoanHall. Not surprisingly, foul play is suspected, but no one was ever arrested, and despite extensive searching, she has never been found. “Somebody knows where Joanie Hall is,” missing persons advocate Dena Mattox Rush (fb.me/JoanieHallMissing) insists. “Find your courage.” If you have any information about what happened to Joan Leigh Hall, or know where her remains are, please contact the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office at 503-325-8635, or email sher- iff@co.clatsop.or.us “It was one of Charlotte Hall Packard’s biggest dreams that her little sister Joanie be found and buried next to their parents at Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton,” Rush recalled. “Char- lotte’s son, Dan McGrath, purchased a double plot when Char- lotte passed away in 2010, so that someday, when Joanie is found, she can be laid to rest next to her beloved older sister.” L ongtime friends Joanne Poggetti, 67 (pictured, left), and Katie Geraghty (right) — members of Northwest Women in Boating in Seattle — enjoy going on adventures together, and this year’s trek was a whopper. They decided take Joanne’s 13-foot Boston whaler (equipped with a 40-horsepower motor), and follow the Lewis and Clark Expedition 469 miles downriver from Lewiston, Idaho, to the mouth of the Columbia River. Preparation for the trip had its challenges. They had to weigh everything, as the boat only holds a total 935 pounds, including both women and the motor (216 pounds) and spare parts. In addition, Joanne worked with a Garmin team, spending “hours and hours mapping a route to avoid the shallows” and setting up 900 GPS waypoints. The dauntless duo left Sept. 9, and right outside of Lewiston, the Garmin crashed. Katie got it running again, but the waypoints weren’t there. Good thing they brought along nautical charts. “One thing we hadn’t accounted for was that moorage and camping are 1/4 mile apart,” Joanne noted. “So lug- ging eight dry bags 1/4 mile is hard, especially when you have to get up at 5 a.m. to beat the wind.” Another problem they found along the way was a lack of infrastructure on the river, making it hard to get gas. “One of my biggest fears was going through the dams,” she said. “But it’s been great. We’ve been in there with barges, and you go down 100 feet. We locked through seven dams.” “We’ve really been seeing some great stuff,” Joanne recalled. “The kindness of strangers has just been remark- able all along the way. The women, in particular, have been so encouraging. They say, ‘We love that you’re doing this.’” Some of Joanne’s photos can be seen at bit.ly/ JandK2018 The pair arrived in Astoria on Sept. 21, tired, but no worse for the wear. “I just wondered if it could be done,” Joanne told the Ear. “It’s a waterway that could be explored. It’s been quite an adventure.” TALES OF CLAUDE AND MARVIN K elly McKenzie of the Columbia River Maritime Muse- um’s Education Department is looking for stories about our very own local sea monsters, Colossal Claude and Marvin the Monster. “Colossal Claude was first sighted by the crew of the Light- ship Columbia back in 1934,” she wrote. “The mate of the light- ship described it as 40 feet long, with an 8 foot long neck attached to an ‘evil snaky looking head’ and a ‘mean-looking tail.’” Claude has been missing since the mid-1950s. “Marvin the Monster was caught on tape when Shell Oil Co. was exploring the area in 1963,” Kelly added. Two frames are shown. “Marvin looked to be 15 feet long with barnacled ridges along his body and swam in a ‘corkscrew fashion in water about 180 feet in depth.’” Is he a sea jelly or a plesiosaur? No one knows, and the tape has vanished. So has Marvin. Have a Marvin or Claude story? Email Kelly at mckenzie@ crmm.org MAKE A DIFFERENCE ‘R iver Song Foundation is joining Moss Forest Sanctu- ary to assist in a large rescue of cats and kittens,” Rita Smith, of River Song, wrote. Possibly dozens of cats and kittens are involved. “This is a neighborhood that has reached out for help with a significant and longtime homeless cat population,” she explained, “so we will be working to not only re-home cats, but also to assist residents with spay and neuter, and a plan to address future drop- offs and abandoned cats. “We got our first ‘load’ of two adults, six teenagers, and one mom with 3-week-old kits. This is going to be a huge and long undertaking. Volunteers are needed! Donations for vet care and supplies are needed!” Donations can be made to River Song Foundation at bit.ly/ RiverSongFdn or by mailing a check to P.O. Box 44, Hammond, OR 97121. Donations to Moss Forest can be made at mossforest. org. To volunteer, or for information, or to inquire about adopting or fostering, call Rita at 503-741-7369. “We have a chance to really make a difference here,” Rita added. “Please help us do that.” SLOW RIDE MIND YOUR BEESWAX WILDLIFE TIPS A A tidbit from the Monday, Sept. 29, 1890 edition of The Daily Morning Astorian: • Yesterday morning there arrived on the steam schooner Augusta from the Nehalem River, William Edward, a resident of that section, bringing with him 250 pounds of beeswax, which he had picked up with the assistance of his daughter, Minnie Garitse, on the coast near Nehalem. It is said the beeswax was part of a cargo of a vessel that was wrecked on the coast near the Nehalem River, but the oldest inhabitant of that section does not remember hearing of a wreck. But Indians living in that part of the county say it was wrecked over 100 years ago. Note: Actually, it was almost 200 years before 1890. This was undoubtedly cargo from the famed “Beeswax Wreck” of a Span- ish galleon, probably the Santo Cristo de Burgos, in the late 1600s. The actual wreck has never been found. storian and nautical writer Peter Marsh started bik- ing home from Salt Lake City on Sept. 14 to finish his self-described “three-year/three-part ride across America.” “Although it is mid-September, it was still hot, up to 85 in the day, so I really do have the best month for riding,” he said. Problems he’s encountered include a scarcity of camping sites, and thorns are everywhere. “I have picked up more than my share,” he noted. “At Miracle Hot Springs (Idaho) resort, I camped and fixed two flats from nasty thorns using my tiny pump with foot peg, then pricked dozens more out of the tires. Then I tried to repair an air mattress that continues to leave me on hard ground every night … ” He visited the information center and main highway bridge over the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho (pic- tured), passed “1,000 springs” waterfalls in Southeast Idaho, encountered “the worst headwind I have ever rid- den against,” and followed the Oregon Trail wagon route for a while until he got stuck on a freeway when there were no usable side roads. “This on-off freeway route is not getting any easier, I must admit,” he wrote, but whenever possible he follows “pioneer navigation methods between waterholes.” He’s past halfway home, more than two years after starting his journey from his friend’s house in Virginia. “I guess I am in the slow bike club now!” he quipped. A fter last week’s story about the truculent raccoon, and this week’s about the lurking coyote, some wildlife tips are in order. The city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada has one of the most unusual wildlife guides ever at bit.ly/critterhints For instance, if you want to get raccoons out of your house, hang ammonia-soaked rags around and play a loud radio tuned to an all-talk station. Unfortunately, it might drive you out, too. Hints about deterring a coyote include opening and closing an umbrella (they don’t like the look or sound of that action, appar- ently), shine a bright flashlight on it and, most importantly: “Be big and loud: Jump up and down, wave your arms, yell ‘Go away coyote!’” Hopefully, it works. COMMUNITY NOTES SATURDAY Angora Hiking Club — 9 a.m., Sixth Street parking lot; or 9:50 a.m., Oswald West State Park park- ing lot rest rooms. Oswald West hike. Membership is not required to participate. For information, call June Baumler at 503-368-4323 or go to angorahikingclub.org 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. 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. information, call 503-325-1364 or 503-325-7960. MONDAY Grace and Encouragement for Moms — 10 to 11:30 a.m., Crossroads Community Church, 40618 Old Highway 30, Svensen. GEMS group is a time for moms to relax and enjoy each others’ com- pany. Free childcare is provided. For information, call Christina Leon- ard at 503-298-3936. Chair Exercises for Seniors — 9 to 9:45 a.m., Astoria Senior Center, 1111 Exchange St. For in- formation, call 503-325-3231. Scandinavian Workshop — 10 a.m., First Lutheran Church, 725 33rd St. Needlework, hardanger, knitting, crocheting, embroidery and quilting. All are welcome. For 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 Suzanne Bja- ranson at 503-861-4202. 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. See NOTES, Page 4B
