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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, AuguST 1, 2019
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
DISASTER AT CAPE LOOKOUT
AND NOW WE WAIT
LOCAL
BREVITIES
n Aug. 1, 1943, during World War II, a B-17 Flying
Fortress crashed into Cape Lookout, killing nine of
the 10 crewman aboard, leaving as sole survivor the bom-
bardier, Wilbur Perez (inset, left).
According to Tim King (tinyurl.com/wperez1), the
pilot of the plane, lost in the fog, was only flying 50 to 100
feet off the water at the time. Once he realized 900-foot
high Cape Lookout was dead ahead, he tried to climb. The
B-17 was still climbing when it slammed into the top of
the cape at 200 mph. Perez speculated they only needed 50
more feet to clear it. A documentary about the crash can be
seen at tinyurl.com/wperezdoc
Perez was blown out of the bombardier bubble and
wound up hanging upside down from a tree branch by
a shoelace. Although severely injured, he freed himself,
rolled toward the sound of the surf — and off the edge of
the cliff. Remarkably, he landed on a propeller from the
B-17 that had wedged itself in the side of the cape a few
feet from the top, and strapped himself to it.
Hanging there, he could still hear his remaining fel-
low crew members calling out as they gradually died from
their injuries. It took 36 hours to find and rescue him, Geri
Humpal of Seaside says, because there were no trails or
roads up to the crash site, and the rescue team had to wait
for the tide to change to get rescue equipment up there.
Perez was taken to Fort Stevens, the nearest military
hospital (pictured), where his surgeon was Geri’s father,
Dr. Donald H. Kast (inset, right). Despite being badly
wounded, Geri said, Perez wanted to put off necessary sur-
gery until he could deliver his Norden Bombsight (inset,
left) personally into the hands of someone from his base at
Pendleton. How he managed to get it out of the wreckage,
and hold onto it, is a mystery.
Dr. Kast finally convinced the bombardier to give up the
bombsight by stowing it in the hospital safe until someone
could come and retrieve it. The surgery was successful,
and Perez went on to live a long life, dying at 90 in 2009.
O
he TV show “Family Feud” auditions were held July
27 and July 28 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Portland.
Families had to apply online first, and submit a video;
if the show was interested, then you were summoned to
attend the audition.
The Campbell family was summoned. Pictured, from
left, four siblings, Cheryl (Campbell) Hitchman, Robert
Campbell, Jean (Campbell) Sleutel and Linda Camp-
bell, and their cousin, Anna Butler.
Jean, who lives in Warrenton, said there must have been
more than 300 families trying out July 28, when the Camp-
bells gave it a go. While waiting in line, she observed that
lots of teams were “dressed to the nines” with matching
suits, etc. The Campbells simply had matching shirts, but
“God knows, we had enough energy,” she said, chuckling.
Which is probably why the casting director singled them
out for a photo.
The family played two rounds of a mock game while
being checked for their ability to answer questions, how
the family interacted with each other and the other team,
how they behaved in a huddle, and most importantly, their
level of enthusiasm.
And the waiting begins. If the Campbells are chosen
for the show, they will receive a postcard in three to four
weeks inviting them to Los Angeles. Selected or not, Linda
proclaimed, “we had fun with it, regardless.”
T
idbits from The Daily Morning Astorian,
Wednesday, Aug. 1, 1888:
• Job Ross says that up to 1853 he could
have shown visitors the old fort erected by the
Astor party, but that year he pushed it over
and burned the debris for firewood.
Note: Fort Astoria was established in 1811
by John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company,
then sold to a British company, who renamed
it Fort George in 1813. It was renamed Fort
Astoria in 1818. Used as a fur trade depot by
Hudson’s Bay Co. until 1825, it was aban-
doned from 1825 to 1829. Reopened in 1830,
the fort stayed open until 1848. (fortwiki.com/
Fort_Astoria, bit.ly/FrtAst)
• The Manzanita (lighthouse tender) is off
for (Puget) Sound. Geo. Rowe goes along, his
destination being Destruction Island.
Note: George M. Rowe was the lighthouse
keeper on Tillamook Rock from 1881 to
1883. Construction of the lighthouse on deso-
late Destruction Island began in August 1888;
perhaps he was heading there as a consultant.
The bleak 33-acre island is around 3.5 miles
off the Washington Coast. (bit.ly/DestructIsle)
• If the Holladay estate could be got out of
litigation … a step would be advanced toward
building a much necessary road to the Seaside
from this city.
Note: When Ben Holladay (pictured,
right), a transportation magnate who built the
Seaside House Hotel, died in 1887, he was in
debt — and being sued by his brother, Joseph,
for $315,000 (about $8.5 million now). In
1889, Ben’s wife sued Joseph for $100,366.
The convoluted family lawsuits went on
for years. (tinyurl.com/bholla, tinyurl.com/
bholla1)
• Three Chinese pheasants, which are
protected by law, set upon Sammy Ross, a
14-year-old boy … and fought him so hard
that he dropped a two-bushel sack of wheat
and fled for his life. When the neighbors came
to the spot, the wheat was all gone, and the
birds were nowhere to be seen.
Note: In 1881, 60 ring-necked pheasants
were shipped to Port Townsend, Washington,
from Shanghai, by Owen N. Denny. A friend
of his released some on Sauvie Island, where
they flourished. By 1888, the U.S. Agricul-
ture Department reported the birds were “now
common.” And, apparently, ill-tempered. (bit.
ly/1881ringneck)
T
‘SHE’S THE BEST’
he winners of the annual wife-carrying champion-
ships July 6 in Sonkajarviare, Finland, are the same
Lithuanian couple who won last year, Vytautas Kirkli-
auskas and his wife, Neringa Kirkliauskiene, Fox News
reports (bit.ly/wiferace). They are pictured, courtesy of
AP/David Keyton.
The woman must be over age 17, and weigh at least 108
pounds; the prize is the wife’s weight in beer, AP reports.
If the man is unmarried, no problem, it’s pefectly OK to
“steal a neigbor’s wife.”
Kirkliauskas carried his spouse, strapped to his back,
over a 278-yard obstacle course in one minute, 6.72 sec-
onds, competing against couples from more than a dozen
countries. “After the second obstacle I thought I wouldn’t
make it, but it’s a great result,” he said. “My wife,” he
noted, “she is the best.”
T
WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME
y son-in-law snapped this photo (shown) while
watching a segment of ‘Live PD’ from Greene
County, Missouri,” Dan Sealy wrote. “The suspect is
wearing a Seaside, Oregon, hoodie.”
At first, the Ear wasn’t so sure about the hoodie, as it isn’t
too legible, but a short internet search allayed all doubt. It is,
indeed, a Seaside hoodie. You can see the actual clip, “Hot
Box,” from Season 3, at bit.ly/PDhotbox
The couple in question were stopped for sitting in a car
for two hours; the neighbors got concerned and reported it to
the police. When the driver rolled down the window, a gust
of marijuana smoke blew out — hence the “hot box” title.
Mr. Driver was cited and released for having a pot stash
he had apparently forgotten about; Ms. Seaside Hoodie was
not charged.
‘M
THE ECHO-MAKER
GOOD COMPANY
AT LAST … A PARKING
SURVEY
nother interesting tidbit from the same edition of The
Daily Morning Astorian:
• The Popular Science Monthly describes a curious
and ingenious device called “The Echo-Maker,” to be
used on ships at sea. … The naval board tried the echo-
maker, and found that a return sound could be heard from
the side of a fort half a mile away …
Note: Mariners pretty much depended on their ears to
discern sound location at sea (like foghorns and whistling
buoys) until 1880, when Prof. A. M. Mayer invented
the topophone, consisting of resonators and rubber tub-
ing, which discerned sound direction fairly accurately. A
wearable version is pictured.
Mr. De La Torre’s echo-maker was one of several
contraptions invented in the 1880s, and was actually a
primitive form of sonar. It consisted of “a flaring funnel
screwed on the muzzle of a rifle. It is operated by firing
the rifle in the direction of the supposed obstacle,” then
waiting for the echo to determine the object’s distance
and size.
The naval board was impressed, but De La Torre’s
echo-maker wound up getting lost in the shuffle, along
with several other similar inventions. Sonar devices that
could both send and receive sound signals didn’t actu-
ally appear until 1918. (bit.ly/echomaker1, bit.ly/echo-
maker2, bit.ly/echomaker3)
A
ave an opinion about public parking in downtown
Astoria? No kidding, someone actually cares how
you feel about it. The Astoria Downtown Historic Dis-
trict Association is conducting a survey on the topic at
bit.ly/parkAstoria. They also want to know “who comes
downtown, how often and why.”
There are nine questions, and No. 10 provides an oppor-
tunity to add your comments. If you’ve got something to
say on the subject, here’s your shot.
H
very now and then a goat or two can be spotted
blithely mowing someone’s lawn in Astoria. Well, the
Chelan County Fire District 1 kicked it up a notch or
three when it hired around 320 goats from Billy’s Goats
Targeted Grazing Services of Ephrata, Washington, to
clear out dry grass, etc., that has become a wildfire haz-
ard near Wenatchee, Washington, the Seattle Times reports
(bit.ly/goatslope).
The critters are chowing down on everything in sight,
creating a defensible fire zone in an area that is too steep
(35 to 50 degrees) to be accessible to mowing machinery.
And besides, goats — who work in two shifts, grazing 15
to 16 hours a day — are a lot cheaper than human labor, at
about $1,600 per acre. Better yet, the bill is being footed
by a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
grant. Some of Billy Porter’s goats are pictured, courtesy
of the company’s Facebook page.
In case you’re wondering, the goats are protected by
a moveable electric fence, a very large guard dog named
Nanny and a herder named Todd Waits, who really enjoys
his job. “The best thing,” told the Seattle Times, “is being
alone in good company.”
E