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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2010
T
he former Safeway block in downtown Astoria
has collapsed.
The block behind the American Legion ,
which has caused a great deal of concern in the past,
was battered by heavy rain this weekend.
“We knew we had a severe problem. But I never
anticipated this,” Mayor Willis Van Dusen said.
WARRENTON — There’s an exhibit inside
the Lewis and Clark National Historical P ark’s
visitor’s center titled: “How many days does
it rain in the winter at Fort Clatsop?” It was
apropos Sunday during the national park’s
annual Holiday Open House.
“I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and this is
the worst weather ever,” said Tom Wilson, who
was one of several people reenacting Christ-
mas 1805 when the Lewis and Clark Expedi-
tion stayed near the Paciﬁ c Ocean. The retired
Astoria fourth-grade teacher helped created
the living history programs at the park.
Strong winds roared through the forest can-
opy and a steady downpour drenched the men
and women participating in the reenactment
just as they did the Corps of Discovery 205
years ago.
The sink hole in the former Safeway lot in downtown Astoria in 2010.
LEFT: The dining room of Cannery
Cafe, built on pilings over the
Columbia River, is left charred and
exposed after a ﬁ re spread through
the building in 2010.
BELOW: A crowd gathers along
Marine Drive to watch as ﬂ ames
reach high into the sky after a ﬁ re
broke out at the Cannery Cafe and
moved to the No. 10 building next
door, destroying both in 2010.
A massive ﬁ re on the waterfront in Astoria destroyed
two historic buildings Thursday night and Friday
morning.
No one was injured.
The ﬁ re is believed to have started at the Cannery
Cafe around 10:30 p.m. Employees at the cafe saw
smoke and ﬂ ames. They evacuated the building and
called 911. As ﬁ reﬁ ghters responded to the call, they
noticed smoke coming from the adjacent No. 10 build-
ing, which housed some 28 businesses and organiza-
tions, including Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, the
Lazy Spoon Cafe, Salon Verve and CASA, among
others.
Bartender Saralee Cokely was inside Cannery Cafe
preparing to close when she and a chef smelled smoke.
“It was crazy stuff, dude” she said . “It was intense.
Everything seemed to be OK. I was just going through
my routine, and a cook stays with me to walk me out so
I don’t have to close up alone — thank God — and we
walked into the restaurant area and we both could smell
smoke, like burning plastic and really hot.
“He grabbed a ﬁ re extinguisher and I thought maybe
someone threw a cigarette in a garbage can or some-
thing. But I tried to turn on the lights and everything
short circuited and nothing turned on.”
Cokely said the cook found a ﬁ re on the bathroom
ﬂ oor on the second ﬂ oor. He put it out with the extin-
guisher while she went into the storeroom where the
ice machine was. Looking through a vent, she said she
could hear crackling and see ﬂ ames and debris.
“The whole attic was lit up like the Fourth of July. It
was crazy,” Cokely said. “I said, ‘We’ve got to get out
of here!’ I called 911.”
50 years ago — 1970
Landings of coho (silver) salmon during the Colum-
bia River fall salmon ﬁ shery approached 4.9 million
pounds, making this season the best since the mid-
1920 s, the Oregon Fish Commission announced.
Columbia River C hinook landings were the best
since 1951 and almost reached 4.8 million pounds.
The bulk of both the coho and C hinook landings
were below Bonneville Dam. Only 184,000 pounds of
coho and 700,000 pounds of C hinook were caught in
the Indian commercial ﬁ shery above Bonneville.
The war of words, between commercial ﬁ sher-
men and the Oregon Fish Commission over the sale
of spawned hatchery ﬁ sh continued here Wednesday
night, in the ﬁ nal of a series of ﬁ ve ﬁ shermen’s t own
h all meetings held along the coast, but nobody seemed
any closer to a solution to the problem.
Several ﬁ shermen contended the sale of 91,000 spent
hatchery ﬁ sh has had or will have an adverse effect on
the price ﬁ shermen receive from the packers, but com-
mission spokesmen continued to express their disbelief.
“I still have difﬁ culty believing that the few good
quality ﬁ sh we sell can compete with troll ﬁ sh to the
extent it reduces the price,” said Robert Schoning,
director of the c ommission.
He said most of the hatchery ﬁ sh sold was of poorer
quality than the troll-caught ﬁ sh sold to packers and
that a state purchasing agent hand-picks the top quality
ﬁ sh for serving in state institutions. This year, the state
received 20,000 pounds of ﬁ sh, free of charge, for this
use and state institution ofﬁ cials claim they cannot use
more, he said. He also said 95% of the hatchery ﬁ sh are
sold after the troll season has ended.
A proposal on rezoning the Clatsop College
District regarding election of board members
will be submitted to the state attorney gener-
al’s ofﬁ ce for an opinion, c ollege b oard mem-
bers were told Thursday night.
Board member Art Fertig, who helped
draw up the proposal, said today the college
should hear in about 10 days from the attor-
ney general’s ofﬁ ce. He said the attorney gen-
eral was being asked whether the b oard has
the authority to rezone the district by itself, or
whether such a proposal must be voted on by
the people.
Asked about the contents of the rezon-
ing proposal, Fertig said he would release it
only when word is received from the attorney
general.
75 years ago — 1945
Public interest in the welfare of the Columbia River
salmon industry from the time ﬁ sh runs began to
salmon cook, a worthy research man. In the selling
ﬁ eld, Hume had not only the task of inducing people
to eat salmon, but eat it out of a can. He had more suc-
cess teaching this new eating trait to Englishmen than
Americans.
It was in the tradition of trade secrets that research
in the Columbia salmon industry thrived. Its achieve-
ments in the making of cans, alone, pioneered the can-
ning age into the world.
The Astoria Column, the city’s ‘Christmas tree of lights,’
decorated by the Astoria Jaycees in 1970.
decline resulted in the establishment of the Food Indus-
tries Laboratory here in 1940. Today it is known as the
Seafoods Laboratory and is located at 1236 Taylor.
While this laboratory undertook the ﬁ rst state sup-
ported research in the processing phases of local ﬁ sh-
eries, it is obvious that the packing industry has con-
ducted in its 79-year history a great deal of study in the
preparation of ﬁ sh, making and sealing of cans and the
proper care of raw material and ﬁ nished product.
William Hume, the ﬁ rst salmon packer on the
Columbia River who put up 4,000 cases at Eagle Cliff,
Washington, in 1866 was himself a pioneer research
worker in production, processing and selling.
Techniques of catching salmon were far short of
today’s skills. He tried both seines and drift nets. That
model of seaworthiness, the Columbia River gillnet
sailing boat, was still a blueprint in the mind of some
now forgotten shipwright. His ﬁ sh were cooked in open
pots much like salmon mulligan. The retort was yet to
come, one of the greatest developments in the process-
ing of canned foods. It was perfected by some obscure
By a vote of 5 to 1, the Columbia River Fish-
ermen’s Protective U nion voted at its annual
election on Dec. 11 to initiate a petition of
outlawing stationery gear, such as ﬁ sh traps,
seines and set nets, from water of the Colum-
bia River. The same measure, as voted for by
the membership of the union, calls for prohib-
iting commercial ﬁ shing, except by treaty Indi-
ans, above Bonneville dam.
This proposal was submitted by the union’s
annual delegates conference held in late
November to a vote of the membership. Some
opposition to sponsoring an initiative measure
at this time was voiced in consideration of the
measure by the delegates to the annual meet-
ing. Afterwards, a member of the union’s leg-
islative committee individually advised the
union membership that he considered pro-
motion of a bill to outlaw traps and other sta-
tionary gear as inopportune at this time when
various elements in the industry are allied in
sponsoring vital conservation programs.
Washington state ruled out stationary ﬁ sh-
ing gear in 1933 and Washington members of
the union have since recommended similar leg-
islation in Oregon.
The Paciﬁ c Northwest was still on the verge of a
sliver thaw today, but weather bureau spokesmen said
the icy conditions of Sunday would not be repeated “to
any great extent.”
Light, freezing rain was forecast for today with the
mercury possibly dropping to 28 degrees in outlying
areas surrounding Astoria and on the higher elevations.
Mayor Orval Eaton and his wife suffered
bruises but were not seriously hurt when the
mayor’s car skidded on ice and piled into the
bank on the Wolf Creek H ighway on a trip to
Portland on Saturday.
Concerned over their 8-year-old son, who
was in the back seat, the mayor and his wife
jerked the door open, whereupon the lad
stepped calmly out, pointed to a small tree
beside the road, and commented: “Daddy,
here’s a ﬁ ne Christmas tree.”