B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2021 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
T
he largest tract of industrial timberland in Clat-
sop County has changed hands a half-dozen
times in 30 years.
The land was sold from Crown Zellerbach to Caven-
ham Forest Industries, who later sold it to Hancock
Lumber, who sold it to Willamette Industries in 1996.
Weyerhaeuser grabbed it in a hostile takeover in 2001
and sold it to Portland-based Campbell Group last year.
But one of these companies is not like the others.
Campbell Group is a timber investment management
organization.
Its emergence as Clatsop County’s new timber
giant is part of a larger, nationwide trend in forestland
ownership.
Over the past few years, the biggest timber compa-
nies have discarded their corporate structure to cash in
on hefty tax breaks off ered by timber investment man-
agement organizations and similar investment manage-
ment vehicles called real estate investment trusts.
In doing so, they’ve severed the traditional ties
between timberland and sawmills. Most of their land
holdings, including 140,000 acres of Clatsop County
timberland, have been sold to pools of investors who
could live on the other side of the continent — or the
globe.
“It’s a fairly broad shift across the country,” said
Ross Gorte, a timber industry analyst for the Library of
Congress. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the timber
industry, as we have known it at least, be largely out of
the landowning business in 15 to 20 years.”
Junior 4-H member Maddie Miner-Paul demonstrates ‘How to Make an Oregon Map’ during a presentation in 2011.
ton Northern at the same time.
Edmund Hayes, president of the historical
society, accepted the collection on behalf of the
society. He said the 5,000 photographs included
in the donation amounted to one of the most
valuable single gifts of historical photographs
ever received by the historical society.
In addition, he said, the historical society has
been given 600 fi le boxes of railroad records
that include invaluable historical material on
Oregon and Washington state tourism, trans-
portation, commercial development and indus-
trial development.
The collection also includes material on
the Oregon Electric Railway and the Oregon
Trunk Railroad. It contains records of some
stagecoach lines that preceded railroad expan-
sion into Oregon.
Oregon State Parks is gearing up for another
camping season along the coast.
Spring break is just around the corner and
campgrounds are fi lling up quickly.
Many people will also visit day-use areas to
beachcomb, swim, fi sh and hike.
The powerful storms that recently hit Ore-
gon should remind springtime visitors to the
coast to be especially careful — logs near the
surf or on sand are susceptible to waves, mak-
ing them dangerous to be near. Wave-tossed
driftwood piled on the beach is unstable and
dangerous to climb on.
The same waves that piled driftwood has
eroded and weakened cliff s and hillsides. S tay
on trails and respect fences and boundaries.
For the past few weeks, 4-H members prepared
speeches and practiced delivering information on a par-
ticular subject. The presentations were given in front of
a judge, parents and other members on March 8.
Some subject matter included “Making a Snuggle
Blanket,” “How to Make an Oregon Map,” “Making
Bubble Gum,” “How to Show a Pig ” and “Rabbit Agil-
ity 101.”
The 4-H members in grades four to six talked for
three to 10 minutes. T hose in grades seven to 12 were
required to talk for 10 to 20 minutes. Members also
gave impromptu speeches about various aspects of the
4-H program. Other judging criteria were appearance,
general presentation, subject matter and the result it had
on the audience.
Two fi shermen have fi led a class-action law-
suit in an eff ort to break up a giant seafood
company that operates in Oregon, including
Warrenton.
Lloyd Whaley and his son, Todd, from
Brookings, along with Michael Haglund, an
antitrust lawyer from Portland, seek up to
$520 million in damages and a slew of injunc-
tions that would eff ectively end Pacifi c Sea-
food’s dominant role in the West Coast fi sh
business.
50 years ago — 1971
A section of 10th Street in Astoria, just north of
Marine Drive, collapsed beneath a loaded dump truck.
T he driver escaped injury.
Gearhart resident E.A. “Bob” Clark, owner and
operator of the truck, was badly shaken as the rear of
his vehicle suddenly dropped beneath the pavement.
“I thought the world was coming to an end,” he said.
SEASIDE — A traditional American drama
A map of timber holdings in Clatsop County in 2011.
was re-enacted Saturday night when 17-year-
old Kelly Hertig was crowned Miss Seaside
1971.
Nearly 400 friends, relatives and classmates
of the 10 competing semifi nalists viewed the
13th annual Miss Seaside Scholarship Pageant,
this year titled “Spring Thing,” sponsored and
introduced by the Federated Junior Woman’s
Club of Seaside.
A representative of the owner of the John Jacob
Astor Hotel proposed Monday night a $4.5 million con-
vention center with parking and shops on the hotel site,
if individuals or a group from Astoria comes up with
$300,000 of it.
Robert Marcill e, of Seattle, a representative of Seat-
tle restaurant owner William Sander, told the Astoria
City Council that the city would be a natural for a con-
vention center because of its geographical location, his-
tory and recreation attractions. Portland architect Jim
Oliver, with Marcille, said the 47-year-old, eight-story
hotel was in such poor condition that the only thing it
was good for was tearing down.
A major collection of photographs and
records covering half of a century of Pacifi c
Northwest history has been given to the Ore-
gon Historical Society by the Burlington
Northern Railroad.
The collection was assembled by the Spo-
kane, Portland and Seattle Railway, founded
in August 1905, and became a part of Burling-
PORTLAND — A court test of Oregon’s 1967 beach
law will begin Monday with a trial in U.S. District
Court.
William Hay and Georgianna Hay, owners of the
Surfsand Motel in Cannon Beach, challenged the con-
stitutionality of the law. It establishes the right of public
access and state sovereignty on coastal dry sand areas.
75 years ago — 1946
Schools must develop a forward-looking concept for
world citizenship and must help to establish world gov-
ernment and maintain the peace.
Such is the report brought back by A.C. Hampton,
Astoria School District superintendent, from regional
meetings in New York and Chicago of the American
Association of School Administrators.
Hampton declared that the prominent educators who
conducted the meetings emphasized the importance
of gearing the educational system to new concepts of
international relations brought by World War II .
Activity at the Columbia River Pack-
ers Association shipyard on Young’s Bay is
largely limited to getting ready for the Alaska
expedition.
Ten 18-foot boats , used in Bristol Bay by set-
net tenders and for other purposes, are under
construction. The spruce-hulled oak-ribbed
crafts are 8 feet wide, square on both ends.
Four “monkey” boats, which are used in shal-
low draft towing in Alaska, are about 95%
complete. Five sailing boats for Bristol Bay
gillnetters are ready.
An 80-foot fi r-hull power fi sh scow has been
launched and will be going on a trial run in a
few days. It was constructed for Libby, McNeill
& Libby Cannery. The company is also pro-
ceeding to build two 48-foot purse seiners for
the same fi rm.
The Port of Astoria dredge Natoma, which has
always made money for the P ort on private dredging
contracts, is going to get a physical checkup of her boil-
ers, engine and hull. She may get a new diesel engine to
replace the “steam pot.”
Negotiations are pending for sale of the P.J.
McGowan Cannery and the company’s other
remaining properties in Ilwaco to the own-
ers of the North Oyster Co. of Oysterville: Ted
Holway, Roy Kemmer and Glenn Heckes.
Owned by McGowan and other assets in
Ilwaco are the principal remaining proper-
ties of the important fi shing enterprise, which
McGowan founded in Pacifi c County in 1853,
14 years before the fi rst salmon was canned on
the Columbia River. In 1883, the founder took
in his four sons, James W., John D., Charles C.
and Henry S.
Shayne Odell, of Clatskanie’s Eric Hepler & Sons Inc., sets aside a tree trunk while on Tillamook Head in 2011.
Copies of a prospectus for a proposed new airline to
serve Northwest Oregon were exhibited here this week
by Joseph Stein, a former U.S. N avy fl ier who has been
engaged by promoters of the enterprise to handle the
details in connection with its organization.
The fi rm has made application to the C ivil A eronau-
tics B oard for a permit to operate the airline service,
which would reach Astoria, Tillamook, Newport, Coos
Bay, Corvallis and Eugene, with Portland as the termi-
nus from which its operations would radiate.