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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2021 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
C
ANNON BEACH — With the return of the puf-
fi ns to Haystack Rock, it must be time to cele-
brate Earth Day.
And celebrate they do , where one day morphs into 12
days of Earth Day, each with its own special event.
“Every day is Earth Day, but for me the real Earth Day
(April 22) is its ‘birthday,’” said Barbara Knop, a member
of the local Earth Day committee.
The 12 days begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday when students
from Fire Mountain School in Nehalem will welcome the
tufted puffi ns back to Haystack Rock.
The stocky black birds are particularly popular because
of their large red-orange and yellow beaks, orange
webbed feet and long feathered plumes curling over the
back of their heads and necks.
When Julie Thomas fi rst came to the mouth
of the Columbia River a couple of years ago to
talk buoys with a group of mariners, it didn’t
take long for the bar pilots, fi shermen, the U.S.
Coast Guard and other river users to explain
how she could help them.
There was just one wave and weather buoy
outside the bar, and it often quit functioning
after the winter’s early storms ran through, they
told Thomas, program manager of the Coastal
Data Information Program at the Scripps Insti-
tute of Oceanography in San Diego.
“There were no observations for waves in the
area for long periods of time,” she said.
A small w averunner buoy could be more dura-
ble, Thomas told them, and could still provide live
data about conditions on the bar. And two of them
— one near the bar and another farther off shore
to gauge incoming waves — would be even better.
She could help them make that happen.
Now, the two buoy system is in place.
SEASIDE — An emergency route out of Seaside is
needed if a tsunami slams against the east hills. T hat
emergency route could be the bypass some residents have
been requesting for years.
But before any bypass can be build, numerous road-
blocks would have to be removed, several speakers,
including state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, and
Clatsop County Manager Duane Cole, told the Seaside
City Council Monday night.
The discussion focused on the city’s proposed trans-
portation system plan, which calls for improvements to
U.S. Highway 101 and surrounding arterials for the next
20 years.
Fire Mountain School students watch nesting seabirds on Haystack Rock in 2011.
Assisted by Christine Stanley, left, Fire Mountain School
students peer through spotting scopes and binoculars
toward nesting seabirds on Haystack Rock in 2011.
An antique piece of farm equipment, photographed in
1971 at the Flavel House Museum.
“We have been coming here for the past eight
years, in April,” said Jack K. Anderson, the
park’s superintendent.
Anderson said he and his wife stopped here
overnight on a Pacifi c Northwest tour eight
years ago.
“We were treated well and liked the country
and the climate, so we have been coming back
each spring,” he said. “We enjoy golf and hike
the country. If we ever retire, we will probably
come here to stay.”
50 years ago — 1971
When Astoria was founded, it was on a hastily-cho-
sen site.
The John Jacob Astor fur trading expedition arrived in
the Columbia River on March 23, 1811, and landed on the
north shore. Parties were dispatched by boat to explore
both shores to pick a suitable location for a settlement.
The search was still going on, but Capt. Jonathan
Thorn, the martinet master of the ship Tonquin, which
carried the expedition from New York, was in a hurry to
go on a fur trading adventure of his own.
So Duncan McDougall, head of the shore party, who
had conducted the explorations along the south bank,
decided on a spot called Point George, a low promontory
projecting into the river and covering a small bay.
On April 12 the ship’s longboat landed a dozen men
with tools at the bottom of the small bay and clearing
work began.
Two accounts of the event have survived, both written
long afterward. They are the journals of Gabriel Franchère
and Alexander Ross, clerks with the expedition.
Astoria High School’s Flying Fishermen
track team did everything but light the candles
on coach Carl Dominey’s birthday cake at the
high school oval Thursday afternoon. They are
saving the lighting ceremony for Monday —
Dominey’s birthday and the day of the big event
taking place at Tillamook.
Though there wasn’t actually a cake at the
fi eld Thursday, there was a jubilant celebration.
The Flying Fishermen accomplished something
no other Astoria High School track and fi eld
team had in several years: they won their second
Coast-Valley League meet. I t was a squeaker
for the varsity team until they swept the 880,
the 11th event on the 16-event program, then
75 years ago — 1946
Announcement of plans for construction of 80 resi-
dences in a portion of Tapiola Park and a 100-unit motel
and apartment project near downtown Astoria was made
today by R.P. Pickett, managing director of Associated
Property Owners in Portland.
Robert Overby, owner of Astor Court Grocery, makes
revisions to his taxes before Tax Day in April 1971.
clinched the evening’s aff air by winning the mile
relay.
Gov. Tom McCall says a strong possibility exists that
federal funds will pay for a full-time planner to coordi-
nate the Columbia River e stuary study and planning.
In a letter to Dr. Noel Rawls, chairman of the American
Metal Climax Citizen’s Advisory Committee, the gover-
nor said he’s instructed his staff to proceed with the fed-
eral grant, designate the person to lead the estuary study
and coordinate “the information now available and eff orts
henceforth, and getting the study underway.”
Yellowstone National Park is one of the
nation’s best known and most popular vacation
area. In season, it is thronged with hundreds of
thousands of visitors.
So where does the head man of this park go
when he wants a vacation? He comes to the Ore-
gon Coast, specifi cally, Clatsop County.
How to plan a house for easy family living
but hard family wear will be discussed at Home-
makers’ Day, announced Jean Starker, emer-
gency assistant.
L ois Lutz, extension specialist of home man-
agement of Oregon State College, will speak on
the subject, “Better Houses for Better Living.”
Her talk will point to the importance of carefully
planning a home that meets family needs.
SEATTLE — Don Clark, director of the Washington
state game department, today protested in letters to the
state’s congressional delegation that construction of the
Umatilla dam in the Columbia River threatens to wipe out
three quarters of fi sh in the watershed.
“The entire state of Washington is becoming seriously
alarmed over probable eff ects of the proposed dams. We
have lost practically the entire upper Columbia River
above the mouth of the Snake,” he said. “Surely, the fi sh-
ing industry and sport fi shery of the Columbia River war-
rants a section of the watershed.”
The h ighest river stages in several years will be
reached by this spring’s freshets in Pacifi c Northwest
streams, according to the Columbia River basin water
forecast committee. The committee just completed its
ninth annual meeting .
Except for a few streams, Pacifi c Northwest rivers
will send above-normal fl ows of melting snow into the
Columbia, the committee predicted.
“It is my considered opinion that the construction of
McNary Dam should be delayed as long as possible and
that since the primary justifi cation for the construction of
this dam is for the production of power, that every possible
source of power should be investigated before McNary
Dam is built,” said J.T. Barnaby, who is in charge of the
north Pacifi c fi shery investigations of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service.
The Astoria Marine Construction Co. has
designed and is preparing to build stock model
gillnet boats whose hulls can also be used for
stock model sport fi shing cruisers. These small
sport crafts will have a cabin with galley accom-
modations and will bunk two people.
Rex Ziak speaks at the Liberty Theatre in 2011 about the early life and rise of John Jacob Astor. He became one of the
richest men in the world through fur trading and real estate.
The brand-new Chris-Craft cruiser, the Sans Souci,
arrived in the local harbor from Portland.
The new boat is the fi rst of its kind to enter the Colum-
bia River since the start of the war. It is 26 feet long, pow-
ered with a 95-horse power engine and has a cruising
speed of about 20 knots an hour. It accommodates 10 peo-
ple with sleeping quarters for four.