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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
THE ASTORIAN
• TUESDAY, MAY 11, 2021
•
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WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
or Karen Eland, it was her fi rst time as one of
more than 150 vendors who lined the street on
opening day of the Astoria Sunday Market.
“I love it! There are so many booths and the weather
has turned out great,” Eland said as she watched hun-
dreds of people who clogged a busy 12th Street on Moth-
er’s Day.
F
CANNON BEACH — With all of the new
information coming out of Japan about the
damage that can be caused by earthquakes and
tsunamis, should a construction moratorium be
adopted in Cannon Beach?
Local resident Charles Hillestad thinks so.
Until scientists can analyze the data that sur-
prised even the experts and use it to update local
building and zoning codes, a construction mora-
torium should be enacted, he said.
But a moratorium should go even beyond
Cannon Beach and extend to the tsunami-prone
areas of the entire coast, he added.
“If a house is already built, OK,” Hillestad
said. “On the other hand, should we be increas-
ing the danger (by constructing additional
buildings) until we have more information?”
A real estate attorney in Cannon Beach,
Hillestad is at the center of opposition involving
construction on a small, vacant lot just south of
his midtown home, a block from the beach.
H e asked the City Council to overturn the
P lanning C ommission’s approval to allow front-
and rear-yard setbacks to be reduced by half
so a two-story, 1,029 square foot house could
be built on a 1,750 square foot lot. The council,
however, voted unanimously to uphold the com-
mission’s decision.
The usual lot in Cannon Beach is 5,000
square feet. But Hillestad worries that lots in the
city will become increasingly smaller and hous-
ing will become denser.
Ryan Barnes and the rest of the crew on board their
38-foot sailboat had just hit their groove when it happened.
They were a half-hour into an off shore race from
about 2 nautical miles southwest of the South Jetty’s tip
and were heading to Victoria, British Columbia, moving
quickly north into a south wind, when one crew mem-
ber saw a dark mass underwater near the side of the boat,
Barnes said.
In an instant, a 30-foot whale catapulted itself out of
the rolling swells on the boat’s starboard side, coming out
of the water almost entirely.
“It hit its head half to three-quarter of the way up the
mast,” Barnes said.
The eight people on board watched from the cock-
pit, stunned as the whale landed atop the boat — water
streaming off the massive mammal — before it rolled off
and back into the sea.
It was a fl uke that no one was in the whale’s path at the
exact moment, Barnes said.
“It just happened that we didn’t have any issues on
deck,” he said.
50 years ago — 1971
The spring commercial fi shing season opened Sunday
night on the Columbia River. R eturning packers reported
a disastrous start.
Salmon were scarce all the way from the river mouth
to the deadline below Bonneville Dam.
Margaret Maki, 17, of Svensen, has been
named Queen of the 1971 Clatsop County
Rodeo. She is a senior at Knappa High School.
Vladimiar Nuraev, 43, of Sverdlovsk, Russia, was
in good condition in Columbia Memorial Hospital after
an elaborate rescue operation involving two federal
agencies.
Nuraev, refrigeration engineer on the big Russian
trawler Pechenga, fell off a ladder, cutting a gash on the
back of his head and another in his back, while the Pech-
enga was about 600 miles off the coast.
Nuraev reached the hospital following a trip by heli-
copter to the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station, where he was
transferred to city ambulance.
When John Jacob Astor VIII arrives in Asto-
ria tonight with his wife, Fiona, it will have been
10 years since his last visit.
Then 14, John was here in 1961 with his
parents and grandparents for Astoria’s 150th
anniversary celebration. In an historic picture,
John, his father, Gavin, and grandfather, John
The Astoria Sunday Market began its season in 2011 with more than 150 vendors.
From left, Patti Imlah, Clatsop County Rodeo Queen
Margaret Maki and Susan Wells in 1971.
Jacob Astor V, posed with descendants of Chi-
nook natives. The Chinook lived at the mouth of
the Columbia when the fi rst John Jacob Astor
landed men to establish a fur trading post on
the site of what is now Astoria. The meeting
took place, along with then-Gov. Mark Hatfi eld,
at the site of the Astor fort, commemorated by a
marker at 15th and Exchange streets.
A “mini-ship,” the newly-built Greek freighter Mini
Leaf of 1,586 tons, has been at Pier 1 of the Port of Asto-
ria docks loading a full cargo 3,000 tons of wheat for
Corinto, Nicaragua, the past several days.
The Mini Leaf, 214 feet long, is driven by two auto-
matic diesel engines of 750 horsepower each that oper-
ate twin screws.
The little vessel carries a crew of nine. These include
three offi cers, three seamen, one cook and two engineers.
From left, Gavin Astor, John Jacob Astor V and John Jacob
Astor VIII stand with then-Gov. Mark Hatfi eld and Chinook
natives at the site of the Astor fort at 15th and Exchange
streets in 1961.
The tugboat Louie III comes up from the bottom of the
Columbia River in 1971.
Knappton Towboat Company’s tug Louie III
sank in front of Samuel Elmore Cannery. Larry
Morgan, a crewman, fell into the water, but was
rescued, according to reports. T here was no loss
of life. Company offi cials said they did not yet
have any further information.
The Louie III was engaged in towing another
vessel at the time.
A fi rst edition copy of Washington Irving’s “Astoria”
was presented this week to the Astoria Library by Joseph
Saari, of Vancouver, Washington. Coinciding with the
visit by John and Fiona Astor, the gift is an important
addition to the rare books collection of the library and
a fi tting way to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the
founding of Astoria, said librarian Bruce Berney.
Published in 1838 in Philadelphia in an edition of
5,000, time has considerably reduced that number. Saari
purchased the present two-volume book in 1950 from a
Yakima, Washington, bookstore which had burned. The
volumes miraculously escaped with little water damage.
75 years ago — 1946
Capt. E.F. Galkpen, general inspector of the 13th naval
district, was the third high-ranking naval investigator of
U.S. Rep. Walter Norblad’s charges of food wastage in
Astoria to visit the city. He came down from Portland and
is expected to return there soon to continue investiga-
tions he was making in that area. Admirals Van Hook and
D.W. Mitchell continued interviewing naval personnel
and completed plans to visit junk dealers and any other
individuals they can locate who have salvaged materials
cast away by the N avy at the city dump.
Ryan Barnes, of Portland, stands atop his 38-foot sailboat vessel, L’Orca, which was damaged by a breaching whale
northwest of the Columbia River Bar in 2011.
A ship takes wheat at the Port of Astoria’s Pier 1 docks in
1971.
Northwest industrialists and civic lead-
ers had a fi rm warning that a power shortage
had already evidenced itself north of the Puget
Sound and that there would be severe short-
ages throughout the Bonneville P ower A dmin-
istration system until 1952 at the present rate
of generator installation and dam construction.
With naval vessels coming in from sea for decom-
missioning at a rapid pace, there were 84 such craft in
the Astoria harbor today, naval authorities reported.
Ten vessels were at anchor in the stream off Asto-
ria’s waterfront. T he rest moored at the naval station at
the port terminals.
Sixteen classifi cations of naval vessels, mostly aux-
iliary craft and landing vessels of diff erent types, were
included in the 84 ships. In addition, there are other
vessels moored temporarily in Portland’s harbor.
Decommissioning is proceeding steadily, with 60
ships at a time undergoing the process.
The fi rst action to restore the Astoria air-
port to civilian control was taken Tuesday
night by the Port of Astoria Commission in
passing a motion which requests the U.S. Navy
to declare the airport with all its facilities as
surplus.
If the requested action is taken by the Navy,
the Port must then indicate to the Civil Aero-
nautics Administration its willingness to spon-
sor the airport as a public project. The Civil
Aeronautics Administration, once the sponsor-
ship is accepted, will survey all the properties
of the airport and will turn over all those to the
sponsor that are of practical use in the mainte-
nance of the airport.
Request that the U.S. Navy have the cruiser Astoria
visit its namesake city on May 30 and May 31 instead
of June 10, as is scheduled, will be made through U.S.
Sen. Guy Cordon by the Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber offi cials wrote Cordon today asking for
the changed dates to permit the cruiser to participate in
Memorial Day observances in Astoria. The chamber is
planning an extensive observance on Friday the 31st in
conjunction with local naval authorities.