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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 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
hey walked in together, a tight-knit group 35
strong.
They brought their 13 years at the school to an
end with an emotional ceremony — fi lled with ritual and
at the end, a frenzied burst of silly string.
It was a moment to savor.
Knappa’s 2011 graduates were joined by family,
friends and the community to celebrate their success
together — before branching out on their own.
They had been there for each other, and have achieved
great things as a group, senior class president Anthony
Brockey told the crowd gathered at the formal ceremony.
But, despite the state championships, academic
awards and milestones they all passed, their most import-
ant moment so far was this one, he said.
“Our greatest achievement of all is standing before
you now,” Brockey said.
Some people toss balsa wood planes from the
top of the Astoria Column.
Other people toss themselves.
Astoria p olice were on the hunt Monday
morning for a paraglider pilot who launched
himself off the viewing platform of the 125-foot-
tall landmark .
Roland Johansen is caught in the center of a silly string storm as the 36-member Class of 2011 celebrates the conclusion
of their commencement ceremony at Knappa High School.
GRAYS HARBOR — The U.S. Coast Guard rescued
two crewmen from the fi shing vessel JB, a 48-foot boat,
after it ran aground and sank near the south jetty at Grays
Harbor.
The vessel was pushed into the heavy surf where div-
ers with Ballard Diving & Salvage worked to secure the
vessel and remove remaining fuel and oils from the boat
as it moved close to the jetty rocks.
The Columbia River Maritime Museum ded-
icated the bar pilot boat Peacock and opened
up the old Astoria Train Depot to visitors on
Saturday.
Sam Johnson, the museum’s executive direc-
tor, was among leaders of the event sharing
details with visitors.
The Peacock, built in 1964, saw 33 years of
service, ferrying bar pilots to and from more
than 120,000 commercial ships. It was donated
to the museum in 1999 but was only just put on
display at the east corner of the museum park-
ing lot last October.
CANNON BEACH — A ship wrecked on the city’s
shores Wednesday. But those who were there were hav-
ing too much fun to be concerned.
In fact, the only fear they had was that the scene
wouldn’t look just right.
City councilors Sam Steidel and Wendy Higgins
headed to the location. Photographer George Vetter
brought his camera. Others joined them. At one time, 25
people were on the beach, all working on the shipwreck.
And work they did, to complete their sandcastle
sculpture in time before the waves would wash it away.
It was the day of the community build of a sand sculp-
ture to remind locals and visitors of the annual Sandcas-
tle Day.
50 years ago — 1971
Old Jupe Pluvius was the big winner in Sunday’s
Oregon-Idaho Lions Club Fishing Derby.
The worst June day in many years spoiled the fi sh-
ing for fi ve boatloads of anglers, including Gov. Cecil
Andrus, of Idaho, and Gov. Tom McCall, of Oregon. No
one caught a fi sh.
Not only did it rain spasmodically all day long, but
there was a strong southwest wind and the bar was
rough. It was so bad that some commercial trollers did
not go out.
The Warrenton charter boat Gay Lady, carrying
Andrus and his party, made it across the bar, but no one
managed to land a fi sh.
“It seemed as though sometimes I was trying to fi sh
uphill,” Andrus said. He seemed to enjoy his experi-
ence, however, and was philosophical about the weather
conditions.
M cCall reported a wet and fruitless voyage. His boat,
the Thunderbird, piloted by Jim Campbell, of Astoria,
did not venture across the bar, but fi shed around the river
mouth for several hours before heading for port.
A ndrus was awarded the trophy put up for the
best-fi shing governor because he got across the bar
Michael Haglund, an author, attorney and member of the
Columbia River Maritime Museum board, speaks at the
Peacock’s dedication ceremony in 2011.
The fi shing vessel JB ran aground near the south jetty in
Grays Harbor in 2011.
while McCall didn’t.
Astoria’s Planning Commission listened on
Tuesday night to many of the same comments
and complaints on the proposed new zoning
ordinance.
C.J. McElhany made a new proposal to the
commission: that the ordinance require at least
two off -street parking spaces per residence,
rather than the one required now. He said that
with so many families having more than one
vehicle, plus boats and trailers, that parts of
Astoria had severe parking problems. He said
narrow Glasgow Avenue can be particularly
hard to negotiate with many vehicles parked on
the streets.
SEASIDE — The civic-convention-recreation cen-
ter was offi cially recognized as a “dream about to come
true” in ground breaking ceremonies on Wednesday.
A crowd gathered to watch the proceedings, which
featured members of the Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners and chamber of commerce.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Yocona, led
by Cmdr. Dale Foster, will leave Monday for a
two-month high seas law enforcement cruise to
Alaskan waters.
The Yocona, operating out of Kodiak,
Alaska, will work two primary seas — the east-
ern Bering Sea and Bristol Bay in one, and the
salmon abstention line, off the Aleutian Islands.
75 years ago — 1946
Most of the traffi c carried by ferries on Sunday were
bound from Megler, Washington, to Astoria, accord-
ing to Floyd H. Simon, state superintendent of local
ferries.
Of the 625 vehicles carried on the ferries in 20 trips,
377 boarded at Megler and 248 at Astoria. Of the 1,590
passengers, 936 boarded at Megler and 654 at Astoria.
During the rush late in the day, cars occasionally had
to wait a little more than an hour.
A shipwreck sandcastle begins to take shape in Cannon Beach during the lead up to the sandcastle contest in 2011.
Offi cials at the groundbreaking for what would become
the Seaside Civic and Convention Center in 1971.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bonham ren-
dered assistance to the Astoria fi shing boat
Selma S., which was apparently disabled south-
west of Cape Lookout, about 25 miles south of
Tillamook.
A new tuna fi sh canning operation, which will keep
the Van Camp company’s cannery busy on a year-round
basis, was announced today by Bill Gillis, local man-
ager for Van Camp, and W.J. Grinnan, sales manager,
who were in Astoria from the Van Camp head offi ce in
Terminal Island, California.
Van Camp’s cannery will process yellowfi n tuna
shipped from Costa Rica and will operate on as close
to a 12-months-a-year basis as possible. Year-round
employment will be provided to a minimum of 250 peo-
ple instead of the present three-months-a-year operation
at the cannery.
Francis Harley, former mayor of Astoria and
one of the old town’s best known citizens, has
come and gone on what he said may be his last
visit to the community. Harley is 76 years old.
T he familiar short red whiskers on his kindly
face are snowy white, but in many ways he is
still the same man another generation of Asto-
rians knew well.
That Astoria is still the “city of destiny” on
the West Coast to the former mayor is very
evident. If he were 30 years younger, he said,
Astoria would once again be his home port and
nothing could stop him from assisting in bring-
ing the big developments to Astoria the city so
richly merits by virtue of location and natural
resources.
Drydocks and shipping facilities for Asto-
ria were Harley’s rallying war cry 30 years ago
as he stumped the state and nation for devel-
opments of the lower Columbia area. There is
still need for the old campaign to go on, he said,
though a great deal has been accomplished
along the lines he advocated years ago.
Rebuilding of Astoria in accordance with proper
municipal planning would be fairly easy and not particu-
larly burdensome fi nancially upon the citizens if it were
done on a long-term basis looking a half century ahead,
according to Ebba Wicks, local architect, who returned
after spending a year and a half studying in the Academy
of Art near Detroit, which is operated by Eliel Saarinen,
world-famous Finnish architect.
W icks was one of a small group of students there and
worked on a plan for a possible future Astoria during
most of her year and a half at the school.
As part of her work, she constructed a scale relief
model of the Astoria area from John Day to Warrenton
on which is laid out a plan for what Astoria could become
a half century hence under a city planning program.