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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, SEpTEmbER 23, 2021
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
LOCAL BREVITIES
‘SHE REALLY IS A JEWEL’
NO ZOO FOR YOU
rom The Daily Morning Astorian, Wednesday,
Sept. 26, 1888:
• First Officer Chambers, of the wrecked Derby Park,
was among the passengers on the Geo. W. Elder yesterday,
on his way to Portland. … He says that the island of Pen-
rhyn, where the vessel was wrecked, is an atoll, a circu-
lar coral reef. There are 500 natives and one white man …
Note: The Sydney Morning Herald, on Monday, Sept.
10, 1888 (bit.ly/derbypark), reported that while off Pen-
rhyn Island on July 23, natives approached the ship Silver-
dale in boats to convey that a ship had wrecked on the lee
side of the island July 19 or July 20. From the description,
it sounded like the Derby Park.
Everyone made it to shore, except the captain’s wife,
who drowned on the way, and the survivors were picked
up by a French schooner bound for Tahiti. Of note: The
Derby Park, built in 1887, was owned by Peter Iredale &
Son of Liverpool. It was only in service for one year.
From Friday, Sept. 26, 1890:
• Geo. W. Traver, a prominent Tacoma (Washington)
capitalist, has been in the city for a few days past, and has
made arrangements to invest largely in Frankfort property.
Note: Settlement in Frankfort, across the river from
Astoria, began in 1876, but it wasn’t until 1890 — when
Frank Bourn and Frank Scott platted the place with 1,226
lots — that a big fish like Traver showed up to invest.
Even though Frankfort was only accessible by water, the
selling hook was that a railroad was supposed to go through the
town. The two Franks sold lots, built a hotel, store, saloon, post
office and sawmill … and sold more lots. The duo then started
a newspaper, the Frankfort Chronicle, and sold even more lots.
The financial panic of 1893 stopped the boom, the rail-
road never showed up and the slide to oblivion began. The
post office closed in 1918, and Frankfort was a logging
town until the 1940s. By the time it was sold to a log-
ging company in 1953, there was hardly anyone left. Tra-
ver probably lost his shirt on this one. (bit.ly/frankf1, bit.
ly/frankf2). (In One Ear, 9/26/2019)
F
A
little while ago, a gentleman left a message
asking about the zoo in Shively Park. Yes,
there really was a zoo. But how did it get there?
And where did it go? The Astoria Parks and Rec-
reation Department’s Comprehensive Master
Plan (bit.ly/APRDplan) seemed a good place to
start the quest.
First of all, the land for the main portion of
Shively Park was deeded to the city by Charles
W. and Annie M. Shively in 1905, and then
developed for the grand Astoria centennial in
1911. Shively Park is pictured, courtesy of the
Clatsop County Historical Society.
The master plan says the celebration included
“a reconstruction of Fort Astoria, amphitheater
on the park’s south slope, exhibition halls, Native
American camp, botanical garden, trails and zoo.”
But, “within 20 years, many of the centen-
nial features were dilapidated or missing.” Not
the zoo, apparently, according to a 1999 Cumtux
story about Shively Park by former Astoria Police
Chief Charles A. “Chuck” Paetow (bit.ly/
paetow).
He wrote that in the 1920s, there were still a
coop full of exotic birds and fenced-in deer. One
buck, he recalled, who lived 12 to 14 years, had
antlers that never forked.
In 1938 or 1939, the deer became sick because
of the stickers on the barley beards in the hay they
were being fed. The stickers got caught in their
mouths, causing infections.
Paetow was working for the local veterinarian
at the time, and he had to catch the deer and hold
onto them so the vet could remove the stickers.
The task was completed “with torn clothes and
bruises.” After that, along with a change of diet,
the deer “recovered and thrived.”
Around 1940, a local poacher “shot the deer
and cut the fence to get them out,” all on a bet,
apparently. That, and other vandalism incidents,
made the city decide to close the zoo. Sadly, no
photos of it could be found.
“I was sad to see it go,” Paetow wrote. “I don’t
recall exactly when it closed, either just before or
during World War II. When I returned from the
war in 1946, the zoo was gone.” (In One Ear,
9/26/2019)
BREAD BANDITS
‘W
e just returned from a cruise that included Astoria
as one of the stops,” Sandra Pistone of Omaha,
Nebraska, wrote. “I want to recognize one of your volun-
teers, Irene Baltimore, who went ‘above and beyond’ her
duties to help me.” Sandra and her husband, Frank, are
pictured.
Irene, who volunteers for Clatsop Cruise Hosts and
lives in Warrenton, is shown, inset. Clatsop Cruise Hosts
greet the cruise ship passengers and crew, and answer
questions the visitors may have about where things are,
where to go, how to get there and even about the local area
history.
“My husband needed medication for a stomach prob-
lem,” Sandra explained, “and when I asked Irene for direc-
tions to the nearest drugstore, she decided driving me
there was the thing to do. She drove me to the drugstore,
shopped with me, and returned me to the cruise ship.”
And, the two had a chance to get acquainted a bit. “We
were just two chatty ladies on our trip to Astoria,” Sandra
recalled.
“Such hospitality is something I will remember about
Astoria,” she added. “Irene was my angel that day!”
Marian Soderberg, Clatsop Cruise Hosts coordinator
(who was pleased, but not at all surprised to hear about
Irene’s efforts to help the couple) noted, “She really is a
jewel.” (In One Ear, 9/24/2014)
THRIFT SHOP TREAT
N
‘PERFECT THROUGHOUT’
J
enny Serwylo, of Toronto, had an unsettling encounter
with three brazen raccoons, according to The Toronto
Star (bit.ly/breadbandit). She woke up to noises coming
from her kitchen, and when she went to investigate, she
found the masked bandits devouring her bread. They got
in by ripping a window screen.
Serwylo grabbed a broom and started making noise,
which scared off two of them, but the third ensconced him-
self behind the toaster oven. He stared at her audaciously,
and in between bouts of terrifying her by attacking her
broom, he wiped out her entire English muffin stash. Her
photo of the miscreant is shown.
When he’d had his fill, he sauntered back out the way
he came in.
“I’m going to go bleach my apartment now,” she told
The Toronto Star. (In One Ear, 9/21/2018)
TRASH PATROL
Y
ou had to know this was coming: a trash drone.
According to a story on NewAtlas.com (tinyurl.com/
trashdrone), South African entrepreneur Richard Hardi-
man is attacking ocean litter from the shoreline with his
WasteShark invention. The autonomous aquatic electric
drone comes in two models, FatBoy and Slim, to gobble
up floating waste before it can drift out to sea. One of them
is shown, courtesy of RanMarine (www.rantech.nl)
WaterShark prototypes, which look like catamarans with a
scoop, are being tested at the Port of Rotterdam. Future plans
include enabling the drone to transmit water and weather
data, adding software so it can learn about its environment
and developing a solar-powered Great Waste Shark that can
collect half a ton of trash at a time. (In One Ear, 9/23/2016)
ancy Johnson found a real gem at a Vancouver, Wash-
ington, Goodwill store: A chef jacket, hand-painted
in 2008 by well-known Astoria artist Ronni Harris. She
posted the photos shown on the “You Know You’re From
Astoria” Facebook page.
“I couldn’t walk away,” Nancy recalled, when she
spotted the jacket. “People find a ton of treasures in these
places. A lot of people go there just to save what’s been
thrown away.”
Although she now lives in Battle Ground, Washington,
Nancy was brought up in Hammond, so she quickly rec-
ognized the Astoria Trolley in the artwork. It wasn’t until
later that she realized who the artist was.
Ronni herself chimed in on one of the posts, explaining
that the jacket was specially designed for “Sammie who
owned Gourmet Gallery and Gifts in the Red Building.”
How the jacket arrived at the Goodwill is unknown.
“I’ll probably hold onto it for a while till I make a deci-
sion,” Nancy told the Ear. She figures finding the jacket is a
bit of a cautionary tale. “It’s kind of a warning,” she noted.
“Watch what you throw away.” (In One Ear, 9/22/2017)
T
he Astoria Parks and Recreation Department’s Com-
prehensive Master Plan (bit.ly/APRDplan) also men-
tioned that Astoria’s centennial celebration planned to
feature the world’s tallest flag pole in Shively Park.
There was only one problem: At well over 200 feet
tall, it was too long and heavy to be lifted, even with
the help of a steam donkey (red arrow in photo, cour-
tesy of the Clatsop County Historical Society). Some
local accounts say the pole snapped, which is why it was
never raised. But that’s not what happened.
According to the April 2012 edition of “The Pacific
Coast Architect” the dimensions were mighty, indeed:
“The flag pole is of Douglas fir, perfect throughout, with
a butt diameter of 5.5 feet and one of 2 feet at the apex.
Its length overall is 246 feet, and it is estimated to weigh
93,061 pounds.”
Since they couldn’t use it for the Astoria centennial,
what to do with it? Conveniently, it just so happened
that the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in
San Francisco was coming up in 1915.
In 1914, somehow, someone managed to get that
behemoth hunk of wood settled onto a cigar-shaped log
raft which was towed to San Francisco by the Ham-
mond Lumber Co., to be presented as a gift from Asto-
ria’s mayor and the city.
But when the tug approached San Francisco Bay, it
was hit by a whopping storm, and the flag pole broke
free. Fortunately it’s hard to misplace something that
large; it was found two days later, and brought to the
exposition.
The flag pole (shaped and trimmed to 30 tons, and
using three derricks) was finally raised, and sunk 10
feet deep into a 200-ton concrete block. Astoria then
provided an enormous flag (40 to 50 feet long) to fly
proudly at the top.
Sadly, the flag pole was dismantled sometime after
the almost yearlong exposition ended. And now, as Paul
Harvey used to say, “You know the rest of the story.”
(bit.ly/centpole1, bit.ly/centpole2, bit.ly/centpole3) (In
One Ear, 9/26/2019)
THE SWORD IN THE STONES
1,100-year-old Viking sword has popped up in a
most unusual place, according to Norway’s The Local
(tinyurl.com/mtnsword), found by some reindeer hunters.
It was sticking out of some scree (loose stones), blade first,
about a mile high in the Norwegian mountains. An odd
discovery, indeed, since no other Viking artifact has been
found so far above sea level. Photos of the location and
sword are shown courtesy of Espen Finstad, Secrets of
the Ice/Oppland County Council.
Finstad, an archaeologist, credits the sword’s excel-
lent condition to the Viking metal’s quality and being pre-
served by the snowy and icy conditions. There’s no trace
of its owner, but any human remains would have vanished
long ago.
“We have searched the area in a radius of around 50
metres (164 feet) and have used a metal detector, but
found no other objects,” he added. “So it’s a mystery as to
why the sword was in that particular place.” (In One Ear,
9/22/2017)
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