B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2021 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
I
t’s not every day that an antenna rises next to a
granite memorial spire in the midst of a grave-
yard. Or that a man and a woman in Ozzie and
Harriet-era attire set up their living room with a white
wicker settee and table in the grave marker’s shadow.
But Sunday wasn’t ordinary at the Pioneer Ceme-
tery in Astoria, as nine departed souls returned from
the great beyond for talking Tombstones VIII, a Hal-
loween tradition put on by the Clatsop County His-
torical Society with sponsorship from Astoria Gran-
ite Works.
Former citizens, portrayed by actors and actresses,
stopped in for graveside chats with living visitors. This
year’s theme, “Diggin’ it for 200 years,” paid homage
to Astoria’s b icentennial.
Most corner oﬃ ce views would be hard-
pressed to compete with the view from the
deck of the U.S. Army Corps of E ngineers
dredge Essayons, especially on a warm,
sunny day earlier this year as it worked in the
Columbia River navigation channel.
“It’s a great place to work,” said Jerry
Gompers, Portland d istrict d redging o pera-
tions section chief. “Accommodation is great.
The schedule, one week on, one week oﬀ ,” it’s
a great job for a sailor.
But it’s a job that gets overlooked when
people are considering a career in maritime
service.
“Most people, when they think of a dredge,
think of a bucket-type dredge with a barge
picking things up,” Gompers said. It’s an
image that sometimes gets in the way of the
Corps’ eﬀ orts to recruit crew members.
The Portland d istrict began reaching out
to maritime academies about 20 years ago to
educate students about the beneﬁ ts of work-
ing aboard the Corps’ dredges. Cadets from
the California Maritime Academy serve
aboard Portland d istrict dredges Essayans
and Yaquina for 60 days during the dredging
season, shadowing the ships’ oﬃ cers and get-
ting hands-on experience in operations.
OCEAN PARK, Wash. — Jack’s Country Store
in Ocean Park is a winner of the 2011 Master Mar-
keter award from SuperValu, the store’s grocery sup-
plier. The competition involved independent grocers
in a 20-state region and is based upon innovation and
success in marketing. Judging was performed by grad-
uate students at the University of Minnesota business
school .
Nominees for the award were broken into two tiers,
based upon store size, and into eight classes. Jack’s
competed with other stores that have less than 30,000
square feet of selling space and in the category of w eb-
site and s ocial m edia.
Jack’s Country Store began its i nternet presence in
1998, years ahead of most independent brick and mor-
tar retailers. The continuous improvements and expan-
sion of the website have propelled it to exceptional
visibility and traﬃ c.
50 years ago — 1971
Members of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coa-
lition heard a rundown Saturday on many proposed
projects, which members viewed as having the poten-
tial to harm the c oast or not be in the best interests of
the c oast.
The coalition , formed six months ago, aims to pro-
tect the coastal environment.
Capt. R.O. Elsenshon, Astoria bar pilot and chair-
man of the Clatsop Environmental Council, told the 30
attending the status of the proposed AMAX aluminum
reduction plant, scheduled for Warrenton. He reviewed
the environmental council’s positions, including
denial of the economic beneﬁ ts of such a plant, and a
demand for a complete estuary study on the environ-
mental impact of the smelter. He announced the c oun-
cil is now “opposed to the construction of an alumi-
num smelter here under any circumstances,” and plans
to take legal steps to stop it.
MANZANITA — For 100 years, people
have been hunting gold on the slopes of Neah-
Kah-Nie Mountain and on the beach nearby,
Matt Hensley, an eighth grade history teacher at Astoria Middle School, portrays explorer Gabriel Franchere at the
Talking Tombstones event in 2011.
side Planning Commission. The proposal for state
constructed and maintained parking facilities under
a Turnaround area extending between Avenue A and
Oceanway will be recommended to the City Council.
The dredge Yaquina in 2011.
Astoria had higher population num-
bers in 1940, 1950 and 1960 than it had in
1970, according to 1970 c ensus d ata recently
released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Counting only the 10-year intervals, Asto-
ria grew from a 10,389 population in 1940 to
12,331 in 1950, but dropped to 11,239 in 1960
and on down to 10,244 — below the 1940 level
— in 1970. That amounts to a 16.9% decrease
since 1950.
SEASIDE — Plans for a high-rise on Seaside’s
oceanfront have been announced. Plans call for a six-
story condominium at Avenue E and the Prom.
To be built of concrete and steel, six one-bedroom
and 54 two-bedroom units are oﬀ ered at prices rang-
ing from $28,450 to $52,450. All units will face the
ocean or have an ocean view, and will be completely
furnished, including ﬁ replace, air-conditioning and
kitchen appliances.
A circular swimming pool and two sauna baths are
also proposed for the structure in a special recreation
area.
75 years ago — 1946
A ﬁ sh jumps on the Klaskanine River in 1971.
seeking what they thought was buried pirates’
treasure.
Now along comes Donald M. Viles, of Garib-
aldi, to tell the fortune hunters “there ain’t no
gold in them thar hills.” At least not the kind
the ‘49ers panned for down in California .
What may be there, if researcher Viles
and his associate, archaeology student M.
Wayne Jensen, are correct, is a historical bul-
lion which could rewrite Northwest history.
Viles told a recent meeting of the Pine Grove
Community Club that the mystery of Neah-
Kah-Nie rock is really the mystery of the lost
port of Sir Francis Drake’s New Albion, that
Drake stepped on Nehalem Bay to claim a
New England. If Viles’ theory holds water,
that would make Nehalem Bay the ﬁ rst sci-
entiﬁ cally surveyed and measured piece of
ground in North America. It also makes the
site the ﬁ rst projected and measured English
colony in North America, preceding James-
town, Virginia, by many years.
SEASIDE — A beach parking plan beneath an
expanded Turnaround has been endorsed by the Sea-
For the ﬁ rst time in ﬁ ve years, Astoria Halloween
pranksters turned from good clean fun to vandalism
and destruction of property Thursday night, giving the
local police and sheriﬀ ’s oﬃ ce their busiest 12-hour
period on record.
The night of disorder was well organized by teen-
agers, according to Police Chief Casper Seding today
with reports coming in from all over the city of gangs
of boys and young men pulling down fences, uproot-
ing street signs, turning in false ﬁ re alarms, breaking
windows, opening ﬁ re hydrants and destroying city
property.
The most serious damage of the night was a number
of ﬁ re hydrants from which hose line caps were taken
by the Halloween celebrators. The caps are irreplace-
able at this time, according to ﬁ re department oﬃ cials.
The diehards say the last albacore has
been caught in the Northwest. Astoria’s tuna
for the season totaled 3.6 million pounds, of
which 48,000 pounds were brought here by
boat and truck in October.
This is the ﬁ rst year that the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has gathered complete statis-
tics on Astoria receipts. The total 1945 land-
ings in the Columbia were 9.9 million pounds.
The price of milk in Astoria and other communities
in Clatsop County will advance to 18 cents a quart on
Nov. 1. The wholesale price will be 16 cents a quart.
Amphibious vessels of the 19th ﬂ eet are
beginning to ﬂ ock into their new permanent
home in Mott B asin as construction work on
the $9 million U.S. N avy project there takes
shape.
Already nine big LSTs are moored along-
side the north side of pier No. 6 of the basin
and six more of the same type of craft are
scheduled to come down from Portland this
week, two today, two tomorrow and two
Sunday.
His leg broken in a fall from the deck of the U.S.
Army freighter Sol Ross, Tarashura Kitooka, a Japa-
nese seaman, Wednesday was rescued from drowning
by crew members and taken to the Astoria naval hos-
pital for medical attention.
Kitooka was engaged in removal of a lifeboat from
the deck to a hatch when the boat’s rigging gave way.
With Kitooka aboard, the lifeboat crashed into the
river.
Kitooka may be the ﬁ rst of former enemy Japanese
to set foot on Oregon soil since the war began. He is
the ﬁ rst Japanese subject to be a patient at the local
naval hospital. His status is prisoner of war.
Crabbers, ﬁ shermen and kayakers enjoy the crisp fall air on a sunny afternoon at Neawanna Point in Seaside in 2011.
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to
review two cases challenging the validity of
Georgia’s unit voting system.