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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021 • B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2011
S
EASIDE – It was a small event in regards to a big
event but it was an event meant for remembering.
A simple Pearl Harbor Day ceremony in Sea-
side on Wednesday honored local resident and U.S. Navy
veteran Bill Thomas who survived the Japanese attack in
Hawaii in 1941 that killed more than 2,400 Americans and
injured more than 1,000 .
While most of those attending the event, including
emcee Ron Kinsley, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Ore-
gon National Guard, weren’t even born when the Pearl
Harbor attack occurred 70 years ago, it’s a day that must be
remembered, Kinsley said.
Occupy Astoria Oregon took a positive tone
during the weekend.
People marched in support of local businesses.
The group walked along Marine Drive and
Commercial Street on Saturday.
A group of demonstrators marched through
downtown, imploring drivers and passersby to
bypass big box stores and support local businesses.
“It’s very important to shop locally, or they’ll
disappear,” said local activist Lori Durheim,
who marched in the event. “People need to know
that some of those products you can get in big
box stores you can get right here in downtown
Astoria.”
Durheim made sure to mention that local
means any small business in and around Clatsop
County — not just in Astoria.
Members of Occupy Astoria Oregon marched to encourage people to remember to shop locally in 2011.
ILWACO, Wash. — U.S. Coast Guard Station Cape
Disappointment rescued two people approximately 7 miles
from the Columbia River entrance Sunday by pumping out
the water from a sinking vessel and towing it to shore.
Coast Guard Sector Columbia River received a report
that the 50-foot sailing vessel Flying Dragon was taking on
water with failed engines and two people on board south-
west of the Columbia River at approximately 12:50 p.m.
A can for a candy cane.
That was the exchange Thursday night as
Santa fi lled his bag with food — lots of it — with
the help of the Astoria Fire Department and the
community.
For 23 years, the fi re department has led the
charge in the can collection for the Christmas b as-
ket program and the regional food bank for Clat-
sop Community Action.
On Thursday night, that tradition continued.
More than 30 fi refi ghters, family, friends and vol-
unteers, including Jane Tucker, Astoria Library
d irector, and Police Chief Peter Curzon, partici-
pated in the parade, traveling through Emerald
Heights, Alderbrook and Uppertown.
“Besides fi lling a need in the community, for
me personally, it’s really what helps get me into
the holiday spirit myself,” said Fire Chief Lenard
Hansen. “Not having my kids and grandchildren
in town anymore, I didn’t realize how much I
missed that opportunity. So I benefi t from it just
as much as anybody else.”
Over the years, people have been so gracious,
Hansen explained, because the food they received
from the food bank was all they had.
50 years ago — 1971
The Port of Astoria is having its biggest short-term ship-
ping boom in history, with the threat of the West Coast
longshoremen’s strike resuming on Christmas Day. That is
the day the Taft-Hartley law, invoked by President Richard
Nixon and which stopped the 100-day strike, expires.
The Port has been operating at or near capacity for
several weeks and has usually had ships at anchor in the
Columbia River awaiting a berth or longshore gangs. Six
ships — four of them loading logs for Japan — were work-
ing this morning and 23 other ships are scheduled between
now and the end of the month. Others are being continu-
ously scheduled.
Port Manager C.E. “Ted” Hodges said the 26 ships on
this week’s list is the most he has seen in the fi ve years he
has been manager at the Port .
The Lewis and Clark Trail heritage commis-
sions of Oregon and Washington state will start
planning soon a Lewis and Clark E xpedition
observance for next year.
Astoria is one of the only cities in the state with a pri-
vate bus service. But, that service, Pacifi c Coachline, may
be headed for trouble unless more people ride the buses.
Jack Davies, who owns the service, says he needs
approximately 10 more riders per day to remain solvent.
Davies presently operates two buses that run one at a
time, making a 21-mile circuit around the city and nearby
Astoria’s adult student housing apartments, adjacent to
the Old Youngs Bay Bridge, near completion in 1971.
The Port of Astoria is seen in 1971.
outlying areas. Davies estimates that between 125 and 160
people ride the buses during an average day.
Davies said he is thinking of instituting special rate pol-
icies for visiting seamen and other groups but he said the
key to solvency is a few more riders per day.
75 years ago — 1946
Richard L. Neuberger, Oregon author who has a home
in Gearhart, has called the attention of the United Nations
to Astoria’s historical background and cosmopolitan popu-
lation in asking that Astoria be included among the sites to
be studied and analyzed by the United Nations investigat-
ing committee.
The Oregon author presented Astoria’s case in the fol-
lowing letter addressed to A.H. Feller, general counsel,
United Nations:
“Dear Abe:
“When the United Nations considers possible sites in
‘the western area of the United States,’ I hope you can use
your considerable infl uence to bring about study of Asto-
ria, Ore.
“Astoria, a community at the mouth of the Columbia
River, off ers inestimable and inspiring potential sites for the
United Nations. It is a seaport. It has a large naval airport.
Most important of all, it has so much space that obtain-
ing the necessary land for the building would involve nei-
ther great expense nor the dislocation of any established
activities.”
A shipload of the Japanese merchant seamen
who have sailed the U.S. Army transport to the
Columbia River are on the high seas en route to
Yokohama .
Carrying 1,200 passengers, and with a crew of
29 Japanese seamen to man the ship, the trans-
port John W. Weeks crossed out of the Columbia
on Nov. 28.
Aboard were the crews of 28 ships. The trans-
Members of the Camp Rilea Color Guard join U.S. Navy veteran Bill Thomas, who survived
the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941, on the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in Seaside in 2011.
A map of a U.S. Air Mail route in 1946.
ports usually carry a crew of 28 offi cers and men
in their run across the Pacifi c to the reserve fl eet.
They have no cargo.
The commercial aviation age arrives here tomorrow .
At 9:10 a.m. a West Coast Airlines plane will alight with
passengers, express and mail at the Astoria airport. Greet-
ing the coming of the commercial aviation age to Astoria
will be offi cials of the P ort of Astoria, Mayor Orval Eaton
and the eager patrons.
Operations will be extended from Portland through
McMinnville, Corvallis-Albany, Coos Bay and Eugene to
Roseburg as soon as more equipment is available.
Five minutes after taking off from the Astoria
airport today for Portland, a plane of West Coast
Airlines was called back and will remain here
until Sunday. All afternoon fl ights have been can-
celed because of bad weather.
A resolution drawn up at yesterday’s meeting of the
county court was today forwarded to the Oregon S tate
H ighway D epartment assuring it that Warrenton, Ham-
mond and Clatsop County favored the inclusion of the War-
renton-Fort Stevens highway into the state highway system.
A preliminary step in the offi cial transaction, the resolu-
tion marked an end to many years of negotiating between
the state H ighway D epartment and local bodies in eff ecting
the highway’s change in status, Warrenton City Manager
E.R. Baldwin said today.
Partly loaded with cargo for Alaska, the Ilwaco,
Washington, trawler John T., owned and oper-
ated by Capt. John Lampi, today was rammed by
a sand barge and received a hole in her hull above
the waterline.
Santa Claus helped bring some Christmas cheer to Emerald Heights during the Astoria
Fire Department’s food drive in 2011.