B1
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
THE ASTORIAN
• TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2022
•
B1
WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week — 2012
I
n 1962, Astorian Rolf Klep had a vision of a museum
that would not only tell the story of Astoria’s rich
seafaring heritage but also of the Columbia River’s
maritime history. Fifty years later, the museum is going
stronger than ever, and those who remember the early
days say that was the museum’s goal from the outset.
Half a century after it opened hundreds celebrated the
museum’s role in educating and entertaining hundreds of
thousands of visitors at a free open house, held 50 years
and a day after the museum was originally incorporated.
Roughly 700 guests fi ltered through the museum
on Saturday during its 50th anniversary bash. Local
and statewide dignitaries were on hand at the museum,
which has grown from a fl edgling repository of knick-
knacks to the state’s offi cial maritime museum with
around 100,000 visitors a year.
WARRENTON — Rainier and Valley Cath-
olic may have fi nished 1-2 in the Lewis & Clark
League baseball standings, but as the regular
season came to a close Friday, the only team
playing like a league champion is the same
team that won it last year — the Warrenton
Warriors.
The Valiants came into Friday’s double-
header at Huddleston Field with a one-game
lead in the league standing, needing only a split
to secure the league’s No. 1 seed and an auto-
matic berth to the state playoff s.
But coach Lennie Wolfe’s Warriors played
like the defending league champs they are, as
they took down Valley Catholic twice, 3-0 and
7-6.
Ever wondered about the crab-fl avored fi sh protein
in your seafood sandwich, crab salad or California sushi
roll?
It’s surimi, a fi sh protein paste made into various
shellfi sh-fl avored products.
Oregon State University’s Seafood Lab on Marine
Drive hosted the 20th annual Surimi School, a gather-
ing of global industry representatives and researchers
that made Astoria the epicenter of expertise for a week
on the globally popular, gelatinous fi sh protein you’ve
likely had in one form or another.
About 40 students from surimi plants, surimi sea-
food (fi nished product) plants and others from accessory
industries attended lectures and took part in surimi labs.
Warrenton’s David Kelley slides safely across home plate to help pad the Warriors’ lead against Valley Catholic during a
3-0 win at Huddleston Field in 2012.
Colton Berning, 2, takes a turn behind the wheel at the
Columbia River Maritime Museum in 2012.
The Astoria Yacht Club members, who are
estimated to hold at least 10% of the more
than 300 moorage spaces at the West Moor-
ing Basin, have found a new home overlooking
their vessels.
The Port of Astoria Commission unani-
mously agreed to enter into a lease with the club
for the Pacifi c Room in the northwest corner of
the Chinook Building, which sits just east of the
Astoria Riverwalk Inn overlooking the West
Mooring Basin.
The hope is that moving the yacht club into
the Chinook Building will spur its renovation
and increase moorage and revenue at the adja-
cent marina.
Anton Josephson Smoked Salmon Co. in
Astoria has applied for a U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers permit to build a wharf to house a
fi sh receiving facility on an existing piling at the
11th Street dock .
The company also seeks to drive six fender
pilings and remove 19 existing pilings at the
location. Waste material from cleaned fi sh at
the building would be placed in closed contain-
ers and delivered daily to Bioproducts Inc. in
Warrenton for disposal.
k ing c rabs may prove economical. He indicated that
his leased ship, the Pacifi c Explorer, was too costly to
operate as a crab cannery since American wages were
high and the ship’s canned production was low. Can-
ning of the crabs would be done here or elsewhere, he
indicated.
President Harry Truman has been invited
by the Astoria Chamber of Commerce to take
part in the annual Astoria Salmon Derby
while he is making his proposed visit to the
Pacifi c Northwest in August.
Chamber offi cials wrote the president on
Monday, pointing out the fi ne salmon fi shing
that is available here, and off ering full hos-
pitality of the city and Columbia River if he
wishes to fi sh here either during the d erby or
at some other time.
50 years ago — 1972
SALEM — Gov. Tom McCall has been spreading
the word around the country that tourists should come to
Oregon but shouldn’t stay here to live.
Now the governor is saying he might withdraw the
invitation because more tourists are coming than ever
before.
However, the State Highway Commission’s Travel
Information Division, which conducts an aggressive
advertising and publicity campaign to attract tourists,
says the nation as a whole already has the impression
that Oregon doesn’t want tourists.
This impression makes people in other states believe
that Oregon really has something worth seeing. So they
are coming to Oregon in droves.
The USS Maddox slips under the Astoria Bridge in 1972.
A model of the ship Nautilus was donated to the Columbia
River Maritime Museum by Rolf Klep, museum director,
and his wife, Alice, in 1972.
Shipments at the Port of Astoria continued to boom
during April, with 28 ships handling 238,414 tons of
cargo.
The April total surpassed March’s 212,414 tons and
was well over the 164,821 for April 1971. It also raised
the total for the fi rst third of the year to 574,736 tons,
compared to 495,012 tons for the same period in 1971.
75 years ago — 1947
Astoria cannery workers may be picking chunks of
meat from the shell of the gigantic k ing crab within the
next two years.
Nick Bez, president of the Pacifi c Exploration Co. ,
recently testifi ed in Washington, D.C., before a U.S.
H ouse subcommittee on fi sheries, that freezing of
The naval air station at Whidbey Island will prob-
ably send some of its four-engined heavy bombers to
Astoria on July 5 for participation in the air fi esta at
Clatsop A irport.
Capt. H.E. Regan, commanding offi cer of Pacifi c
fl eet air wing four , stationed at Whidbey Island, made
a fl ying visit to Astoria last weekend and conferred
with members of the air fi esta committee to making
formal request to higher naval authority for permission
to send some of the big seaplane bombers here for the
event.
A minesweeper, known as a YMS in the
U.S. N avy, has been purchased from the gov-
ernment by the Columbia River Bar Pilots
A ssociation and will be used as a relief vessel
for the pilot schooner Columbia.
Acquired in Puget Sound, the minesweeper
is due in the Columbia River this afternoon.
She is skippered by Capt. George F. Ergbe .
The YMS will tie up at the foot of 10th Street.
Arrival of the latest YMS increases the con-
verted YMS fl eet in the Columbia River to
fi ve vessels. Other minesweepers have been
purchased by towboat concerns. One is at
Wauna and another at Rainier , while a third
is reported to be in Portland.
During the war minesweepers were built by
the Astoria Marine Construction Co. It is not
known whether one of the fi ve was built here.
The Breakers Point area of Cannon Beach is seen in 1972.