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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2022
THE ASTORIAN
•
TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2022
•
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WATER UNDER
THE BRIDGE
COMPILED BY BOB DUKE
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago
this week – 2012
T
he Chinookan pullers, including Ray Gardner,
chairman, rowed out in the 31-foot canoe Itsxut
“The Bear” to meet the Lady Washington and
Hawaiian Chieftain waiting in the Columbia River chan-
nel in front of Astoria on Thursday.
Gardner and two other Chinookans boarded each
of the ships, trading their food and crafts for per-
sonal mementos, weaponry and even a couple crew
members.
In a show of good faith, the Hawaiian C hieftain
lowered the Washington fl ag on its main mast and
fl ew the Chinookan fl ag heading into the East Moor-
ing Basin.
The ceremony was a fi tting start to Astoria’s week-
end aff air with the historic vessels, which will include
tours, evening sails and battles in the river.
Astoria has been selected as one of nine cit-
ies nationally to share $3.8 million in brown-
fi eld redevelopment funding for the cleanup
of Heritage Square. Astoria will receive more
than $400,000.
The money is part of the U.S. Environmen-
tal Protection Agency funding to help cleanup
and redevelop contaminated properties. The
new pilot grants, funded by EPA’s brownfi eld
program, will help recipients conduct assess-
ments and cleanups, eliminating delays.
Trading gifts are handed from the Chinook canoe, Itsxut, to the deck of the Hawaiian Chieftain in the Columbia River in
2012.
On May 21, the Astoria Regatta Association Court
hosted the Portland Rose Festival Court for a tour of
Astoria , an event planned by Charlene Larsen and
Carol Olson.
The afternoon began with a luncheon at the Bridge-
water Bistro, then a trip to the Columbia River Mari-
time Museum, where guests watched a fi lm and toured
the Lightship Columbia.
This was followed by a visit to the Liberty Theatre ,
where a presentation on the history of the theater, the
entertainment held there and ghost stories connected
to the theater were given.
PORTLAND — Senior Emmi Collier put
on her Warrenton track uniform one more
time this weekend and scored one of the big-
gest wins of her career by winning the shot
put event in the BorderDuel Track Classic,
held Saturday at Lewis & Clark College.
The fi fth annual event showcases all-star
and fi eld athletes from Washington state,
Oregon, Idaho and Montana.
The Uppertown net loft is seen in 2012.
conference in Seattle.” The s tate p olice want pictures
of the net, too, and s tate p olice game offi cer Hank Bal-
ensifer was interested in the Waisanen fi nd.
75 years ago — 1947
Inside the 115-year-old Union Fishermen’s Coop-
erative Uppertown n et l oft, it feels like a lumberyard.
With 1½ foot thick old growth beams and assorted
wooden planks stacked toward the ceiling, the build-
ing has its wood needs covered. That lumber, culled
from the original structure, may become useful in the
future, as a private nonprofi t board works to fi nd ways
to renovate and rehabilitate the building, listed by the
state as a historic building.
For now, the historic structure — once the place for
fi shermen to escape the elements along the Colum-
bia River and dry their nets — is sitting unused. Situ-
ated on pilings directly over the river, the n et l oft is a
throwback to a diff erent era for Astoria.
50 years ago – 1972
A panel of federal judges upheld the constitution-
ality of Oregon’s beach law by dismissing today a
challenge brought by owners of a Cannon Beach
motel .
In the opinion, the panel said that the 1967 Oregon
law establishing state sovereignty on coastal dry sand
area did not violate rights of the plaintiff s.
The owners of the Surfsand Motel at Cannon Beach
fi led the federal suit more than a year ago, seeking
to overturn a 1969 court order, directing them to tear
down a fence they erected on the beach.
A drowning man and a life jacket. In
between these, Colleen Cochran wrote,
“What Costs More?”
This graphic poster won the grand prize
in a Warrenton-Hammond area water safety
poster contest.
The contest was sponsored by the Warren-
ton Chamber of Commerce, a group that has
devoted this week to water safety.
A funny thing happened to Art Waisanen on his
A mooring post at the Port of Astoria docks is seen in 1972.
Warrenton’s Emmi Collier won the shot put event in the
BorderDuel track meet at Lewis & Clark College in 2012.
way to work at the Astoria p ort docks Tuesday
morning.
He and several other fellow longshoremen saw
a fi shing net tangled under the bow of a Japanese
freighter, the Thames Maru, getting ready to take on a
load of logs at Pier 2.
The word spread and pretty soon there was a mem-
ber of the Oregon State Police, then a member of the
Oregon Fish Commission at the scene. It was a for-
eign fi shing net, “Probably a Russian, Japanese or
Korean net,” said Waisanen.
That’s not unusual, except such a net would be ille-
gal for an American fi sherman on the high seas. “It’s
illegal because the net was of monofi lament material,
with a mesh of 4 ½ inches,” Waisanen said.
“Nothing can escape such a net. It can’t be seen,”
he said.
Waisnen and Art Estoos managed to get the net
loose and took possession of it, though Carl Mon-
sen, of the Oregon Fish Commission’s Astoria offi ce,
wanted it. “I gave Monsen part of the net, because
he’s going to take it before fi shery offi cials at some
The Columbia Basin Fisheries Development Asso-
ciation today asked C ongress to declare a 10-year
moratorium on dam building along the Columbia
River in the Pacifi c Northwest.
James Cellars, of Astoria , told the U.S. H ouse
appropriations sub committee that the salmon
resources of the Northwest were seriously damaged
by present dams. Further building, he said, might
eradicate the salmon industry.
The association particularly protested construction
of the McNary D am. It also opposed construction of
any dams on the Columbia River below Foster C reek
or on the Snake R iver below Swan F alls.
“Construction of any additional dams on those sites
will, in the opinion of competent fi shery biologists,
destroy the resources,” the association brief said.
From defeated Germany, a land of hunger and
hopelessness, two German girls have come to Asto-
ria to make their homes and seek a future in this
country, the land of their birth.
They are Alice Wiese, 19, and her sister Norma,
15, now making their home with their uncle, H.C.
Timmerman, manager here for Sebastian-Stewart
Fish C o.
The two girls — native born Americans who
have, however, spent most of their lives in Germany
— are busy marveling at the well-stocked cloth-
ing shops and enjoying the abundance of things to
eat while they attempt to master the English lan-
guage and consider plans for seeking jobs or per-
haps going to school.
Full-time news coverage of Clatsop County’s west
side communities, including Gearhart, Seaside, Can-
non Beach, Warrenton and Hammond, is now being
provided by T he Astorian-Budget.
James Goodsell, of Gearhart, who has been han-
dling Seaside and Gearhart news for this newspaper,
has been named to cover all the western Clatsop com-
munities on a full-time basis.
Winning posters are held in the water safety poster contest sponsored by the Warrenton Chamber of Commerce in 1972.