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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 5, 2022
THE ASTORIAN
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TUESDAY, JULY 5, 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
S
EASIDE – Rachel Berry captured the Miss Oregon
crown Saturday night, but it wasn’t without drama.
Every time she made the cut as contestants were
winnowed down to the fi nale, her name was the last one
announced.
“It was nerve-wracking being called last each time
– man, I about died fi ve times over. But I am just so
excited. I’ve worked really hard for this moment,” she
said. “I just can’t believe it happened.
Berry, Miss Willamette Valley, defeated 22 young
women in the Miss Oregon Scholarship Program at the
Seaside Civic and Convention Center. She will compete
in the Miss America p ageant Jan. 12 in Las Vegas.
A collection of newspapers, some dating back
to 1914.
A 1950 s-era woman’s swimsuit hanging up to
dry in an all-pink bathroom.
A 1960 s Playboy.
The self-help books, “I’m OK-You’re OK”
and “Loneliness: The Fear of Love.”
A 12-inch knife by the stairwell in the
basement.
A dog in the refrigerator.
Every step into the former home of Mary
Louise and Harry Flavel grew stranger and
stranger at 15th Street and Franklin Avenue
Friday, living up to every bit of the 20-plus
years of hype and mystery surrounding the
mansion that’s created a following and a source
of intrigue.
“I grew up in the neighborhood and Harry
was kind of like our Boo Radley from ‘To Kill
A Mockingbird.’ We always wondered what
was behind that door,” said City Councilwoman
Karen Mellin.
Friday, offi cials from the city of Astoria fi nally
got the chance to see.
WARRENTON – The Old Fashioned Fourth of
July Parade marched down Main Avenue in Warrenton
mid-afternoon Wednesday, celebrating America’s birth-
day with high spirits.
“We couldn’t have had better weather,” parade orga-
nizer Cindy Yingst said. “It was great seeing Main Street
fi lled with thousands of people waiting to see the parade.
Hopefully, they weren’t disappointed.
The story was similar throughout the North Coast as
people in Seaside, Cannon Beach and Gearhart took to
the streets during the day and Astoria at night.
SEASIDE – When Seaside city offi cials were
off ered the opportunity to make their water
delivery system more effi cient and also improve
fi sh habitat, they expressed interest.
When they were told that all they would have
to do was contribute a portion of time spent by
the city’s public works director, they said, “OK.”
Well, actually, the said more than that.
“It’s beyond great that we’re all together in
this,” said Mayor Don Larson when fi rst learned
of the project. “It’s a partnership ... It couldn’t
have been easy.
On July 16, crews will begin work on the
project to improve the effi ciency of the city’s res-
ervoir at Peterson Point and enhance salmon
habitat at the water diversion dam in Seaside’s
watershed.
50 years ago – 1972
“Hot enough for you?”
That traditional tiding was well worn over the week-
end, but not many people are about to complain as the
mercury hovered near the 90-degree mark.
The welcomed pre-Fourth of July weekend warm
spell, imported from California, packed Clatsop beaches,
s tate parks and the highways as sun seekers enjoyed the
apparent coming of summer.
There are hundreds of children in the United
States for whom the Fourth of July commemo-
rates the loss of all or part of their eyesight as the
result of a fi reworks mishap.
Such accidents continue to occur even though
most states ban highly explosive fi recrackers
and permit only what are called “safe and sane”
fi reworks such as R oman candles, small fi re-
crackers, sparklers and fountains.
Oregon bans “safe and s ane” fi reworks, but
neighboring Washington and California don’t.
The National Society for the Prevention of
Blindness says statistics reveal that 42% of all
fi reworks accidents involve devices labeled and
marketed as “safe and sane.”
Even more tragic, the s ociety says the same
2012 — Fireworks shot from the East Mooring Basin
explode over the top of the Columbia River.
2012 — A patriotic fl oat honoring the U.S. Coast Guard delighted spectators at Seaside’s Fourth of July Parade.
statistics show that the victim frequently is not
the user, but someone close by who is in the
wrong place at the wrong time.
Those statistics prompted the s ociety to con-
clude that “safe and sane” fi reworks aren’t
either safe or sane and should be banned as
“hazardous substances.”
CANNON BEACH — In the beginning – about 9:30
Wednesday morning – there was an earth-moving “cat,”
a few people and Haystack Rock in the background.
In the end – some fi ve hours later – Haystack Rock
was still there.
But the “cat” had picked up and thrown down some
100 t ons of sand. The few people had become a crowd
of 50 or so.
And the earth in front of Haystack Rock had become
a sperm whale some 70 feet long and 8 feet high.
It was a whale with a sinister smirk, one which,
with the help of some carbon dioxide, even spouted
“water” for photographers standing atop ladders of sit-
ting nervously in the mouth of the “cat” raised 20 feet
in the air.
The whale, of course, washed back out to sea with the
incoming tide. But before it did, it served its purpose –
to publicize the annual Cannon Beach Sandcastle Con-
test July 15.
What do you do when you get an i mperial
command from the s hah and the e mpress of
Iran”
You say, “Of course.”
And when the performance is for the p resi-
dent of the United States during his visit in Iran,
the excitement builds.
Marilyn Swindler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
D.M. Swindler, of Warrenton, recently returned
from a two-year tour of duty as Peace Corps vol-
unteer in Iran, during which time she was sum-
moned by the s hah on two occasions to play the
fl ute.
The m inister of a rt and culture delivered the
i mperial order to play for President Richard
Nixon’s visit last month. The concert was to be
given in the Niavaran Palace in Te hran, where
the s hah lives.
75 years ago — 1947
The story of the Columbia River fi shing industry,
with its coastwide ramifi cations and its tremendous
value to the economy of the Northwest, was presented
to the government’s Columbia basin inter agency com-
mittee by a procession of businessmen, fi shermen, fi sh
packers, biologists, American Indians and others at the
Walla Walla hearing Wednesday.
Windy, dusty Walla Walla, probably never in its exis-
tence heard so much about salmon as it did while wit-
ness after witness appeared in the Marcus Whitman
H otel’s crowded ballroom to tell their story and make
their appeal for continued life for the industry at yester-
day’s hearing.
Thomas F. Sandoz, secretary of the Columbia Basin
Fisheries Development A ssociation, led off for propo-
nents of the 10-year moratorium on mid-Columbia and
lower Snake River dams before the committee at mid-
morning Wednesday and presented a series of witnesses
who consumed almost the entire day.
Sandoz declared the fi shing industry does not oppose
orderly development of the Columbia basin, but that the
Columbia fi shery is entitled to live and must be counted
in the plans.
Sandoz said it is a fallacy to think fi shways will save
fi sh, and another fallacy to predict the number of kilo-
watts that will be needed in 1956.
1972 — An American fl ag unfurls in the wind.
Twenty-six Astoria representatives fl ew to
Walla Walla, Washington , and back Wednesday
to appear at the Columbia basin inter agency
committee hearing on a proposed 10-year mora-
torium on dam projects of the area.
The party fl ew in a chartered DC-3 type
twin-motored transport plane owned and fl own
by Dick Reed, of Yakima, Washington, with Bill
Schafer as co-pilot.
Reed fl ew to Astoria from Spokane early
Wednesday morning, picked up the party here
and took off at 6:15 a.m., landing at Walla Wal-
la’s big airport at 8 a.m.
The party left Walla Walla at 4 p.m. and
arrived back in Astoria at 6:10, fl ying against
headwinds on the return trip and fl ying beneath
clouds from the Columbia G orge area as far as
Astoria.
The Columbia River Group of the Pacifi c Reserve
Fleet now completely fi lls Mott Basin at Tongue Point
with its 424 amphibious vessels tied to eight completed
docks.
Construction work on the $6 million project has vir-
tually ended and the 1,800 men and 165 offi cers under
the command of Capt. S.P. Jenkins are busily keeping
the “ ugly duckling navy” in tough, fi ghting trim, ready
to battle on short notice.
The Columbia basin inter agency commit-
tee today was studying testimony taken at the
two-day federal hearing on a proposed 10-year
moratorium on construction of additional dams
across the Columbia and Snake rivers.
The session ended yesterday with representa-
tives of power and industry charging any delay
in construction of dams would retard devel-
opment of the rivers’ vast potentialities and
resources of the Pacifi c Northwest.
SEASIDE — Thirty thousand people will visit Sea-
side over the July Fourth weekend – a crowd which may
exceed the tourist infl ux during last week’s Lewis and
Clark festival – according to estimates based on hotels
and cottage reservations.
A fi reworks display to be staged by the Seaside fi re
department on the beach Friday night is heralded as one
of the most elaborate and spectacular on the Oregon
C oast since World W ar II.