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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, AuguST 11, 2022
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IN ONE EAR • ELLEDA WILSON
DESDEMONA SANDS
S
ince National Lighthouse Day was on Sunday, it
seems like a good time to honor a now long-gone
lighthouse, Desdemona Sands. It was built to join the
other lighthouses warning of the Graveyard of the
Pacific, Cape Disappointment, North Head and Point
Adams. The lighthouse, and the sandy shoal it sat on in
the Columbia River, were named after the Desdemona,
a ship that ran aground there on Jan. 1, 1857.
Completed in 1902, and built on pilings, the light-
house was a one and half story octagonal building;
atop it was a lantern room with a fixed white light.
Attached was a small building for the fog signal and an
annex. The only other amenities were a water cistern
and a boat to get back to Astoria. The lightkeeper was
not allowed to bring his family along; they remained
ashore.
Once the lighthouse had electricity in 1935, the light
and foghorn could be operated from land, so there was
no more need for a lightkeeper. In 1942, the structure
was taken down, and replaced by a navigational aid.
In the mid-1960s, the foundation was removed. The
lighthouse lens is now at the Mukilteo Lighthouse; the
original fog bell is at the Columbia River Maritime
Museum.
All that’s left on the original site are the stub-
bles of some pilings, clearly visible from the Astoria
Bridge at low tide. (Photo: U.S. Lighthouse Society
Archives)
NATURAL OPTIONS
S
ince it’s that time of year, FarmersAlmanac.
com offers natural options to repel insects and
critters.
For ants, try a line of cream of tartar powder across
the doorway; they won’t cross it. Vinegar repels crawl-
ing bugs; use equal parts of vinegar and water in a spray
bottle and wipe down surfaces. To send fleas, spiders,
moths and cockroaches packing, put sachets filled with
cedar chips all over the house.
If you’re on a kill spree, food grade diatomaceous
earth (nontoxic to humans and pets) kills fleas, earwigs,
stinkbugs and cockroaches. Cinnamon powder sprinkled
around windows and doorways deters mosquitoes, ants
and spiders, and it smells good.
And, the pièce de résistance: Cotton balls soaked in
peppermint or eucalyptus essential oil scoots mice and
rats on their way. The Ear knows for a fact that it works
like a charm.
LOCAL BREVITIES
M
orsels from The Daily Morning
Astorian, Aug. 11, 1885:
• The bursting of a privy vault at the
Court Street schoolhouse Sunday morn-
ing made odorous the circumambient air.
Strong men wept, and the fire engine of
Rescue No. 2 was brought out, but got sick
at the stomach and wouldn’t work. Finally
Rescue One’s Amoskeag was started up,
and after an hour or so it was compara-
tively safe to walk on Court Street …
Note: An Amoskeag was a horse-drawn,
steam-powered fire engine; they were built
by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. until
1876. As Amoskeag Locomotive Works,
they were equally well known for building
steam locomotives.
• A cable dispatch says: “It is reported
that natives of the Hermit islands, in the
Pacific Ocean, have eaten the crews of two
merchant vessels …”
Note: According to “An Island of Ama-
zons,” a 1903 article about the Hermit
Islands in the Lake County Press of New
Zealand: “It was whispered that (Queen
Piea Waar) had made a ragout out of
one or two of her husbands, who had not
lived up to her expectations,” but sailors
were not on the menu because they have
“such a salty flavor that (they are)
unpalatable.”
•William H. Gillette, who appears in
“The Private Secretary,” is himself a noted
dramatist … (he) will be at Boss’ opera
house next Monday night.
Note: In 1885, Gillette — who became
one of the most famous actors in the coun-
try in the 1890s — was already a popu-
lar stage actor. People liked that he spoke
his lines conversationally, not in the
overly melodramatic style that was the
norm at the time. He became particularly
well known for his portrayal of Sherlock
Holmes, a collaboration with the author,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — a very suc-
cessful and lucrative partnership. Gillette’s
elaborate stone castle is a Connecticut
landmark.
• People always get, and have, just as
good officials as they want. The fact that
a public officer is a scoundrel, a thief or
a go-between is evidence sufficient to
show that the community that endures him
doesn’t want a better man.
RELIEVED AND GRATEFUL
HELLO, GOONIES
HISTORICAL PILGRIMAGE
n late July, Prineville resident Don “Dundee” Mar-
tin completed an arduous 2,400 mile trek on foot
across the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri,
to Oregon City to honor the pioneers who used the
trail in the 1800s, he told BakerCityHerald.com. He
had a wagon and an ox (a push wagon and a stuffed toy
ox), dressed as the pioneers did and ate mostly dried
goods.
One modern addition to his crossing the Oregon
Trail was a Garmin GPS that tracked him along the
trail, which meanders over both public and private land
now. You can read his journal at bit.ly/TrailJournal.
It was a “cultural and historical pilgrimage … an
opportunity to get away from your day-to-day life …
get a different sense of perspective and do some self
reflection,” Martin said.
“After the trail went out of use, people almost imme-
diately forgot about it … Arguably, the trail should be
2,000 miles of hallowed ground,” he noted, referring
to the thousands of unmarked pioneer graves all along
the way.
“I don’t want the net of all this to be for people to
experience the trail vicariously through me,” he told
EastIdahoNews.com. “I want them to be excited and
motivated to go out and grab a piece of the trail for
themselves.” (Photo: Kalama Hines, EastIdahoNews.
com)
I
RANDY’S PLAQUE
‘I
noticed this plaque on the last bridge on the Asto-
ria Riverwalk near Alderbrook,” Vera Broyles
asked recently on the Astoria Riverwalk fans Face-
book page. “Who is Randy, and what’s the story
behind it?”
His mother, Susan M. Cronan Lenart, replied that
he is Randy Lenart, 37, who died suddenly May 24,
when “his heart gave out.” He had a food cart across
from the Astoria City Hall.
For those who missed his obituary, here’s a bit of
it, also provided by his mother: “He was a coastal chef
who would make you any kind of chowder except
clam chowder … He knew the best ways to spend
a lazy afternoon and was the person you wanted at
your party. He had excellent taste in science fiction
and dirty romances. He’d dress in a silver-spangled
leotard or a suit from the 1970s — whatever was
true to the mood of the moment. He loved people,
even while acknowledging that most of us are idiots.
He was always ready help out his friends, or have a
conversation.”
The trestle was a favorite hangout for Randy, one
poster commented, so his friends had the plaque put
there in his memory.
‘T
recent headline in Willamette Week probably sent
“The Goonies” fans into a five-alarm tizzy: “Asto-
ria’s Famous Goonies House Has Reopened to Foot
Traffic.”
The house, owned by Sandi Preston, has been
closed to foot traffic since 2015, when rude and destruc-
tive fans during the film’s 30th anniversary were
overwhelming. Now it’s official, but travel sites have
apparently been mentioning the foot traffic reopening
since last year.
The Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Com-
merce and Oregon Film Museum, though, in a recent
Facebook post, “continue to encourage fans to refrain
from driving into the neighborhood to seek out the
house,” and ask that the house be photographed from
afar, to give the little street’s residents some peace and
quiet.
“There were so many comments and everything about
it …” Preston told Willamette Week about the reopen-
ing. “It was just something that I felt I needed to do. I’ll
just leave it at that.”
A
hank goodness for small towns!” Nancy Mur-
ray of Naselle, Washington, wrote on Aug. 2. “I
drove up to South Bend, Washington, this afternoon to
take Bella (pictured) to the veterinarian.
“I had 15 minutes to spare, so I swung around the
back of my favorite thrift shop, Grace Community
Thrift Store, to check out their ‘free’ pile. I got out
of the truck to take a closer look, and closed the truck
door behind me, so that Bella wouldn’t jump out. I
scanned the free pile for 30 seconds or less, grabbed
a nice little green purse, and turned to get back in the
truck.
“Nope! I had locked myself out, and locked
Bella, my keys, my phone and my purse inside. Win-
dows closed tight, sun beating down, 70-plus degree
weather, vet appointment in 30 minutes! Yikes!”
Yikes, indeed. If it’s 75 degrees outside, it can reach
94 degrees inside a car or truck in 10 minutes, and 109
degrees in 30 minutes. Worse yet, dogs can only cool
themselves by panting.
Nancy ran back to the thrift ship and quickly found
Margie Russell Lewis, who called the police depart-
ment for help.
“I went back outside and found a big white plastic
blanket thing, and threw it over my windshield to keep
the cab of the truck from overheating while I waited.
Bella was fine, of course, looking at me from inside
the truck with her big brown eyes.
“Within 10 minutes South Bend Police Chief
Lucas Stigall showed up, and got the door open! I was
so relieved and grateful, I wanted to hug him. He was
less enthusiastic, so no hug …”
“We made it to our vet appointment,” she added,
“with five minutes to spare!”
WHAT’S THAT?
o you ever have a problem answering when a tour-
ist asks you what kind of ship is sailing by on the
Columbia River? As Judge Judy says, “Umm is not an
answer.”
GCaptain has a handy-dandy guide to what’s what,
bit.ly/WhatShip, with a description and photo of each
type of commercial vessel you’re likely to see, from
crude carriers, to dry bulk carriers, to container ships
(one is shown), to Pure Car and Truck Carriers , aka ro-
ros (roll-on, roll-off).
Of course, if you really want to dazzle ‘em, send them
to MarineTraffic.com, so they can see exactly who and
what is where on the river around Astoria, and around
the world, at any given time.
D