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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 30, 2022)
B1 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2022 • B1 WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE COMPILED BY BOB DUKE From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers 10 years ago this week — 2012 A t Knappa Days this weekend, it was like one big, happy family. Kids and adults enjoyed the old-fashioned fun at the two-day celebra- tion featuring lawn mower races, a logging show, children’s games, a parade, a com- munity dance, a dog show, a pancake feed, church service, 5K run and walk and even fi reworks. Now in its fourth year, the event was started by the Knappa Business Association to reinforce local spirit. 2012 — Jeremy Milliron releases an adult eagle found earlier this year in a fi eld at Walluski Loop and Highway 202. The docks were hopping for 54 days between the beginning of July and late August, with boat after boat coming in loaded with Cali- fornia pilchards snared from the ocean in seine nets. After two years of declining har- vest levels, the 2012 harvest guide- lines for the Pacifi c s ardine fi shery shot up by 108% : 109,409 metric tons, compared to 52,526 last year. The second of three sardine fi shing periods this season, which started July 1 and ended midnight Wednesday, was a nearly fi ve- fold increase in duration over last year’s second period, which lasted a mere 11 days. “It’s not unusual for the allo- cation to change on average 40 to 50% each year based on changes to population and the (survey) mod- eling,” said Kevin Hill, a scientist with the Southwest Fisheries Sci- ence Center, who synthesizes sur- vey data to help estimate the sar- dine population each year. For a brief, tense moment, the bald eagle listed in the breeze, struggling to fi nd fl ight under its orthopedically repaired wing. Onlookers gawked as the eagle didn’t get high enough and, after a few moments of low-level fl ying, came to rest at the far end of a fi eld in Olney, in the yard of a home. As the adult female eagle sat in the yard, still as a statue, the small crowd of Olney residents and their children, who’d gathered to see two rehabilitated eagles released, waited and watched. One of the eagles, which suff ered from malnourishment before being nursed back to health, was already successfully soaring overhead. The director of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, Sharnelle Fee, began contemplating an attempt to recapture the eagle. Perhaps, she said, the grounded eagle needed more rehabilitation at the wildlife center before it could fl y. Or, perhaps, the eagle was simply exhausted from its fi rst full fl ight in nearly half a year, after being found in a fi eld with its wing broken in three places. But then, with a few fl aps, the eagle lifted and fl ew toward a tree. The onlookers oohed, some clapped and Fee said it was up the eagle now — it was free. “Well, we can’t get him in the tree,” she said. NAHCOTTA, Wash. — An eight-year drought in the natural reproduction of Willapa Bay oys- ters is on the verge of ending. Eric Hall, manager at Tay- lor Shellfi sh Co. in Nahcotta, said managers are monitoring the lat- est tests by University of Washing- ton research biologists Alan Trim- ble and Jennifer Ruesink. He said their samples show oys- ter larvae in Willapa Bay are grow- ing fast. “Their numbers don’t look like it will be a boom year, but with the demand up worldwide for oysters, we may make some money,” Hall said. 50 years ago – 1972 CANNON BEACH — Ownership of one of Oregon’s world-famous landmarks may be returning to the state in the near future. But the future of the nearly centu- ry-old Tillamook Rock Lighthouse may be dimmed by the tower’s rapidly deteriorat- ing condition. 1972 — Tillamook Rock Lighthouse near Cannon Beach. 2012 — Dave Cramsey competes in the Springboard Chop during the Knappa Days logging show. In the Springboard Chop, contestants climb a height of 9 feet using two springboard placements and chop through a 12-inch diameter log mounted on top of the spar pole. The sentinel, abandoned by the U.S. Coast Guard 15 years ago, appears to be succumbing to the elements and the lack of maintenance that preserved the lighthouse through 77 years of use. “Wherever deep-water sailors rub elbows in waterfront dives — Singapore, Port Said, London,” writes author James A. Gibbs Jr., “The name Tillamook Rock can be heard. “Back yonder windjammers and square-riggers would tack for days off the rock, awaiting favorable conditions for crossing the Columbia River Bar,” Gibbs wrote. “The light and foghorn of the lonely outpost would blink and blast at them con- stantly, warning of the perilous dangers that lurked everywhere.” The Las Vegas, Nevada, group, whose ownership of the weather-worn Tillamook Rock Lighthouse stirred controversy, wants to return it to Oregon’s possession. Harris Sharp, spokesman for Academic Economic Coordinators, says his group is interested in returning the abandoned light- house to “some worthy cause” to preserve it as a landmark. Sharp indicated the board of directors was waiting for a possible reappraisal of the property’s value. It is probably the one piece of property the Clatsop County tax assessor has no desire to visit for a fi rst- hand evaluation. Tillamook Rock Lighthouse remains, as it has since construction started in 1879, a highly dangerous outpost to approach. Though no longer the guardian of the north Oregon Coast, it remains a key nav- igational guide. It towers proud and lonely — and dying. Seaside photographer Sam Foster, orga- nizer of the last known group of visitors to the rock, says the isolated structure is “deteriorated beyond saving.” With him was a special visitor, Oswald Allik — the last lighthouse keeper to leave the rock when the Coast Guard discontin- ued the service on Sept. 10, 1957. 1972 — Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, nearly a century old, sea-soaked and rotting, may return to public ownership in the near future, say its present owners, a group of Las Vegas, Nevada, investors. The abandoned, rarely-visited sentinel achieved a unique historic status for its 77 turbulent years of service. A documentary about explor- ers Lewis and Clark may be fi lmed in Clatsop County this year. A research team from St. Louis tele- vision station KETC-TV toured the county last week in preparation for a possible documentary on the famous expedition. After a slow start in June and July, War- renton charter boat operator Bud Charlton said last week that business has peaked and he is faced with turning people away. “Six weeks doesn’t make a good season, however,” said Charlton who, like other Clatsop County businesspeople , blames national economic conditions for the sea- son’s slow start. Charlton said he has heard reports from other operators, some in Washington and others in Newport and Depoe Bay, that their charter businesses experienced the same sluggishness in activity earlier in the summer. Now, he said, the town is experiencing a greater number of tourists and fi shermen than it has for the past two or three years. The U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency confi rmed Wednesday that federal funding will fi nance 33% of the cost of Astoria’s sew- age lagoon treatment system. At the same time, the agency cleared up a misunderstanding that arose over whether the downtown inter- ceptor system was eligible for fed- eral funds. 75 years ago — 1947 Besides many salmon fi shermen in local canneries, there are a surprising number of tourists who fi nd the August salmon run interesting. These tourists crowd receiving docks, where they are impressed by fi shermen bringing many fi sh without bragging about their catches. Some of them listen to the wise cracks of the fi sh receivers, who are a clever and capable part of the canning business. Visi- tors appear to appreciate fi sh receivers with more understanding than their friends and neighbors. Herbert Erickson, age 28, an Astoria fi sherman, and his boat puller Eldon Korpela, 21, of Asto- ria, escaped from their burning gillnet boat at the Union Fisher- men’s Cooperative Packing Co. oil 2012 — Sardines missing their heads or tails are plucked from a conveyor belt and separated for use locally as crab bait. dock Wednesday night by diving into the river. Erickson suff ered painful arm burns. Just as he touched the starter button on his gillnet boat, an explosion knocked him out of the cabin against the stern. Kor- pela was thrown into the river. Hoses were played on the roar- ing fl ames. They threatened to sweep the oil house, which con- tained gasoline and motor lubri- cants. If the oil house had caught fi re, serious damage to net racks and other properties of the com- pany would have resulted. Astoria fi re equipment joined the battle. The boat, still tied to the oil dock, sank after its cabin was destroyed by the fi re. The 1947 Salmon Derby will be fea- tured in an issue of National Geographic magazine, it was announced this week by A. Bancroft Wells of the Portland Chamber of Commerce. Leo A. Borah, who wrote an article on Oregon in last December’s issue of National Geographic, was in Portland last week en route to British Columbia. Before leaving, he accepted an invitation to the Salmon Derby as a guest aboard the yacht of John A. Zehntbauer, president of Jantzen Knitting Mills, to obtain informa- tion for his Salmon Derby article. Luck and skill last year obliged J.J. Waldo, of Portland, with a prize-winning 49-pound and 2-ounce Chinook salmon landed on the last day of the d erby. The catch was made by a 50-year-old auto parts salesman aboard the 26-foot pleasure boat Kermath. A plea for more fi shermen to register boats for the Salmon Derby went out today as offi cials stated that most of the boat space registered has already been exhausted by out-of-town entries. Advance sales of the $2 ticket entries for the d erby jumped this week. The fi rst book of 50 tickets was reported sold by McGre- gor’s Supply Co., which won initial selling honors for the second straight year. Al Hetzel, a secretary with the Chamber of Commerce, supervising boat registration for the sponsoring Astoria Regatta A ssocia- tion, expects more boats to register since the commercial fi shing season closes Aug. 26. But he requests that boat owners regis- ter now so that advance requests for boat space, particularly for busy Saturdays and Sundays, can be fi lled.
