4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL September 21, 2016
O PINION
Offbeat Oregon History
Fish wheels a legacy of when Columbia
swarmed with salmon
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
ning on the upper river, scooping out
fi sh by the millions. In that year, 42
million pounds of salmon meat was
canned up and shipped out by the
fi sh-wheel operators. And it wasn’t
an unusual year. Even as late as 1906,
the catch was still phenomenally
strong, although dwindling; in fact,
one particular cannery, just north of
The Dalles, pumped out almost half a
million pounds of canned salmon all
by itself that year.
Meanwhile, though, a vast fl eet
of gillnet fi shermen had gone into
business on the broad, quiet waters
of the lower river near Astoria. The
gill-netters had been there before
the fi rst fi sh wheel went in; a Maine
fi sherman named Thomas Hodgkins
made the fi rst net and went into busi-
ness out of the town of Oak Point,
near Clatskanie. Others, noticing his
success, followed, and soon the river
was becoming increasingly thick
with them.
No gill-netter could make the same
dent in the fi sh run that a wheel by
Cascade Locks could make, of course;
but they made up for it in sheer num-
bers. The fl eet soon numbered in the
hundreds, possibly thousands.
So no one was surprised when the
numbers of fi sh being landed started
to decline, because everyone involved
had someone they could comfortably
blame for it. The businessmen running
the fi sh wheels raged at the swarms
of small-fry gill-netters hogging all
the fi sh before they could even get up
the river to their wheels; the weath-
er-beaten fi shermen groused in their
taverns in Astoria and Brownsmead
and Cathlamet and Altoona about the
fat-cat cannery owners snatching up
so many fi sh that none were left to
spawn.
The truth of the matter, of course,
was that both parties were right.
The people of Oregon seemed to
have felt that way when, in 1908,
they voted to ban both practices. The
gill-netters that year had used the
brand-new Initiative and Referendum
system to propose that fi sh wheels be
banned from the river. Independently,
the fi sh-wheel operators had gotten
a proposal on the ballot that would
have essentially banned gillnet fi sh-
ing.
Both initiatives were passed by a
public that was growing increasingly
alarmed at the prospect of the salmon
being totally fi shed out. And both ini-
tiatives – in a development that was to
become very familiar to the sponsors
of initiative petitions in subsequent
years – were blocked from enforce-
I
f you get out on the Columbia
River in the more inland reaches
– past the Beacon Rock area – you’ll
often notice that there are lines of
rotting, weather-beaten posts leading
out into the waters.
These posts are all that’s left of
what was once one of Oregon’s big-
gest industries: Salmon canning. Spe-
cifi cally, they are the mortal remains
of riverside canneries with their adja-
cent fi sh wheels.
Your basic fi sh wheel is a diaboli-
cally simple device. It’s like a big
water wheel with scoops instead
of paddles. As a salmon swims up-
stream toward its spawning grounds,
it encounters the scoop, which is
moving the opposite direction. The
scoop picks the fi sh up out of the wa-
ter, and at the top of its turn rotates
past a chute that allows the fi sh to
slide out of the basket and drop into a
net-walled pen or holding tank, ready
for processing.
The story of fi sh wheels on the
Columbia is an old and complicated
one. Many people believe their use
is responsible for the fact that the
Columbia, once renowned for hav-
ing such a massive annual salmon
migration that folks wondered if
they might walk across the river on
their backs, now has comparatively
few. This isn’t really true; the real
destroyer of the big salmon runs was
Grand Coulee Dam, up in Washing-
ton, built without fi sh ladders, which
cut off returning salmon’s access to
close to half of the river’s spawning
grounds.
But the fi sh wheels certainly didn’t
help. By the time the dam project de-
livered the coup de grace in 1934, the
Columbia River salmon fi shery was
on its knees, hammered almost to the
point of full collapse by 50 years of
enthusiastic overfi shing by the fi sh-
wheel operators, competing with
growing swarms of gill-netters on the
lower stretches of the river.
The fi rst fi sh wheel and cannery
was built on the river in 1866 by Hap-
good, Hume & Co. It was a colossal
success, both in its production of fi sh
and in the enthusiasm with which the
canned product was received in the
market. After that, the canneries came
thick and fast to the banks of the riv-
er with pile drivers and construction
crews, and soon the shallow stretches
of the upper river toward the Cascade
Rapids virtually bristled with them.
By 1883, the market was essentially
saturated with canned salmon, and
39 fi sh wheel-canneries were run-
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 5A
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bike Event — Flagger Smaller fl yers please
Saturday’s bike event (Cycle the
Lakes) went really well. No bikers
were hurt on their long trek or got hit
crossing the streets!
And that’s why we were there! Post-
ing and signage was good. The major-
ity of motorists would stop, though
some did not. The latter seemed to
focus on the 30 mph and not the
crosswalk. I was on 10th and Main
— a very busy area. I had a great time
and the bikers were happy. Thank you
all.
P.S. Sixth Street and others are still
bad!
Ike Shepherd
Cottage Grove
CONTACT YOUR
ELECTED
OFFICIALS
As KNND's Community Calendar
Coordinator I'm noticing more groups
in town are using a larger size format
to promote events on community
information bulletin boards and in
the windows of businesses. We are
blessed to live in a small town that
has SO much going on each week.
As the editor of T.E.A.M.-Cottage
Grove's weekly community e-news-
letter, Around The Grove, We distrib-
ute a limited number of hard copies
around town and most receive it via
email. I'm delighted that more local
organizations are now promoting their
events at least two weeks before it
happens.
Most businesses are happy to display
this information.
KNND has dedicated two of our three
large windows for posting community
Jeff Gowing, Ward 2: 942-1900
Garland Burback, Ward 3: 942-4800
Amy Slay, Ward 4: 942-5501
Cottage Grove City Hall: 942-5501.
www.cottagegrove.org/
Cottage Grove Mayor Tom Munroe:
942-5501.
Cottage Grove City Councilors:
Mike Fleck, At Large: 942-5501
Kenneth Michael Roberts, At Large:
942-5501
Lane County Commissioners:
Faye Stewart, East Lane Commis-
sioner
Lane County Public Service Building
125 East 8th Street
Eugene, OR 97401
Phone: (541) 682-4203
Fax: (541) 682-4616
Oregon State House of
Representatives:
information and I maintain it each
week to keep it all current. With an
increasing number of the posters,
rather than the traditional 8.5 x 11
fl yers, we simply don't have room to
put up the new posters if the current
posters are still up.
These larger posters are a bigger
challenge for all the smaller bulletin
boards around town and for business
owners that want to see out of their
front windows.
My request is a simple one to local
organizations promoting events in the
future. Please consider using the fl yer
vs poster format in fairness to other
events happening around the same
time that must share the same space.
Thanks!
Cindy Weeldreyer
Cottage Grove
Rep. Cedric Hayden (REP)
District: 007
900 Court Street NE
Suite H-288
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: (503) 986-1407
Fax: (503) 986-1130
Email: rep.cedrichayden@state.or.us
Oregon State Senate:
Sen. Floyd Prozanski (DEM)
District: 004
900 Court Street NE
Suite S-319
Salem, OR 97301-0001
Phone: (503) 986-1704
Fax: (503) 986-1080
Email: sen.fl oydprozanski@state.or.us
Jake Boone, Ward 1: 653-7413
Junk food may limit children’s intelligence and learning ability
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
er’s disease and other late-life
cognitive disorders.
Green
vegetables, berries and other
plant foods reduce risk, whereas
animal products and processed
foods increase risk. However,
the damaging effects of un-
healthy foods on the brain occur
throughout life. Research now
suggests that the typical Ameri-
can childhood diet including
burgers, pasta, pizza, chicken
T
here
is a
clear im-
pact of nu-
trition on
the poten-
tial devel-
opment of
Alzheim-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
116 N. Sixth Street · P.O. Box 35 · Cottage Grove, OR 97424
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nuggets, French fries, processed
sweetened cold cereals, sweets
and soda negatively affects
school performance and learn-
ing. Overall math performance
in the U.S. lags far behind many
other developed nations, and it
is likely that the nutrient-poor
American diet is a signifi cant
contributing factor.
We as parents are strongly
committed to supporting our
children’s academic achieve-
ment. We want the best for our
children, and we take an active
interest in their schooling; we do
everything we can to make sure
that they will be well educated
and able to compete as working
adults in our increasingly tech-
nological world. However, how
many parents think about the
impact of the foods they give
their children on their academic
performance?
Early childhood:
Parents must give their chil-
dren’s brains the right raw ma-
terials with which to learn – and
start early. Breast milk provides
a DHA-rich foundation for a
healthy brain, and when solid
foods are added, their nutri-
tional quality is of paramount
importance for the brain’s con-
tinued development. Several
studies have now found that di-
etary patterns in early childhood
affect IQ scores years later. In
one study, greater consumption
of fruits and vegetables upon
introducing solid foods was as-
sociated with higher IQ and bet-
ter memory skills at four years
of age. Similarly, in another
study, children who regularly
ate cookies, chocolate, other
sweets, soda and chips during
the fi rst two years of life showed
decreased IQ at age eight com-
pared to children who did not
eat these foods. Nutrition dur-
ing this formative period has a
meaningful long-term effect,
providing building blocks to
construct the growing brain.
The brain is highly susceptible
to oxidative stress, so a health-
ful, antioxidant-rich diet is es-
pecially benefi cial for the brain
and is likely involved in this link
between natural plant foods and
higher IQ scores.
Teenage years:
Young children who are fed
processed, nutrient-poor foods
are likely to become unhealthy
teenagers and eventually un-
healthy adults. Now 23 percent
of teens in the U.S. are pre-
diabetic or diabetic, 22 percent
have high or borderline high
LDL cholesterol levels, and 14
percent have hypertension or
prehypertension.
A recent study tested cog-
nitive abilities and performed
brain MRIs on teens with and
without metabolic syndrome,
a combination of at least three
diet-related metabolic abnor-
malities among a list including
insulin resistance, high triglyc-
erides and hypertension. The
teens with metabolic syndrome
had lower spelling and math
scores, lower IQs and reduced
attention span. Their brain MRIs
showed a smaller hippocampus,
especially in those with insulin
resistance – extremely impor-
tant since the hippocampus is
a part of the brain involved in
learning new information. This
means that our American obe-
sity promoting, diabetic pro-
moting diet actually can cause
parts of the brain to shrink. The
researchers concluded that in-
sulin resistance and other com-
ponents of the metabolic syn-
drome, as a result of a poor diet,
may impair teenagers’ academic
performance, and maybe even
their learning abilities through-
out their lifetime.
The time to feed your children
healthfully is now. A diet rich
in greens, berries, other fruits
and vegetables, beans, nuts and
seeds is the only way to ensure
that children get the array of
phytochemicals, antioxidants,
fatty acids and other micronutri-
ents to adequately supply their
growing and constantly learn-
ing brains. Junk food is not for
kids.
Dr. Fuhrman is the #1 New
York Times bestselling author of
Eat to Live and Super Immuni-
ty, and a board certifi ed family
physician specializing in life-
style and nutritional medicine.
Visit his informative website at
DrFuhrman.com.
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