Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (May 31, 2017)
4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL MAY 31, 2017 O PINION Offbeat Oregon History: Cold snaps and ice rinks A s late spring warms up an exhausted and weatherbeat- en Willamette Valley, Ore- gonians are looking back on one of the grimmest winters they can remember. But memorable though it was, the winter of 2016-17 — with its month-long cold snap and torrential rains — wasn’t that much of an outlier. The worst cold snap in living memory is probably the winter of 1948-49. That’s the winter thousands of Oregonians learned to ice skate … on Cottage Grove Reservoir. The ugly weather started on Dec. 12 in 1948, according to back issues of the Cottage Grove Sentinel. For more than a month and a half, the temperature never got out of the teens, and stayed in single digits much of the time. By the last day of January, the cold snap had broken records for both length and depth; the mercury bottomed out at one degree below zero on Jan. 24. By that time, someone had discovered that the six- to 10-inch sheet of ice covering Cottage Grove Reservoir from shore to shore was thick enough to support foot traffi c. On Jan. 10, the day the mercury plunged to seven degrees, and someone went down to the lake with a pair of ice skates. Soon skaters of all ages had hit the lake. On one day, the Senti- nel reports, a crowd of 1,500 was down there, ranging in age from toddlers to 91-year-old lumber patriarch A.L. Woodard — who, ac- cording to the newspaper, “took off across the lake where it was a mile from shore to shore and returned as though it were a daily habit.” It wasn’t as if there was anything else to do. Cottage Grove’s timber-based economy had skidded to a halt when the temperatures dropped below 10 degrees. Mills in Western Oregon just weren’t built to work in such conditions; and log trucks and skid loaders struggled to stay on the icy, snowy logging roads and landings. Of course, ice skates were not a regularly stocked item in Cot- tage Grove’s sporting-goods establishments. No problem; roller skates were, and most Cottage Grove youths had a pair that were used in warmer weather. It wasn’t much trouble for the local mill- wrights and fabricators to remove the wheels, sand a couple old fi les smooth, and weld them to the skates’ trucks. The Sentinel reports that the cold snap wasn’t the coldest — Christmas Eve on 1924 had seen seven degrees below zero; and it wasn’t the most snow: that honor went to the 15 inches that fell on Feb. 24, 1917. But no cold snap, before or since, has approached this one’s depth and duration. There have been some bad ones since then, of course. The cold By Finn JD John For The Sentinel snap of 1972 saw temperatures at 12 degrees below zero on Dec. 8, 1972, at the Eugene Airport — which is the coldest weather ever recorded there. And more recently, the cold snap of December 2013 got well down into the single digits. Of course, when temperatures in the valley get down that low, pipes burst and engine blocks freeze; but there was one cold snap that did more than just that. The night of Jan. 16, 1943, was a bitter cold one — around 10 degrees. It was cold enough that residents of the Laurelhurst neigh- borhood in southeast Portland were able to ice-skate on the shallow pond there in the park. The brand-new 523-foot, 16,000-ton steam tanker S.S. Schenectady, which had just rolled out of the Kaiser shipyard in Portland a week or two before, was docked there on the river, building steam to put out to sea. And then, around 11 p.m., with a crack that one bystander said actually shook the ground, the huge ship suddenly broke in half, folding like a jackknife. The bow and stern plunged down into the water and wedged into the muddy bottom of the lagoon, pushing the middle of the ship high into the air. And the 30 crew members, who had been preparing the big ship to cast off and head out to sea, surely thought they were about to die. Luckily, the water beneath the dock was shallow — barely deep enough to fl oat the ship, which drew up to 30 feet depending on its load. The crew members were easily able to get up on deck. In the rush to escape, the third mate hurt his ankle, but that was the only injury. sea. But they did have one consolation: They were headed for the Pacifi c Theater … so at least it would be nice and warm. This being war time, suspicions naturally turned to sabotage. But authorities quickly ruled that out. Eventually it was determined that fl aws in some of the steel used to build the ship had made it brittle, and the temperature differential between the 10-degree air and the 40-degree river water had been enough to start a crack, which had raced around the ship from one side to the other, splitting the big vessel in half. Because of where the ship was, the repair was relatively simple. The ship was simply sunk the rest of the way, so that it rested en- tirely on the bottom of the shallow lagoon; this naturally forced the crack closed as the weight of the ship straightened her out. Then scabs were welded across the crack, and she was refl oated, and limped back upriver to the shipyard. A few weeks later, good as new, she was heading out to sea with a load of gasoline to power the American war machine. We can only imagine how apprehensive the sailors assigned to the Schenectady’s crew must have been as the big, freshly patched ship cleared the Columbia Bar and headed out into the deep blue Dr. Fuhrman: Soda depletes your body's calcium The average American drinks 216 liters of soda each year. Soda drinking overall is associated with lower bone mineral density in women and children, and one recent study focused specifi cally on the effects of diet soda on bone health. The authors commented that this research was sparked by the observation that diet soda LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Kudos to The Cottage Grove Police Department for their con- tinuing dedication to keep this community very safe and build trust within the local area. These folks potentially put their lives' on the line every day. Next chance, shake a cop's hand; it'll make you feel good. Respectfully submitted, M. Gotcher Cottage Grove drinking behaviors are often different than regular soda drinking behaviors – women often use diet sodas in an effort to avoid weight gain – either to stave off hunger between meals or as a replacement for calorie-containing beverages. Many women drink over 20 diet sodas per week. These researchers discovered that parathyroid hormone con- centrations rise strongly following diet soda consumption – this is troublesome because PTH acts to increase blood calcium by stim- ulating bone breakdown, and as a result calcium is released from bone. What happened to the calcium after it was released? Women were given 24 ounces of either diet cola or water on two consec- utive days, and urinary calcium content was measured for three hours. Although caffeine is known to increase calcium excretion and promote bone loss, caffeine is likely not the only bone-harm- ing ingredient in sodas. A 2006 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found consistent associations between low bone mineral density and caffeinated and non-caffeinated cola, but not other carbonated beverages. One major difference between the two is the phosphoric acid in colas, absent from most other carbonated beverages. In the Western diet, phosphorus is commonly consumed in excess – at about three times the recommended levels, whereas dietary cal- cium is consumed much less. Although phosphorus is an import- ant component of bone mineral, a high dietary ratio of phosphorus to calcium can increase PTH, which stimulates bone breakdown. Studies in which women were given increasing quantities of dietary phosphorus found increases in markers of bone breakdown and de- creases in markers of bone formation. Therefore, it is likely that the phosphorus content of colas is what triggers calcium loss. Diet soda is simply water with artifi cial sweeteners and oth- er chemical additives. The safety of many artifi cial sweeteners is questionable, and their intense sweetness disrupts the body’s nat- ural connection between taste and nourishment, promoting weight gain. Diet sodas don’t just weaken our bones; they are linked to kidney dysfunction and promote obesity and other common medi- cal problems – there is nothing healthy about diet sodas. C ottage G rove S entinel Administration James Rand, Group Publisher ................................................................ Gary Manly, General Manager ................................................. Ext. 207 gmanly@cgsentinel.com Aaron Ames, Marketing Specialist ........................................... Ext. 216 aames@cgsentinel.com Tammy Sayre, Marketing Specialist ......................................... Ext. 213 tsayre@cgsentinel.com Editorial Caitlyn May, Editor. ................................................................. Ext. 212 cmay@cgsentinel.com Sport Editor ................................................................................ Ext. 204 sports@cgsentinel.com Customer Service Carla Williams, Offi ce Manager .............................................. Ext. 200 Legals, Classifi eds .......................................... Ext. 200 cwilliams@cgsentinel.com Production Ron Annis, Production Supervisor ............................................. Ext.215 graphics@cgsentinel.com (USP 133880) Subscription Mail Rates in Lane and Portions of Douglas Counties: Ten Weeks..............................................................................................$9.10 One year ............................................................................................. $36.15 e-Edition year ...................................................................................... $36.00 Rates in all other areas of United States: Ten Weeks $11.70; one year, $46.35, e-Edition $43.00. In foreign countries, postage extra. No subscription for less than Ten Weeks. Subscription rates are subject to change upon 30 days’ notice. All subscritptions must be paid prior to beginning the subscription and are non-refundable. Periodicals postage paid at Cottage Grove, Oregon. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 35, Cottage Grove, OR 97424. Local Mail Service: If you don’t receive your Cottage Grove Sentinel on the Wednesday of publication, please let us know. Call 942-3325 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Advertising Ownership: All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by the Cottage Grove Sentinel become the property of the Cottage Grove Sentinel and may not be reproduced for any other use without explicit written prior approval. Copyright Notice: Entire contents ©2017 Cottage Grove Sentinel. Letters to the Editor policy The Cottage Grove Sentinel receives many letters to the editor. In order to ensure that your letter will be printed, letters must be under 300 words and submitted by Friday at 5 p.m. Letters must be signed and must include an address, city and phone number or e-mail address for verifi cation purposes. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters must be of interest to local readers. Personal attacks and name calling in response to letters are uncalled for and unnecessary. If you would like to submit an opinion piece, Another View must be no longer than 600 words. To avoid transcription errors, the Sentinel would prefer editorial and news content be sent electronically via email or electronic media. Hand written submissions will be accepted, but we may need to call to verify spelling, which could delay the publishing of the submission.