The Columbia Press Celebrating our 100th year • 1922-2022 1 50 ¢ 503-861-3331 January 28, 2022 Vol. 6, Issue 4 Disturbance calls, Historical find uncovers entry to old cemetery sop County. The area along the By Cindy Yingst Skipanon River near Anchor Av- arrests up over The Columbia Press enue and 13th Street in Warren- It’s amazing what can be found ton was the first county seat. previous year just by looking around. In 1885, the city of Astoria Claudia and Bob Ellsberg, along with City Commissioner Rick Newton, set off Tuesday exploring an overgrown section of dune land between New- ton’s home on Ninth Street and Oceanview Cemetery. They found the original cross- bar marking the entrance to Clatsop County’s first cemetery. “When we saw what it was, we couldn’t believe it,” Bob Ellsberg said. Ellsberg has been research- ing Lexington, one of the oldest non-Indian settlements in Clat- By Cindy Yingst The Columbia Press Crime statistics were up in nearly every category last year and, even though other Clatsop County agen- cies got far more calls for help, Warrenton officers arrested more people. Warrenton Police Department re- ceived 8,587 calls in 2021. Officers wrote 3,159 reports from those calls and made arrests in 501 cases. The destination towns of Astoria and Seaside received far more calls (15,233 and 15,728 respectively), yet cases resulting in arrests were 461 for Astoria and 428 for Seaside. Police Chief Matthew Workman reported on the 2021 statistics to Warrenton City Commission on Tuesday night. The biggest jump was in what the department calls “person crimes,” primarily offenses in which a victim is present, and the act is violent, threatening or has the potential to be physically harmful. In the past, See ‘Crimes’ on Page 4 Photo by Bob Ellsberg Claudia Ellsberg and Rick New- ton hold the sign they found near the old Paupers Cemetery. Below, a closeup of a portion of the sign. bought all the land that is now part of Ocean View Cemetery for $800. Then they built a road for $900 that ran from the Lexing- ton wharf to the cemetery. So Ellsberg decided to take a walk through the forgotten por- tion of cemetery land, especially after learning that the oldest part – at the far north end -- included Indian burials and county resi- dents who’d died as early as the 1860s. Adam Van Dusen, one of Clat- sop County’s earliest settlers, had been buried there in 1884. Ellsberg invited his friend Newton to accompany him, since Newton lives so close. “I had seen somewhere a pic- ture of what the entrance looked like,” Ellsberg said. “There was an archway, and stones mark- ing the entrance, and so we were walking up there so I could get an idea of what it looked like for me to do my article. … “Rick remarked that when he was a kid, he’d walked through there and found an old wood- See ‘Cemetery’ on Page 4