November 6, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 5A
Th e Cannon Beach dune: Be careful what you wish for
The following is based on the
newly discovered journal of an
aide to the Lewis and Clark expe-
dition. It is derived from a report by
one of the party who accompanied
Sacagawea on her visit to what
might be the location of the town
now known as Cannon Beach.
I
n 1806, Sacagawea, the guide
for the Lewis and Clark Expe-
dition, traveled south from the
explorers’camp at Fort Clatsop.
Her purpose was to make contact
with Indian tribes living along the
coast south of the Columbia Riv-
er. After three days, she arrived
at a village of Indians living on
a low sand dune just south of a
fresh water creek and across from
a tall rock dome in the sea near
the shore.
While camping with the In-
dians, she was surprised to learn
that the established families liv-
ing on the low dune were refus-
ing to grant permission for any
visiting families to settle in the
village, sending them to live apart
on a high sand dune across the
creek north of their village.
Sacagawea observed that the
low dune villagers had easy ac-
cess to the bounty of food from
the beach and the sea. But the high
dune villagers had to cross the
wide dune, make a steep descent
to the beach and sea, then make
a steep and long climb to carry
food back to their families. Many
of the low dune villagers quietly
gloated, but some loudly mocked
the high dune newcomers.
The low dune villagers soon
began to realize that the high
dune newcomers had much better
views of the beach, the sea, and
the many beautiful rock outcrops
along the coast. And, they came
to resent the high dune villagers’
™better exposure to the cool-
ing breezes during hot summer
nights.
Some of the low dune villag-
ers’ jealousy turned to anger at
the high dune families, and they
began nightly ritual dances to in-
voke the spirit of the wind, calling
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G UEST C OLUMN
its power a it is bid, it might turn
with hostility on the dancers if it
felt their motives were impure.
The low dune elders implored the
By
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villagers as they might wish the
DAVID DORNBUSCH
high dune villagers to treat them.
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on the spirit to blow more sand you dance for.” But the dancers
onto the high dune to make the danced on.
dune even higher, wider and the
One night, the wind stopped.
slope steeper.
The sea became calm. And, in the
Night after night, the low dune morning, the villagers saw that
villagers danced. And, night after all of the many birds that were
night, the wind spirit blew more always in view had disappeared.
sand onto the high dune, until the Then, beginning with a slight
dune grew so high and wide that breeze from the sea, the wind be-
the high dune families lost their gan to build. Stronger and stron-
view of the sea, the beach and ger it blew until everyone in both
most of the rocks that adorned the the low and high dune villages
coast. Accessing the beach and stopped what they were doing,
sea from the higher, wider and looked out to the sea and listened
steeper dune became ever more DVWKHZLQGkÚKXPEHFDPHDKRZO
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They watched as the wind built
and the young.
increasingly larger waves that
The elders among the low dune crashed against the beach, some
villagers warned that the wind splashing right up to the low dune.
spirit is a capricious spirit. And, Just as the low dune villagers ran
while the spirit might initially use to higher ground, the wind spirit
sent a series of giant waves crash-
ing across the beach and over the
low dune with such power that in
just a few seconds the entire low
dune village was washed away
and the remains of the low dune
homes were swept out to sea.
Wave after wave continued to
pound against the high dune, un-
dercutting it until the front of the
dune collapsed and was washed
away. When the waves receded,
and the wind died, the high dune
village remained as it was. But
where there had been a high, wide
and steep dune, there was now
only a gradual slope down to the
beach.
And so it was that the great
spirit of the wind, in just a few
minutes, wahed away an entire
village and all of the sand it had
deposited over many days, leav-
ing only a gentle slope where it
had built a huge dune north of a
fresh water creek and tall rock
dome in the sea that was a three-
day walk south from the Colum-
bia River.
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LET TERS
Keep beach bill safe
After reading Louis Sar-
gent’s letter “Beach love”
(The Daily Astorian, Oct. 23),
I wondered why Sargent was
puzzled by Matt Love’s un-
relenting paeans to Oregon’s
“historic Beach Bill,” which
created Oregon’s public
beach access. Love’s constant
concern for keeping Oregon’s
coast an open road should be
encouraged, not criticized,
because without people like
Love, Oregon’s Beach Bill
would not exist “in perpetu-
ity,” as it is now written.
Sargent’s ramble about
the use of the public beaches
in other states, walking more
miles than Love, and being
twice his age, is irrelevant.
What Sargent omits is the fact
that if you look up beach ac-
cess laws in any of the states
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that these states have major
problems when it comes to
private versus public access.
This is why Love continues
to cry out for us to protect Or-
egon’s beaches, and to help
him in celebrating the 50th an-
niversary of Oregon’s historic
Beach Bill on July 6, 2017.
Perhaps Sargent doesn’t
know that Love’s 2009 hard-
back compilation of the best
of Oregon writing, “Citadel
of the Spirit: Oregon’s Ses-
quicentennial
Anthology”
also contains a DVD of Tom
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“Politics of Sand.”
If Sargent were to see
Love’s participation in that
documentary, and listen to
his passionate and perceptive
commentary concerning the
political process that resulted in
Oregon’s Beach Bill, then I’m
sure Sargent would not ask, as
he has in his letter, “Why doth
Love protest so much?”
But if an answer is need-
ed, Matt Love might quote
Abraham Lincoln and say,
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between human rights and
property rights, human rights
must prevail.” In terms of Or-
egon’s statewide open-road
free access beaches, that can-
not be said enough.
Rex Amos
Cannon Beach
the community of Cannon
Beach for 35 years — 10
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Mike was offered the posi-
tion of chief. He accepted,
with no training in admin-
istration, and was given no
job description. What kind
Bad actions
of directors are these people?
The purpose of this letter Where is the direction?
is to share my feelings of dis-
After two years, they de-
gust with the recent actions of cide he isn’t cutting it, so
the board of directors of the they give him no options, no
Cannon Beach Fire Depart- further training, no choices,
PHQWLQWKH¿ULQJRIWKHFKLHI no offer to step down, or
Mike Balzer. The process that to retire. If they had some
the board chose to use in the morals and knew the busi-
¿ULQJZDVHYLOZURQJPHDQ ness, they would have re-
and unfair.
alized two things: that his
I believe each board mem- leadership on scene, during
ber — Sharon Clyde, Linda an event, is almost unsur-
Sweeny, Garry Smith and passed; and, that the morale
Mark Mekenis — should take RIWKH¿UH¿JKWHUVLQ&DQ
responsibility for the feelings non Beach increased by 400
of degradation, devastation, percent when Mike became
and embarrassment that Mike chief.
must be experiencing. If they
They should have done
don’t get sued for defama- everything to keep Mike
tion of character, it will be a ZLWKWKH¿UHGHSDUWPHQW,Q
surprise. The Gazette stated stead, with no warning, they
³SHUVRQDOUHDVRQV´IRUWKH¿U put this gentle, family man
ing. What ... someone didn’t in a room with cops “in case
like him?
of a violent outbreak” to end
Mike Balzer has been KLV FDUHHU ZLWK WKH ¿UH GH
an upstanding member of partment.
munity College should be
a requirement for all board
members. They made Chief
Balzer look like a criminal,
and knowing him personal-
ly, that is far from who he is.
They should be ashamed of
themselves, or at least those
Reinstate Fire Chief
who chose to join the insti-
Mike Balzer
gator.
Shame on you
In the Cannon Beach that
It seemed odd to me to re-
$V D UHWLUHG ¿UH¿JKWHU I remember, Balzer would
turn from vacation last week-
HQG WR ¿QG &DQQRQ %HDFK from the Cannon Beach Fire still be the chief, and some of
Fire Chief Balzer’s vehicle Department, I am extreme- those board members would
parked at the station. I am O\ GLVDSSRLQWHG LQ WKH ¿UH be recalled. I am ashamed for
much more accustomed to ERDUG¶VKDQGOLQJRIWKH¿ULQJ you.
Dianne Schuette
seeing the vehicle respond- of Chief Mike Balzer. It is, in
Retired ¿ re¿ ghteremer
ing Code 3 to some weekend my opinion, unfortunate that
gency medical technician,
emergency. I have known the board did not show class
Cannon Beach Rural Fire
Mike Balzer for over 10 years nor dignity in the way they
District
and have personally observed dispensed with the chief.
Punta de Mita, Nayarit,
Perhaps a course in man-
his dedication and commit-
Mexico
ment to Cannon Beach Fire agement at Clatsop Com-
That is evil. How do they
sleep at night? A formal let-
ter of apology couldn’t suf-
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make amends?
Kathleen Weigel
Seaside
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stated.
Eric Reiter
Tolovana Park
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