FEBRUARY 24, 2017 • VOL. 41, ISSUE 4
Heavy
rains drive
rockslide
WWW.CANNONBEACHGAZETTE.COM
COMPLIMENTARY COPY
‘WE ARE ONE BIG FAMILY’
After fi re, city rallies
Geologist, scalers
secure scene
By R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
For Chamber of Commerce Executive
Director Court Carrier, Wednesday’s 5-mile
commute became a 50-mile commute af-
ter a rockslide
closed Highway
101 at Milepost
34, 5 miles south
of Cannon Beach.
“I didn’t mind it,
because I had a
cup of coffee, but
it started my day
off a little bit rocky
and I’m hoping I
R.J. MARX/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
won’t have to do
Perry Browning de- it for an extended
tours traffi c just north period of time.”
of the area of Wednes-
Carrier,
who
day’s rockslide.
lives in Arch
Cape,
wasn’t
the only one impacted by the rock-
slide, which occurred at about 4:30 a.m.
Wednesday morning. The slide brought
closures in both directions as the Ore-
gon Department of Transportation sought
to remove rock and debris from the road.
Residents of Arch Cape and Manzanita
heading north were advised to travel Ore-
gon Highway 53 around the closure, in ef-
fect throughout the day.
Rocks fell from about 30 to 40 feet to the
ground, the department of transportation’s
spokesman Lou Torres said.
See Rockslide, Page 6A
County praised
for opting out
of lawsuit
‘Speak up and stay
involved,’ lecturer
urges audience
CANNON BEACH FIRE AND RESCUE
Interior of the Cannon Beach home aft er the blaze.
Charitable eff orts aid those displaced by blaze
By R.J. Marx
Cannon Beach Gazette
By Nancy McCarthy
For Cannon Beach Gazette
Clatsop County may have pulled out of a
$1.4 billion lawsuit that calls for more har-
vesting of state forests, but residents can do
even more to protect the state-owned acre-
age within the county’s boundaries.
Bob Van Dyk, Oregon and California
policy director for the Wild Salmon Center,
told those attending the “World of Haystack
Rock” lecture series Feb. 8 that they need to
“speak up and stay involved” if they want to
preserve their forests.
“You already have 50,000 acres of Clat-
sop County state forest that can’t be clear
cut (due to slopes and stream buffers),” Van
Dyk said. “You’re in a desirable position to
say ‘Let’s keep what we have.’
Cannon Beach hearts and pocketbooks are turn-
ing outward as residents seek to assist those dis-
placed from the North Larch Street apartment build-
ing destroyed by fi re Sunday, Feb. 12.
A GoFundMe account and fundraising efforts
by the Cannon Beach Community Church are each
gathering donations for those who lost their homes
and belongings.
“We’re trying to raise as much as we can to help
them out,” Emmas Lindsay, owner of Dogs Allowed,
said Thursday, after creating an online fundraising
appeal. “It’s a very small town, especially in the
winter months. We are one big family. Everybody’s
got everybody’s back. The three people that were
displaced, everybody knows them, they know every-
body. They just make what the town’s about.”
See Fire, Page 9A
CANNON BEACH FIRE AND RESCUE
Fire consumed 124 N. Larch St. in Cannon Beach on Sunday, Feb. 12,
leaving three residents displaced.
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US POSTAGE
See Lecture, Page 10A
Poet laureate refl ects on
our human condition
Elizabeth
Woody at the
Tolovana Arts
Colony
By Rebecca Herren
Cannon Beach Gazette
REBECCA HERREN/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Elizabeth Woody and Watt Childress, chairman of the
Tolovana Arts Colony board.
Keep it simple, embel-
lish a lot and write from the
heart with humor and honesty.
That was how poet laureate
Elizabeth Woody’s message
came across as she spoke to a
crowded audience at the Tolo-
vana Arts Colony in Cannon
Beach on Friday, Feb. 17.
Woody is of Navajo Na-
tion and Yakama Nation
descent and is an enrolled
member of the Confederated
Tribes of Warm Springs. Her
poetry refl ects her close ties
with her family and her rela-
tionship to the natural world,
incorporating language that is
rhythmic and inspirational —
full of history and culture. Her
writings intertwine nature’s
imagery with thoughtful ob-
servation and she uses ances-
tral experiences and contem-
porary issues to express the
voice of native communities
today.
Woody is open about her
family and her background,
a group she portrays with hu-
manity and sympathy. Raised
by her grandparents, the wis-
dom of her ancestors was ev-
ident as she spoke about the
importance of words, voice,
family and nature. “I was
raised in a family that always
had me think about other peo-
ple,” she said.
Woody likens the theory of
quantum science and quantum
society with the oneness of
family units, noting that hard
research on the foundation of
love shows how family hearts
syncopate when people truly
love one another.
Her writings express her
understanding of the human
condition as she weaves an-
cestry with community. Her
See Poet, Page 10A