2A • January 12, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Keeping dogs safe at state parks
Oregon State
Parks reminds
dog owners to
keep pets on
leashes while on
the trail
Keeth was
a witness to
Japanese attack
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
The fear associated with a
pet gone missing is a feeling
most owners never want to
experience.
Felix, a 2-year-old border
collie, made headlines after
he went missing around 3
p.m. Christmas Day while on
a hike with his owner, Sarah
Stremming, in Ecola State
Park. He was rescued un-
harmed from a precipice 60
feet from the crest of the Clat-
sop Loop trail by the Seaside
rope and rescue team.
Thousands of visitors and
locals bring their dogs on
trails like the ones in Ecola
State Park each year. Since
Felix’s rescue, many read-
ers have asked why he was
not leashed. Others are con-
cerned with the risks taken
by first responders, as well
as the resources the rescue
required.
So what can owners do to
keep their dogs out of this sit-
uation?
“I know people hate to
keep their dogs on a leash.
But there’s a reason we ask,
and a worst-case scenario can
happen when they aren’t,”
said Richard Walkoski of Or-
egon State Parks. “I would
hate to see someone have a
part of their family not with
them because of it.”
Oregon State Parks re-
quires dogs be physically re-
strained while hiking on trails,
unless the area is specifically
designated as off-leash. That
means an owner must be
holding them, holding onto
their collar, or have them on
a leash no longer than six feet.
Aside from getting lost,
leashing dogs also prevents
them from tangling with wild
animals or other people’s
County loses last Pearl
Harbor attack survivor
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Highly trained members of the Seaside rope and rescue team rescued a dog that fell off a
cliff while hiking with his owner at Ecola State Park.
pets, getting lost, ransacking
campground garbage, damag-
ing plant life or being hit by a
car, Walkoski said.
While situations like this
are rare, staff offer many off-
leash warnings throughout all
of the state parks, and after
multiple warnings can issue a
fine of at least $110, Walkoski
said.
“We want to see all vis-
itors, including four-legged
kind, in the same good shape
they went out in,” Walkoski
said.
Stremming, a professional
dog trainer at The Cognitive
Canine in Seattle, chose to
walk Felix off-leash on the
hike, she said. If she were to
go back, she’d invest in a GPS
tracker that would have let her
know where he was sooner
and done more research about
the trail conditions.
“I knew there were out-
looks, but I wasn’t aware of
how close sheer cliff faces
were,” she said. “Had I re-
searched that more thorough-
ly, I would have kept him
closer on a leash.”
While Stremming was
aware of the rule, she stressed
the importance of what walk-
ing a dog off-leash can do for
‘I know people
hate to keep
their dogs on a
leash. But there’s
a reason we ask,
and a worst-case
scenario can
happen when
they aren’t.’
Richard Walkoski,
Oregon State Parks
their mental health, she said.
“The fact is, every other
dog I saw on the trail wasn’t
on a leash. Most don’t observe
the rule. They all happened to
be okay,” Stremming said. “I
know what people want to
hear me say is I’m going to
keep my dog religiously on
leash. But I will continue to
(go off-leash).”
She recognizes the re-
sources that were spent to
conduct the search and rescue
mission, and plans to make
“big donations” to Seaside
Fire and Rescue as well as
the Hamlet Fire Department
for contributing the drone that
helped locate her dog on the
rock face, she said.
“I know it wasn’t a safe
operation, and that’s why I
plan to give back,” she said.
To avoid similar situa-
tions, Cati Foss of Arnica-
dia Dog Training said hikers
should practice recalling with
their dogs and to check in
more often the usual. She also
suggested checking trail ter-
rain and weather conditions to
know what type of hazards to
expect.
“If you know there are
cliffs, check in more frequent-
ly, so you aren’t running into
issues where they get intent
on smelling something and
get into situations where they
get stuck,” Foss said.
Foss recommends both on-
leash and off-leash training.
Dogs are allowed to be off-
leash on Oregon beaches as
long as owners can exercise
“direct control,” according to
the Oregon State Parks web-
site.
“It’s an important skill set
to be able to maintain con-
trol and also walk on a leash
politely. A lot of dogs go on
their own when leash comes
off, and the impulse control
goes,” she said.
Spurgeon D. Keeth, who
was Clatsop County’s last liv-
ing survivor of the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, died
Thursday, Dec. 28. He was 92.
After spending most his
life in Wapato, Washington,
in the Yakima Valley, Keeth
moved to Hammond in 2015
to be cared for by his daughter,
Donna Barnett, and her hus-
band, Bill. Keeth led a more
private life and hadn’t be-
longed to any veterans groups
in Washington state, Barnett
said.
“When he came here,
things changed,” she said. “He
couldn’t socialize a lot, but
when people found out there
was a Pearl Harbor survivor,
they went nuts.”
Keeth became a local ce-
lebrity on the North Coast
and the county’s last living
survivor of the attack after the
death of Seaside’s Bill Thom-
as a year ago. Thomas, a sailor
on the Navy’s USS Medusa
during the attack, helped lead
the effort to dedicate Seaside’s
First Avenue Bridge the Pearl
Harbor Memorial Bridge in
2000.
Keeth received free mem-
bership in American Legion
Post 99 in Seaside and Clatsop
Post 12 in Astoria and became
a fixture at local parades and
an annual wreath-laying cere-
mony on the memorial bridge.
Mike Phillips of Clatsop
Post 12 said Keeth was one
of about 50 World War II-
era members of the post. Jay
Blount, a spokesman with the
National Park Service World
War II Valor in the Pacific
National Monument, told The
Oregonian earlier this year
there are likely fewer than
2,000 Pearl Harbor survivors
left.
Keeth joined the Army at
16 and was stationed at Schof-
COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Spurgeon D. Keeth, left,
Clatsop County’s last living
survivor of the attack on
Pearl Harbor, died Dec. 28.
ield Barracks in Honolulu. He
was on kitchen duty at the time
of the attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
“He went out to dump po-
tato peelings, and he heard
unexpected sounds of planes,”
Barnett said. “Then he looked
up, and saw the rising sun on
the planes.”
Her father didn’t talk about
the attack much, she said,
besides that he watched sev-
eral of his friends die. Keeth
served in the Pacific during
World War II, including bat-
tles at Guadalcanal and in the
Solomon Islands. In a 1944
interview with the the Yaki-
ma Herald, Keeth described
surviving nearby shell explo-
sions, a 19-day siege and be-
ing shot at and missed from 3
yards away.
“He could have touched
me with his rifle,” Keeth told
the newspaper of his run-in
with the Japanese soldier. “I
don’t know how he happened
to miss.”
After the war, Keeth mar-
ried Ruby, and the couple had
four children and nine grand-
children. Most of the family
still resides in Yakima Valley,
Barnett said. Keeth attend-
ed Perry Trade School and
learned to be a mechanic who
specialized in bodies and fend-
ers.
“Dad was so handy,” Bar-
nett said, describing her father
taking apart a surplus house
at Fort Vancouver, Washing-
ton, and reassembling it as the
family home in Wapato. “He
self-taught himself to do ev-
erything.”
CORRECTION: John Williams was mayor during 2007 gale
In “Memories of the Great
Coastal Gale,” Jay Raskin
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mayor of Cannon Beach at the
time of the 2007 Great Coast-
al Gale. Raskin was a council
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