July 21, 2017 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 5A
The bootleggers and dairy farms of 1930s Seaside
T
aking a look at Seaside in the
early 1930s, our town was a
busy, bustling coastal town.
Population and students in attendance
at local schools was still low, with
approximately 17-22 seniors in the
graduating class each year.
The West Dairy of Seaside started
making its own butter in the 1930s
and won an award at the state fair for
the quality of their butter. A score of
93 was achieved which is typically
the highest marks commercial butter
receives unless “particular effort
is made” to achieve an award. The
butter judged was part of a normal
run for the dairy.
The local dancing club was aptly
named the Sand Fleas. The group
formed as a winter club which typ-
ically met at the Seaside Hotel each
week for dancing parties.
Fake news was a problem even
back in the 1930s, according to a
local farmer who printed a rebuttal
to several stories posted in Portland
and Astoria papers about his being
“dumped in the middle of muddy
BETWEEN
THE COVERS
ESTHER MOBERG
creek while in the act of tying a bull
elk to a tree.” The farmer wrote in the
Seaside Signal that he had never tried
to tie up an elk. The bull in ques-
tion being tied up was in fact of the
bovine (cow) variety and while it did
result in his being tossed into Muddy
Creek, only minor injuries resulted,
to those “areas of the body that are
often attractive to bulls — especially
when said person is running away.”
December of 1931 the sea was
wild enough to come up over the
prom wall, carrying with it small
logs, some of which damaged hous-
es. One man broke his leg when he
became trapped between a log and
his house’s retaining wall that was
located just past the prom. Logs were
also strewn across the road near the
Cove. The combination of a mid-lev-
el tide (waves reaching 6 feet 8 inch-
es), and a big storm, created fl ooding
throughout the area including the
Jeffers Gardens area of Astoria and
the road near Fort Clatsop. Most peo-
ple who were out watching the waves
crash over the prom got a thorough
ducking. One man had just fi nished
laughing about the warnings, when
he was submerged by a large wave,
which carried him into the doorway
of the Moon Gate. The newspaper
description doesn’t say if the Moon
Gate was a local house or business.
February of 1932, during the time
of Prohibition, a group of Prohibition
agents had received a tip and were
waiting on shore, near the Seaside
Cove, for a shipment of illegal alco-
hol to land. Rumor had it a Canadian
ship running alcohol would be mak-
ing for shore near the Cove. How-
ever, the ship, due to bad weather,
went further down the coast to Whale
Cove near Newport. Another party
of men who were waiting to receive
the goods left Seaside hurriedly when
word arrived the shipment went
aground further down the coast and
had caught on fi re. Apparently the
people loading the ship with alcohol
at Whale Cove also loaded it with
jars of gasoline which then caught
fi re, burning the ship to the ground.
The crates of alcohol were buried
in the sand and found later by the
authorities. Three men of the liquor
ship runner crew were arrested in
Portland while taking a stage back to
Vancouver, B.C.
Autogyros were a thing of wonder
and amazement in the 1930s and a
Pitcairn autogyro was demonstrated
right here in Seaside in May 1931.
Autogyros were developed to fl y
safely at low speeds, invented in
the 1920s and popular in the 1930s.
Autogyros were quickly replaced
by helicopters once they were made
more stable and safe, but at their hey-
day in the 1930s autogyros were used
by large newspapers and even by
the U.S. postal service. Even Amelia
Earhart used an autogyro in the
Midwest to set an altitude record in
1931. Back in the 1930s an autogyro
Astoria Sunday Market features new vendors
Now in its 18th season,
Astoria Sunday Market runs
through Oct. 8 from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m, on 12th Street in
the historic downtown hub.
Featured artist Bill W. Dodge
provided the artwork for this
year’s poster promoting Asto-
ria Sunday Market.
There are currently 170
vendor applications for the
upcoming season with more
arriving every day. New ven-
dors include Goosepoint Oys-
ters, Pacifi c Crab Company
and Rawk Stars with their
probiotic kefi r water. Also,
new this year is The Beautiful
Pig, offering European style
dry cured salamis and meats.
Astoria Sunday Market
was founded in 2000 as a
nonprofi t organization dedi-
cated to revitalizing historic
downtown Astoria and sup-
porting artists, farmers and
other small producers and
businesses. For more infor-
mation about the market and
its upcoming music schedule
visit
www.AstoriaSunday-
Market.com.
looked like a cross between a plane
and a helicopter with a small airplane
body and a helicopter’s blades.
The Seaside Public Library was
briefl y closed in the 1930s. Issues
arose regarding forming a library
board. Concerns by the mayor were
raised that an independent library
board would demand more and more
funding, raising the taxes of the city.
For the fi rst time in 1931, the
movie theater the Strand started to
use equipment which would transmit
sound directly from the fi lm being
played. Previously, discs would play
the soundtrack separately from the
fi lm, and unless timed perfectly,
could easily get out of sync with the
picture.
I know Seaside residents often
talk about the good old days in
Seaside, often referring to around
the early 1970s and 1980s but truly
Seaside seems to have had many
good old days over the past century,
with many things to keep Seaside a
busy and interesting place for visitors
and residents alike.
BUSINESS
DIRECTORY
S ECURITY
LETTERS
Letters from Page 4A
Per Cameron Moore,
Clatsop County Manager, “a
person must have a valid Or-
egon driver’s license with an
address in the county. If they
do not have an Oregon driv-
er’s license they can provide
the last four digits of their
social security number and a
current utility bill, bank state-
ment, government check or
other government documents
that show their name and ad-
dress which must match the
residence or mailing address
submitted on their voter reg-
istration card.
• A person’s residence must
be the place in which habi-
tation is fi xed and to which,
when a person is absent, the
person intends to return. Some
factors to consider in deter-
mining residence include:
• Where a person receives
personal mail
• Where a person is li-
censed to drive
• Where any immediate
family members of the person
reside
• The address from which
the person pays for utility ser-
vices
• The address from which
the person fi les federal or state
income tax returns
• A county elections offi -
cial may inquire at any time
into the validity of the regis-
tration of any elector.
Harold T. Gable, DMD
Gearhart
‘Toxic highway’
The Daily Astorian ran an
editorial on June 26, “Chem-
ical plant fails the sniff test,”
about the perils of using our
beautiful Columbia River to
haul hazardous chemicals,
such as methanol, from the
proposed plant upriver in Ka-
lama, Washington. On July 6,
the Astorian ran an editorial on
shipping oil on the Columbia,
“Oil-by-rail project carries too
much risk.” Thank you to the
Astorian for spotlighting these
issues.
On July 7, an oil tanker ran
aground near Skomokawa,
Washington, carrying millions
of gallons of witches’ brew in-
cluding ethanol, glycol and oil.
Fortunately this did not result
in catastrophe since none of
the cargo leaked into the river.
Think this an unusual oc-
currence? Think again. In
the last year there have beens
four other groundings on
this stretch of the lower riv-
er. Luckily, no environmental
harm was reported for any of
these cases. How much longer
will our luck hold?
It is time we call a halt to
these disastrous proposals up-
stream which use the Colum-
bia as a “toxic highway” to
transport products overseas.
Our global economy promotes
the depletion of our natural re-
sources to the highest bidder,
driving up prices for Amer-
icans and endangering our
environment — including the
river which offers us a liveli-
hood — just to fi ll the pockets
of others.
The Columbia is much
more valuable than to serve
as a “highway” of hazardous
products.
John Green
Gearhart
Letter: Too much
congestion
Dear City of Seaside. You
have a heart problem. Your
arteries are clogged and you
need a bypass.
I know this issue has come
up in the past and the consen-
sus was that if Seaside had a
bypass that people may not
stop to shop. Well… people
are stopped for sure. In fact,
they are dead stopped on 101
going both directions most
days and certainly on week-
ends. They are able to pick up
an order of Grizzly Tuna or a
coffee from Human Bean or
shop at Nike outlet that is how
slow the traffi c moves. There
are more travelers on the road
than in previous years and it
is only going to get worse, not
just here but everywhere.
The local businesses are
the losers because local resi-
dents stay home to avoid the
traffi c and it is becoming in-
creasingly diffi cult just to go
to the grocery store.
Those vehicles that are
waiting to move through Sea-
side are not going to veer off
and lose their place in line
and most are wondering if
there has been an accident as
there is no signage that tells
them why traffi c is congested.
Travel time from Gearhart to
Highway 26 Junction can take
up to 45 minutes.
As a business owner, it
has made it almost impossi-
ble for me to accommodate
my customers with deliveries
of wedding cakes from my
shop in Cannon Beach travel-
ing north and is affecting my
bottom line. I now have been
forced to redesign my busi-
ness plan and re-evaluate my
customer service.
The issue of a bypass
around Seaside needs to be
made a priority sooner rather
than later.
Jae Young
Gearhart
Whose quality
of life?
The supporters of David
Townsend’s initiative to re-
peal Gearhart’s existing short-
term rental ordinance and re-
place it with their own version
claim in their recent mailer it
is necessary “to maintain the
quality of life for our city.”
Whose quality of life is
maintained by allowing an
unlimited number of vacation
rentals in residential neigh-
borhoods throughout the city?
Whose quality of life is
maintained by allowing nine
people over 12, plus an unlim-
ited number of children under
12 in a three-bedroom house?
Whose quality of life is
maintained by not requiring
rental owners to provide on-
site parking to help alleviate
parking congestion on narrow
city streets?
Whose quality of life is
maintained by not requiring
rental owners to demonstrate
that they have a functional
septic system capable of han-
dling sporadic use by large
numbers of occupants?
Whose quality of life is
maintained if overworked
septic systems fail at an ev-
er-increasing number of rent-
al units lead the Department
of Environmental Quality to
mandate a citywide sewage
system that, over time, will be
paid for by all property own-
ers?
Whose quality of life is
maintained by not requiring
rentals to be inspected by
the local building offi cial,
the only inspector permitted
by law to evaluate life safety
conditions?
Whose quality of life is
maintained by not requir-
ing rental owners to provide
for the trash created by their
guests over a weekend to be
safely stored until trash pick-
up day?
It seems that the only peo-
ple whose quality of life will
be maintained are the out-
of-town investment property
owners behind this initiative.
The don’t seem to realize that
degrading the overall quality
of life in Gearhart will even-
tually degrade their own prop-
erties, as well as the rest of the
town’s.
I urge the council to reject
the initiative, place it on the
ballot and allow the voters of
Gearhart to vote it down in
November.
Dianne Widdop
Gearhart
MEETINGS
Monday, July 24
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
Tuesday, July 25
Seaside Airport Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Tuesday, Aug. 1
Seaside Community and Se-
nior Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Library Board, 4:30
p.m., Seaside Public Library,
1131 Broadway.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 698 Pacifi c Way.
Thursday, Aug. 3
Wednesday, Sept. 6
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 698 Pacifi c Way.
Monday, Sept. 11
Thursday, Aug. 10
Monday, Sept. 25
Seaside Convention Center
Commission, 5 p.m., Seaside
Civic and Convention Center,
415 First Avenue.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Monday, Aug. 28
Wednesday, Aug. 2
Tuesday, Sept. 5
Seaside Improvement Com-
mission, 6:30 p.m., City Hall,
989 Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
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BUSINESS
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