10 years ago this week — 2011

SEASIDE — Miss Oregon’s crown has passed to 20-year-old Caroline McGowan of Corvallis.

“I’m elated. I’m shocked. I’m overwhelmed. I can’t wait to talk to my family,” she said immediately after her win. “It’s like I’m in a dream.”

McGowan, aka Miss Linn-Benton, prevailed among 22 young women in the Miss Oregon Scholarship Program at the Seaside Civic and Convention Center on Saturday. She will go on to compete in the Miss America competition in Las Vegas.

When the Fourth of July dawned in Seaside, long before the first float or marching band made an appearance, volunteers from the Seaside Museum & Historical Society were already giving downtown a festival-friendly atmosphere.

One of these volunteers was Bob Cook, 78, of Seaside.

A five-year museum volunteer, Cook showed up at 5:30 a.m. to hang signs and banners, set up booths and erect tents for the museum’s afternoon event, the old-fashioned social.

“The community gave to me, and I find it’s nice to give back to them,” said Cook, a former military officer and retired U.S. Postal Service employee.

By the time the Fourth of July parade began an hour-and-a-half later, the crowds were awash in red, white and blue as patriotic paraphernalia traced the parade route from Holladay Drive, to Broadway, to Columbia Street.

You turn 200 only once. That’s why this year’s Astoria Regatta float is making the rounds on the Northwest parade circuit as a birthday celebration on wheels, spreading the word of the city’s bicentennial and Regatta festival.

So far, the Regatta float has hit 12 of a 20-parade tour spanning April through October. The float crew has won 12 awards.

“We’ve brought home a lot of trophies,” said Eric Paulson, this year’s Regatta president and CEO of Lektro.

The Astoria Regatta Association had known for five years that its mobile ambassador badly needed an upgrade. It decided to retire the worn-out gas-powered chassis, which had been in the association’s possession for 16 years, and commissioned an all-electric version to be built from scratch.

The task fell to Chuck Godwin, a member of the float crew since 1992.

50 years ago — 1971

They came by the thousands. Visitors and residents alike were in evidence throughout the Sunset Empire this holiday weekend attending special Fourth of July events and enjoying the sporadic sunshine.

Campgrounds throughout the area were either full or nearly full, according to reports. Fort Stevens State Park had to turn some would-be campers away.

Fireworks displays were held in several places: Cannon Beach, Rockaway Beach, Garibaldi and others. Hotels and motels were filled to capacity and vacation homes overflowed with weekend visitors in Seaside, Gearhart and Cannon Beach. Area merchants reported active business over the weekend.

Four people escaped serious injury on Saturday when their light airplane crashed after take-off at the Seaside Airport.

One passenger, Joanne Louis Blessing, 35, of Kalama, Washington, was treated at the Seaside hospital and transferred to a Portland hospital. Her husband and pilot, Richard, their daughter, Dianne, and nephew, Steven Blessing, were treated as outpatients.

Oregon State Police said the airplane had taken off toward the north and was about 100 feet high and 100 yards from the end of the runway when the motor died. The craft veered back toward the field, to the west, swept past some trees and power poles, and crashed into brush. The wings were sheered off the airplane and the gas tank ruptured.

Picketing resumed today as longshoremen put aside memories of “Bloody Thursday” 37 years ago to concentrate on their strike against 24 West Coast ports.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union members entered the sixth day of their strike against ports from Canada to Mexico, the union’s first coast-wide strike in 23 years.

Military truck convoys carrying nearly 800 Oregon Army National Guard members will arrive at Camp Rilea Saturday for two weeks of annual training.

Units scheduled to train at Camp Rilea will be from Portland, Lake Oswego, Salem, Albany, Dallas, Newport and Coos Bay. The units will conclude training, then convoys will again be on the highways returning to home stations.

Thanks to a late-starting summer, the tourist industry in the lower Clatsop County area appears to be down somewhat from economic levels of last year at this time, though businesses catering to the more affluent are reporting noted business gains. Thus, while most service stations and smaller restaurants contacted reported business levels to be the same or slightly lower, larger, more expensive restaurants and clothing stores reported increased business this year.

“Business is down a little from last year and I would say down a lot from five years ago,” said Ralph Waddell of Phillips 66 at the Gearhart junction.

Calling the decrease a trend, Waddell suggested lack of money on the part of the people who would travel as a reason for the decline but added “It must be more than just a coastal problem because there aren’t as many out-of-staters.”

Seaside Aquarium owner Jack O’Brien agreed that lessened traffic to the coastal area has resulted in a falling off of business.

75 years ago — 1946

Methods for canning rockfish were first developed at the Astoria Seafoods Laboratory on the request of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration for an inexpensive pack, according to a progress report on canning of rockfish. The report was issued by Dr. E.W. Harvey, director of the laboratory, and Virginia Kempato, Harvey’s assistant.

As a result of this research, the laboratory was able to provide packers with rockfish cooking methods when a commercial market recently opened up for the fish. In the report, the laboratory announced that it was assisted in the rockfish research by the Columbia River Salmon Co., Union Fishermen’s Cooperative Co. and Paragon Fish Co. Since this study into the proper methods for canning rockfish began, at least two of these companies have canned rockfish on a commercial scale.

The entire packing industry is interested in prospects for the new phase of the bottom fishery.

An independent fish buyer is unable to find a location for his business or obtain necessary ice in the lower Columbia, said S. Einstoss, one of the leading freelance buyers on the Pacific coast and a representative of Atlantic & Pacific Packing Co.

Einstoss attempted to interest Astoria in the construction of cold storage on the waterfront, which would be available for lease to fish buyers.

He said the establishment of cold storage would prevent the occurrence of wide price disparities in fish, such as those that exist between the Columbia River, Puget Sound and Grays Harbor, and between gillnet-caught salmon and troll-caught salmon.

Despite regrettable heavy fishing for blueback salmon in the Columbia River this season, the fish, which suffered a drastic progressive decline in numbers since 1940, has made a remarkable comeback.

In 1945, only 110 cases of blueback were canned in Columbia River canneries. Escapement at Bonneville fell to 9,501 fish. Annual escapement totals of blue back and Bonneville tell the story of the dwindling stock of this species. In 1940, the total was 148,805; 1941, 65,745; 1942, 55,475; 1943, 39,845; and 1944, 15,071. By last year, the size of the run had declined below the commercial quantity.

Already, the 1946 blueback count at Bonneville is 51,451 and promises to perhaps exceed 60,000 fish.

With the completion of remodeling work, in progress for several months at the Modern Cash Grocery, Astoria now has one of the most modern, streamlined food stores in the state.

Under the direction of Richard “Dick” Aho, owner and operator of the downtown establishment since 1934, the entire interior of the grocery has been remodeled in recent months. Remodeling included the installation of island merchandise counters, wall fixtures extending the full 100-foot length of the store room and refrigeration cases and counters that are the last word in food store fixtures.

The temperature reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit and was still climbing, the official weather observer reported.

The noon reading today equaled that of a recent day, when a 91 degree maximum was reached later in the afternoon.

Record crowds enjoying the facilities of Tapiola Park swimming pool these days will have to get along without a diving board until the city is able to replace the board that broke.

Crowds at the park this year are the largest in the history of the swimming pool there, city officials said.