10 years ago this week — 2013

It was the final event of the day — and Stephanie Bue ruled the water.

The Knappa sophomore was among those taking part in the log rolling event at the Clatsop County Fair & Expo. And she defeated all comers.

“You can’t get all jittery in log rolling. You have to be patient,” Bue said.

She was one of the students from three high schools who joined students from the University of Montana and competed at the second Astoria Timber Festival Saturday.

“This event is good for the students,” Eric Hoberg, the coach of the University of Montana team, said. “It’s low-key so they get a little bit of pressure from the small crowd, but they’re not overwhelmed by a couple thousand people. It helps to build them up into a higher level of confidence.”

The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Monday that enforcement of new rules affecting commercial gillnet fishermen should be suspended until further review.

The court decided the new Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife policies should not be implemented while they review both sides of a case challenging the validity of the new rules.

Steve Fick, Jim Wells and Fishhawk Fisheries, had filed their request for the court to review management changes on Jan 4. They filed a request for stay of the enforcement of the rules on Jan 24.

“I hope that this is a good first step in rightfully regaining what is for all Oregonians. This is everybody’s resource,” Fick said.

SEASIDE — The National Guard turned out in Seaside last weekend, but they weren’t there to thwart a disaster.

They arrived to help the Seaside School District build two dugouts for its new girls softball field at Broadway Park.

All that’s left to finish on the dugouts is some trim work, roofing and painting, said Neal Wallace, Seaside’s Public Works director.

Seaside pulled into a three-way tie for second place in the Cowapa League boys’ basketball Tuesday night, with a 55-39 win at home over Banks.

Three nine-man stevedore gangs hustled around Pier 1 on Feb. 1, helping to take the stacked timber from front-loaders, wrap it in a cable noose and load it by crane into the hatches of the Malaysian-flagged Eco Discovery, until an 8-meter wall of timber formed on its deck. It was the first log ship at the Port of Astoria in 2013.

50 years ago — 1973

Log loading operations began this morning from the Port of Astoria’s newly created dry land log storage area onto the Liberian freighter, Silver Light.

This method of log storage and loading is being touted by Port officials as a way to recover from heavy log export business losses partially resulting from a union jurisdictional dispute over the operation of floating cranes used to load logs from the water.

Port Manager George Grove said the new loading operation — which involves convoying the logs to shipside with log trucks — was proceeding without a hitch, though there was a delay in starting while equipment was set up.

The key consideration, Grove said, will be how fast logs can be loaded from the trucks.

Porky Pig, Elsie the cow and animal legacies of our childhoods taught us if we were kind to them, they would return the favor.

But such a lofty ideal didn’t come without a learning experience, one that usually was dotted with candid — albeit naive — observations about the animals.

Second graders from Central School in Astoria recently went to the Clatsop Community College farm in Walluski to view the animals.

Inquisitive Ben Harner had never been on a farm, so he asked his reading tutor if he could go sometime. The movement snowballed, and everyone went too.

Students’ enthusiasm to peer at the animals was hampered only by their inability see over some pens.

But it was day of excitement for everyone — whether they had seen cows, pigs or sheep before or not.

A 31 1/2-foot fishing vessel, the Alsydon, was capsized and sank Tuesday evening. A U.S. Coast Guard search of the area about three-quarters of a mile seaward off the mouth of the Columbia River turned up no sign of it.

No one was injured.

SEASIDE — A log-strewn ocean beach, freshly covered with flotsam and jetsam from angry seas, is home to avid beachcombers.

They can be found on any beach in all types of weather, methodically plodding along with practiced eyes searching for special treasures among the seemingly worthless hunks of wood, metal and glass.

More than 100 such beachcombers will gather at the Seaside Convention Center for three days, beginning Friday for the Fifth Annual Seaside Beachcomber Festival.

Beachcombers, young and old from all over Oregon and Washington, will display just what they found on those many lonely walks.

The participants will compete for numerous prizes in six categories of artistic and unusual displays composed of items found on beaches throughout the world.

75 years ago — 1948

A howling windstorm which moved down from the Aleutian Islands and lashed Oregon and Washington with gale force winds during the weekend was subsiding today after killing at least 10 people.

Short wave radio listeners in Astoria Saturday night could sit glued to their radios for hours, “sweating out” the storm with Capt. Cliff McCroskey and the crew of the damaged drag boat Fearless, wallowing in the tremendous seas off Tillamook rock.

McCroskey’s radio telephone conversations with other fishing craft and the pilot schooner Columbia yielded a play-by-play account of the Fearless’ struggle with the gale that lasted from 9 p.m. until 2 a.m., when the cutter Balsam finally located the Fearless and rushed to the rescue.

McCroskey reported his vessel was leaking badly astern, off Tillamook Rock, that a net was hanging overside and acting as a drag, that he was heading into the southerly gale and afraid to turn the craft around for fear it might be swamped.

The former hospital ship Refuge “climbed” out of the mud at the face of Pier 1 Saturday where it will be scrapped.

Fifteen pumps began gaining on the unlocated leak Saturday. The ship was refloated late in the day. Divers are searching for the source of the leak.

GEARHART — Less than 12 hours after it was completed, the 76-by-22-foot flat roof of a four-unit motor court under construction here was quietly lifted off and propped up against a pair of trees by a fierce wind early Sunday morning.

Not a board in the roof was broken and no sound was heard by the owners of the new building, who were sitting in their apartments less than 50 feet away.

George Burge and his son, Robert, who had finished nailing shiplap boards on the roof Saturday, found the massive shed-type roof standing upright against two trees when they stepped outside their apartment at 2 a.m.

A seacock left open in the former hospital ship Refuge was responsible for it almost sinking en route to Astoria and also for it settling on the muddy bottom of the river on the face of Pier 1.

This was the explanation given by salvagers to Jim Bowler, manager of the Port of Astoria. As long as the ship had been in calm weather, the open seacock was so located that no water came in. When a list developed, additional water flowed through toilet openings.

For the past month, eastern winds have shifted sand away from the hulk of the Peter Iredale on Clatsop spit until spars and rigging, covered for a generation, can be seen again.

As much as two feet of sand has been cleared away by the east wind, which have prevailed through the extended dry spell.