10 years ago this week — 2013

“Being Finnish does not just mean that I’m forgetful, or can’t figure out the roundabout, or am the butt of every joke from other Scandinavians,” said Aimee Schacher, this year’s Miss Finland, from the stage Friday night at the Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival.

“Meaningful heritage is a love of who we are and where we come from.”

Hundreds of people, both Scandinavian and not, filled the Clatsop County Fair & Expo Center this weekend to honor their heritage at the 46th annual Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival, a celebration of Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic culture.

Federal budget constraints are biting the North Coast.

It’s called sequestration — forced budget cuts across the board. Congress’ Budget Control Act of 2011 has spared no agencies, military or civilian.

Around Clatsop County, this translates into cuts in specific services like the U.S. Coast Guard, Head Start and the National Park Service. Leaders are unhappy and many fear more cuts to come.

The U.S. Coast Guard feels it. The Astoria-based cutters Alert and Steadfast were unable to attend the Portland Rose Festival. Its helicopters dropped no wreaths at the Blessing of the Fleet in Ilwaco, Washington.

“Reductions required the Coast Guard to curtail air and surface operations by a minimum of 25%, affecting maritime safety and security across almost all mission areas,” said Lt. Regina Caffrey, public affairs officer with District 13, Sector Columbia River’s parent command.

A search for a reported capsized sailboat by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office on Monday afternoon was called off and declared a false alert, the second such incident in the past two months.

The U.S. Coast Guard “did a quick sweep of the area and recovered a large piece of plastic,” said Petty Officer 3rd Class Nate Littlejohn. The search was officially closed as a false alert at 5:25 p.m.

Opportunities to hike, bike or kayak abound in this region of ocean views, winding rivers and dense forestland.

A new map showing all that the region has to offer is nearly ready to be printed and distributed.

The comprehensive guide shows cyclists, horseback riders, hikers and others locations to recreate from Nehalem Bay to Willapa National Wildlife Refuge. Local organizations hope it will provide a useful resource for residents and visitors while inspiring healthier lifestyles.

“It’s going to be nice to have a map that’s concise and has all the trails that are available to us,” said Debbie Wilson, of the Lewis and Clark National Park Association, which runs the Fort Clatsop bookstore and will own the copyright of the map. “There’s so many more little trails that people just don’t always know about.

“The whole idea is to promote health and wellness in the region,” she said.

50 years ago — 1973

They came in droves, some out of curiosity, others to relive the past and yet some to catch a glimpse of Scandinavian life, culture and history.

If numbers are any measure of success, the sixth annual Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival was a success.

A highlight of the festival was the crowning of Miss Scandinavia 1973, Judy Angberg, a 1973 Astoria High School graduate who represented Finland.

Tongue Point Job Corps officials won’t be forced to transfer 260 corpswomen to other centers by July 1, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesman said today.

Jim Pemmbrook, in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., also said that no assurances could be given guaranteeing that the Tongue Point Center and other centers would be continued past next year.

Pemmbrook’s statements came in reply to questions raised last week by Ray McDonald, director of the Tongue Point Center, whose enrollment was cut in half recently as a result of proposed federal budget cutbacks.

SEASIDE — “The worst conceivable environment we could have in Oregon is one that contributes to unemployment,” the state’s director of economic development told Oregon’s newspaper publishers Friday in Seaside.

Edward J. Whelan lashed out at people who “want to return to the 19th century” and through their “overzealous activities under the guise of economic environmental excellence” would create such an environment.

He called for a concerted effort “by those who want a strong economy as well as an excellent environment” to counter some of the past, present and certainly future environmental regulations.

With those remarks, Whelan began the second of two panel discussions on “Oregon and Its Environment” at the three-day Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association convention at the Seaside Convention Center, which ended Sunday.

JEWELL — Roosevelt elk within about a 10-mile radius of Jewell are eating farmers out of house and crop because of an elk population explosion and new forest management practices.

To see an elk was considered a novelty by area farmers 20 years ago, but lately the animals have become a nuisance.

Edgar Berg, who lives about 7 miles northeast of Jewell, has had many uninvited guests in recent years. Elk have eaten his grain, trampled it down for bedding and knocked down his fences on their way back and forth.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” he said. “The elk are eventually going to take me over anyway. It’s just a matter of time. A poor farmer out here is doomed.”

Astoria probably will move slowly on writing new laws to crack down on adult bookstores or movies in light of a new ruling handed down by the Supreme Court last week.

That ruling enables states and communities to ban books, magazines, plays and motion pictures that may be offensive to local standards even if they might be accepted elsewhere.

“The key to this is being careful how we proceed,” cautioned City Manager Dale Curry. “We need to fulfill the desires of the community in a proper way. Hasty action may not solve the problem.”

Compared to some other cities in the state, there really isn’t much of a problem in Astoria, Curry said.

75 years ago — 1948

Detective work, showmanship, landscaping, art, legislation and reorganization, as well as history, were discussed at a recent busy meeting of the Clatsop County Historical Society.

Walter Johnson, president, told members that early surveyors’ maps and old photographs have provided clues for a renewed search for the exact site of Fort Clatsop, built by the Corps of Discovery in 1805 and destroyed by Natives a few years later.

The society is being aided in its detective work by state and county foresters and surveyors. Johnson promised that the search for the fort, if it is successful, will make a top-notch story of scientific sleuthing.

The society passed a resolution calling upon Congress to declare the sites of Fort Clatsop and Fort Astoria as national monuments. This move was encouraged by the recent establishment of a national monument at the site of Fort Vancouver, near Vancouver, Washington.

CAMP CLATSOP — Young men of draft age were urged in a statement issued here Tuesday to apply for immediate enlistment in the Oregon National Guard before President Truman signs the draft law on his desk in Washington, D.C.

Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Rilea, Oregon adjutant general, explained in the statement that members of the guard may escape the draft if they are enlisted in a national guard unit at the time the bill becomes law.

A mine detector will be used in the new search for the site of Lewis and Clark’s Fort Clatsop.

The detector will be the latest scientific tool to be used in a search, which already has developed the intricacy of a jigsaw puzzle and the excitement of a detective story.

Walter Johnson, president of the Clatsop County Historical Society and chief sleuth in the puzzling hunt, hopes that the wartime detection device will show the location of a blacksmith shop which, he believes, was located in the fort in 1805.

It is known that a blacksmith was among the members of the Lewis and Clark party and Johnson reasons it’s quite probable that he set up an ironworking shop in the stockade to handle repairs for the camp.

CAMP CLATSOP — The Oregon National Guard has probably reached its authorized strength as a result of intensive recruiting during the six-day period which preceded President Truman’s signing of the peacetime draft law Thursday, it was announced Saturday by Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Rilea, Oregon adjutant general.

A final tally of the guard’s strength will not be completed before July 15, Gen. Rilea said. But reports from recruiters throughout the state indicate that the 1,233 vacancies which existed in ground and air units last Tuesday have been filled.

A third plane load of local fishermen was scheduled to leave Clatsop airport for the Columbia River Packers Association cannery at Naknek, on Bristol Bay, Alaska, at noon Saturday.

The flight, carrying some 50 fishermen, will be the third and semifinal one in a rush to the Alaska salmon grounds which began at noon Thursday when a contract was finally signed by packers and the Alaska Fishermen’s Union.