10 years ago this week — 2013

When Buzz Ramsey speaks about salmon, he gets a gleam in his eye and his mouth flashes a big smile. It’s a love born from years on the water.

“This is really a big celebration,” Ramsey said Saturday out of his salmon fishing boat, parked temporarily at Fred Meyer in Warrenton.

“This year we have about 1.2 million salmon coming back up the Columbia. The real hot fishing, especially for Chinook, is over the last two weeks of August. It’s a big deal,” Ramsey said.

Ramsey, a fishing celebrity known throughout the U.S., spoke to anglers in the Fred Meyer parking lot about the coming Buoy 10 salmon fishing season on the lower Columbia. He talked safety and fishing techniques while promoting the Buoy 10 fishery the last two weeks of August.

Buoy 10 is the designation for the westernmost fish management zone on the Columbia River. It extends from Tongue Point to Buoy 10 south of Cape Disappointment.

“We were in denial about it for awhile,” said Columbian Theater co-owner Jeanine Fairchild, of the sea change that’s swept the movie industry over the past five years, leaving small, independent theaters like the Columbian in its wake.

“But it’s here and we’re embracing it.”

The major movie studios’ recent push toward digital distribution and projection has irreparably altered the movie theater landscape, forcing smaller theaters to either go digital or go dark. Astoria’s historic single-screen theater has chosen the former.

Fairchild and her staff have given themselves until Labor Day to raise the $50,000 they need to purchase a used digital projector, a decision they announced earlier this month with a short, staff-created music video that screens before each evening’s 7 p.m. feature.

The video clip, which is the centerpiece of the Columbian’s online fundraising campaign, has already generated a great response from theatergoers.

As he stood near the straw floor of the nearby pen, Eddie Miguez watched the nervous participants lining up, ready for their moment in the spotlight.

Miguez, a North Powder resident, had his eyes peeled for just the right breeding swine.

“We’re looking for animals that show some maternal traits — adequate in frame size, adequate in muscle, overall size and quality for their age,” the longtime 4-H judge said Tuesday at the Clatsop County Fair & Expo Center.

“You’re looking for animals that are going to be productive … that still have the feminine look to them,” Miguez said.

Miguez was judging the 4-H Club and Future Farmers of America’s spate of pig competitions, which ran for most of Tuesday and were the agricultural highlight of the first day of the Clatsop County Fair.

The theme of this year’s fair is “Commotion at the Ocean,” and, though there was little water in sight, the agricultural activities in the arena certainly lived up to commotion billing.

50 years ago — 1973

CANNON BEACH — Out of the moist beach sand at Cannon Beach Saturday morning emerged works of art — some good, some bad — but all original.

Thousands of people flocked to the 200-yard stretch of sand near Haystack Rock to view the assortment of hand crafted sensations at the ninth annual Cannon Beach Sandcastle Contest.

The Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife today refused to grant the Port of Astoria permission to dredge a badly-silted slip at the Port and dump the silt in the water, said George Grove, port manager.

Grove said he received word about noon that the agency turned down the request on the basis that the silt, which didn’t meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for dredging, shouldn’t be dumped into the water.

Grove added, however, that the dredging may be allowed if the silt is dumped on the land side of a water-tight berm.

HAMMOND — The sun was hot and soda pop was cold Monday night as half the moms, dads, kids and dogs of Warrenton and Hammond came out and watched a bunch of old men teach a bunch of young women how baseball was played when the Yankees were king.

The oldsters traded their crutches for hardwood bats and did just what they said they would, beating the Warrenton Supermarket women’s slo-pitch softball team at their own game.

There was more action off the field than on, but when the dust cleared after the last mad slide for home plate, the 45-and-over bunch had beaten their granddaughters 8-5.

Latest statistics on the number of tourists coming to Oregon this summer show that the Oregon Coast and Eastern Oregon have the biggest drops in the industry this summer.

The Coast Association estimates a decrease of 20% to 30% with more serious drops on the southern beaches.

The Sea Lion Caves reports it has had 25% percent fewer visitors this year compared to the same period last year.

Astoria’s state information center has estimated the North Coast is about 17.4% behind last year’s pace, although statewide figures register a 2.2% increase overall.

The decline on the North Coast has been attributed mostly to bad weather and fear of gasoline shortages by Rae Lynn Marxen, Astoria information center attendant.

CANNON BEACH — Oregonians love to talk about the frantic freeways of Los Angeles and mad motorists who traverse them so recklessly. But about 15 Los Angeles area auto enthusiasts invaded Cannon Beach Thursday afternoon in exquisite, expensive cars and not more than a half dozen of them ever hit 40 miles per hour on U.S. Highway 101.

The reason? The Californians are all members of the Model T Ford Club of southern California, driving Henry Ford’s dream machines of yesteryear.

They are on their annual tour, following a plan that will have them winding through Astoria sometime today on their way to Portland and a three-day layover before heading south again.

The tin Lizzies made quite a sight for Cannon Beach residents who happened to watch them emerge from the Arch Cape tunnel and start up one of the last grades before Cannon Beach or were lolling around the beach when the Model Ts pulled into the Tolovana Inn for the night.

75 years ago — 1948

John Harvey Bugg, known to Clatsop County teenagers by the alias of “Cowboy Jim” Williams, was back behind bars Tuesday morning in the Clatsop County jail.

Bugg was arrested at 4 p.m. Monday at the Gearhart Riding Academy by Sheriff Paul Kearney and Deputy Don Larfield on the basis of two warrants from Jasper County, Missouri.

The warrants charged Bugg with the kidnapping of Walter Cozad, a Missouri taxi driver, and with the armed robbery of Cozad’s 1942 Chrysler sedan.

A school of whales was sighted early Sunday evening a short distance off Cannon Beach. A number of local people saw the huge mammals, although none could agree on the size of the school.

Several said they saw the whales blow spray in the air. It was reported the school stayed in the vicinity of Cannon Beach for about an hour.

Preparations for the 1948 salmon derby are nearing completion, Al Hetzel, chamber of commerce secretary, said Tuesday. Advance boat registrations indicate that the 1948 derby will be very successful.

“It’s too early yet to make any predictions about how many will attend,” Hetzel said, “but the advance boat registrations are well ahead of what we had at this time last year.”

Rain hampered work on the site of Fort Astoria at the corner of 15th and Exchange streets Monday afternoon, but Dr. Walter Hay, in charge of the work, hopes to get the project underway Wednesday afternoon, weather permitting.

A total of about 75 people attended the Guernsey field day Tuesday morning and afternoon at Brownsmead.

The morning session of the field day, which was sponsored by the local Guernsey Club, was conducted at the Ted Estoos farm. At noon, those attending moved on to the Fred Radat farm, where a salmon barbecue was held and the afternoon activities were conducted.

Purpose of the field day was to acquaint dairymen with the judging of cattle and to point out the characteristics that dairymen are striving for in cattle breeding programs.

Every store window on Commercial Street, from the post office to the Astoria Hotel, will carry window displays of historical objects during the week of the Regatta, according to Walter Johnson, president of the Clatsop County Historical Society.

Present plans, Johnson explained, are to have historical displays pertaining to the line of goods carried in each store.

For instance, hardware stores would have displays containing a line of utensils dating back as far as possible and would lead up to modern utensils.

James Harvey “Cowboy Jim” Bugg had still failed to find acceptable bondsmen Thursday morning and was being held in the Clatsop County jail, awaiting arrival of Missouri officers to take him into custody for extradition.