10 years ago this week — 2013

The effect of a federal government shutdown is reverberating at the local level — including in Clatsop County.

Lewis and Clark National Historical Park closed today following the announcement of the shutdown. Scott Tucker, park superintendent, said the park will remain closed until the budget impasse is resolved by Congress.

The closure puts 19 full- and part-time employees on furlough, including Tucker. All trails on the park grounds will be closed, as well as the visitor center and parking lots.

The inability of Congress to settle its differences angered Oregon lawmakers.

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, who represents the North Coast, was upset and said the impasse was caused because of the continuing Republican “obsession” to derail the Affordable Care Act.

Astoria’s fourth brewery will start brewing this fall and open by 2014.

And the local partnership forming Buoy Beer Co. on the Astoria waterfront hopes it will add to Astoria’s brand recognition.

“Is four too many?” asked Luke Colvin, founder and CEO of the brewery, which will feature a full bar, restaurant and taproom. “I don’t think so. We can be seen as new competition, but that’s not the way we view ourselves.”

Already in the game are Fort George, Astoria Brewing Co. and Hondo’s Brew Pub.

“Astoria’s really becoming a destination in general, but it’s becoming … a craft beverage destination. Our predecessors at Fort George and Astoria Brewing Co., and a number of other players in this area, have done an amazing job, and we just think we’re going to add to that.”

Even with a chance at late returning coho salmon, few commercial gillnet fishermen will be out with tangle nets on the Columbia River in the next two weeks.

The cost of testing the gear on the lower main stem comes out of fishermen’s pockets and many are skeptical if their investment will mean access to more fish in future years.

Tangle nets are being tested, although they are not new to the Columbia River.

While the commercial fleet has adapted and tested commercial gear allowed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, they could be asked to spend more money on different nets if Gov. John Kitzhaber’s management proposal for the river becomes a reality. The proposal would ban gillnetting on the main stem of the Columbia.

Lewis and Clark National Historical Park shut its gates Tuesday after a federal budget agreement fell through in Congress.

A cruise ship with 2,670 passengers arrived that morning, with many hoping to see where the Corps of Discovery made its winter camp and built Fort Clatsop.

The ship had come from Alaska and stopped in Seattle before reaching Astoria.

Marian Soderberg, coordinator for Clatsop Cruise Hosts, said the park closure was unfortunate. Shuttles had been set up to take passengers on a historical tour that had originally included a trip to Fort Clatsop.

“They had to change the itinerary,” Soderberg said.

50 years ago — 1973

The Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition joined the Clatsop Environmental Council this weekend in opposing construction of an aluminum plant at Warrenton.

The Oregon Environmental Council also is on record opposing the plant proposed by American Metal Climax and scheduled to start under construction next spring.

The coalition voted to oppose the aluminum plant after a speech by Bill Campbell, executive director of the council.

Coalition members said they opposed the plant because it would use a large block of power in a time of shortage and because its smokestack emissions would degrade the air and damage the food chain in the nearby Columbia River estuary.

Three boatloads of Lewis and Clark expedition buffs set out Saturday from Astoria to retrace the steps of the famous explorers as they crossed the Columbia River and landed in Oregon.

The band, which included members of Oregon’s and Washington’s Lewis and Clark Trail commissions and National Foundation President Bob Lange, approached the trip Saturday with the zest of Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

They feasted together Friday night, relishing over expectations of the trip the next day. They engaged in friendly and educated debates over points in the journey.

They listened with great interest to an explanation by U.S. Coast Guard Cmdr. Ed Nelson, who would lead the trek Saturday, about why compass bearings may be different today than they were in Lewis and Clark’s time.

Everyone chuckled as the pilgrims in Chaucer’s tale must have after hearing a funny story, when Nelson said that the course he plotted “may be all wet.”

Gas stations in Astoria should be open this weekend as dealers here say they won’t go along with plans for an organized, nationwide closure to protest phase four price ceilings.

The situation in Seaside is less clear. A spokesman for dealers in Seaside, which relies heavily on tourism for its economy, said a decision on the weekend closure will be reached at a meeting Thursday.

Al Simonsen, head of the Astoria Gasoline Dealers Assocation, said today his group won’t participate in a nationwide closure protest.

From Hilda Lahti and Gearhart, from Olney and Star of the Sea, from every one of Clatsop County’s 14 elementary schools they came, 600 sixth graders on a magical forestry tour Tuesday.

Great, gleaming buses, all yellow and black, disgorged load after load of squealing youngsters on the land. Organized in groups by teams of teachers, away they went to stations set up on the Astor Experiment Station forest plot.

There among the spruce, cedar, pine and firs, the kids were taught. Men who work for the Oregon Forestry Department, Boise-Cascade, the Soil Conservation Service, Crown Zellerbach, the Oregon Game Commission and Fort Stevens State Park told them about the trees.

The children also learned of wildlife and soils, of thinning and fire prevention, of timber harvesting and reforestation.

For the 14th year, Clatsop County elementary schoolers got a firsthand look at the world of the woods.

75 years ago — 1948

Fire, which broke out in the basement of the Golden Gate Cafe at 9:12 a.m. today and quickly shot up through the floors of the building, was reported to have done several thousand dollars’ damage to restaurant furnishings and the building.

No accurate estimate of the damage could be determined Tuesday morning, but Fire Chief Wayne Osterby estimated that damage to the underpinning of the building would be at least $1,000. Considerable damage was done to the interior of the cafe at 7th and Bond streets.

The U.S. Navy’s gunnery training program, based at Clatsop Airport, got underway Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

Two F6F fighter planes, from Sand Point Naval Station in Seattle, will be based at the airport all this week for target-town duties.

Trainees are flown here aboard four-motored privateer bombers from Whidbey Island Naval Air Station on Puget Sound.

The targets are towed about 20 miles out to sea, where the firing practice takes place, with trainees shooting the batteries of .50 caliber machine guns aboard the privateer bombers.

A 28-foot commercial troller with a man and his wife aboard was rescued from heavy seas near the mouth of the Columbia River Tuesday afternoon by a motor lifeboat from Point Adams Coast Guard station.

Just off the North Jetty on the Columbia River Bar, their engine failed. Another fishing vessel, the Seacomber, attempted to tow them in but the towing line broke three times.

The U.S. Coast Guard then arrived and towed the fishing boat back into Ilwaco.

Astoria hunters have been heading for the plains of Eastern Oregon all week and today those who plan to hunt in nearby areas were getting into the hills to be ready for the opening of the deer season Friday.

Recent heavy rains will minimize the danger of forest fires, but hunters were still warned by the game commission to be “extremely careful with fires as the deep forest cover is still dry in many parts of the state.”

September brought 6.19 inches of rain to Astoria, an excess of 2.8 inches above the average September precipitation, official weather records reveal.

The bulk of the rainfall was concentrated in four hard rainstorms, each of no more than two days’ duration.

The Chamber of Commerce board of directors issued an appeal Friday for a large Astoria attendance at opening of the completed Sunset Highway on Oct. 8, near Banks.

The ceremonies will mark opening of the North Plains to Portland stretch of the highway to traffic. This is the last portion of the highway to be finished.

Arthur Dempsie, Astoria chamber president, and Seaside and Astoria chamber officials conferred at Banks last week with Portland and Sunset chamber officials to plan the ceremony.

“This route has been surveyed several times,” he said. “It would provide an important shortcut to bring Astoria much nearer to Portland. We will press vigorously for its inclusion in the state highway system.”