10 years ago this week — 2014

In the 1920s, Astoria bounced back from a devastating fire with resilience. In that same way, Mayor Willis Van Dusen brought life and color to a waning town when he was elected mayor 70 years later.

This made choosing the theme of his tribute Saturday night easy, honoring that early era with flappers, speakeasies and a swing band.

The rest of the party became the brain child of local chef Chris Holen and Astoria Armory events coordinator and community director Robyn Koustik, who planned for “an event that will be hard to top.” They said they wanted to do justice to a man who has served Astoria dutifully for the last 30 years.

Koustik chose the theme and presented it to the board of the Friends of the Astoria Armory. “(Van Dusen) is so energetic, I really wanted to run with this Gatsby-style party,” she said.

Holen hired Baby and the Pearl Blowers, a swing band from Portland. From there, the pair continued bouncing ideas back-and-forth until all the details of the party were set.

The Valley Catholic and Astoria football teams were running Gyro Field ragged Friday night, trying to get as much football as they could out of the old place before it closes for good later this month.

And the 86-year-old field held up pretty well, considering.

The Valiants and Fishermen combined for 730 yards in total offense, with 40 first downs and 128 plays from scrimmage in the next-to-last game at John Warren Field.

It seems like the score should have been a little higher than what it was, but a win’s a win for the Fishermen, who walked off with a 28-14 victory.

Two Native American groups, each vying for federal recognition, are trying to navigate paths to success without tripping on one another after U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, introduced a bill to extend recognition to Oregon’s Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.

The Chinook Indian Nation based in Bay Center, Washington, argues that its membership includes several times as many Clatsop descendants as the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes, which began to jell as a separate entity near the start of the 21st century.

According to the Chinook, the Clatsop and Nehalem were always culturally and linguistically distinct, and the bill supporting the combination of them could end up hurting the Chinook’s own bid for recognition.

“Well-meaning people of Oregon and Clatsop County are unknowingly working to perpetuate an injustice on the Chinook Indian Nation,” begins a Sept. 5 statement from the Chinook tribes, which — referencing treaties signed in 1851 by Anson Dart, the first superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon Territory — consists of the Clatsop and Kathlamet Tribes of Oregon and the Lower Chinook Wahkiakum and Willapa Tribes of Washington state.

The Nehalem tribe, they say, is more closely associated with the Tillamook tribes south along the Oregon Coast.

On Sept. 15, the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes responded to the Chinook in a written statement, saying the Clatsop has always been a distinct tribe and were never “Chinook.”

50 years ago — 1974

Port of Astoria officials were trying this morning to find out details of a breakdown in negotiations between two Japanese companies and Montana officials which would have sent Montana coal through here on its way to Japan.

The breakdown in negotiations was reported Sunday by The New York Times news service, which attributed the breakdown to Japanese sensitivity about a growing controversy over the strip mining of Montana grazing lands.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Straub told Clatsop Community College students Friday that his support of the steelhead initiative doesn’t mean he wants commercial fishing on the Columbia River to end.

“I’m committed that we must strengthen the commercial fishing industry in our state,” Straub said. “We need to add hatcheries on coastal river tributaries that maintain a thriving commercial fishing industry and help it grow.”

Straub insisted banning the commercial sale of steelhead and requiring a larger gillnet mesh size to allow greater escapement of steelhead won’t hurt the lower Columbia commercial fishing industry.

ARCH CAPE — Sewer construction, the bothersome side of community growth and development, temporarily has cut off the water supply to residents of the south end of this community.

The huge, heavy pieces of machinery used in the sewer construction have broken water pipes and cut off the water supply of several residents.

As a result, the trench-digging pieces of machinery were ordered halted by Clatsop County commissioners Monday until the water supply is restored.

“People say things are in terrible shape in this country but I don’t believe it. It’s never hit me so hard I couldn’t make it.” Addie, who lives by herself in a tiny house in Warrenton, is, like most people concerned but “I can’t believe it’ll be too hard, after all, we can still get food.”

Though inflation and high prices seem to be a minor irritation to Addie, she is troubled by Watergate. She says if former President Richard Nixon deserves it, he should be punished.

“But I’m not his judge. I just hate to acknowledge that one of our presidents could be accused of such things, it’s a blot on his name and America’s.”

Astoria Plywood, along with other wood firms in Oregon, has failed to meet Department of Environmental Quality deadlines for complying with pollution control standards.

But an Astoria Plywood spokesman said Monday the firm hasn’t met the guidelines because it isn’t sure which pollution abatement system it will install. However, he said the company fully intends to comply with the standards.

SEASIDE — “I’m sort of a Walter Mitty,” Patty Rose said, flashing an infectious smile.

“Every time I climb a hill I think there are hundreds of people waiting on top cheering for me.”

Minutes earlier she had come pedaling down Broadway toward the Turnaround in bright sun – a red-garbed figure hunched atop a white 10-speed bicycle.

Twelve days before, she had left San Francisco for a 1,000-mile bicycle tour north on U.S. Highway 101.

No ordinary cyclist is this 23-year-old woman. No ordinary woman is Patty “Death Valley” Rose.

She earned the nickname last August when she became the first woman to cross Death Valley on a bicycle during the hottest time of the year when road temperature hit 150 degrees.

75 years ago — 1949

Fossils which may be animal bones thousands of years old were discovered by a Fernhill resident excavating a cellar on Sept. 25 and were shipped to the University of Oregon for identification.

Louis Angstrom made the find, Walter Johnson, president of the Clatsop County Historical Society, said Tuesday. Angstrom was digging a basement for his new home in Fernhill when he struck an “odd formation” 10 feet below the surface.

Within surrounding clay, and under a point where he had previously leveled a small knoll, Angstrom found several dark, hard sections of material about 12 inches wide and long, and roughly cylindrical in shape.

Inside one of these sections were several clusters of tusk-like objects three to a group, which Johnson said were an inch in diameter at the largest point.

The historical society official, summoned by Angstrom, helped with further excavation and located more “blocks.” A section of one of these, together with some of the bones, was sent to the anthropology department at Eugene.

Astorians got the finest view of the eclipse of the moon last night of any region in the nation.

While rain clouds were obscuring the full moon over half of the country, a clear sky gave moongazers here the second half of 1949’s double-header lunar show in the eastern sky.

Observers point out that two full eclipses in one year are not unusual. There were two both in 1945 and 1946.

The city’s new $27,000 bridge on Franklin Avenue across 28th Street will be open to light traffic after 5 o‘clock this evening, City Engineer G.T. McClean announced today.

The old bridge was torn down six weeks ago and the new one was built in the interim by Palmberg Construction Co.

The bridge is of creosoted timber and has a concrete deck.

Mack Cope, a 16-year-old Astoria High School student, used his great-grandfather’s buffalo rifle to get his deer Monday afternoon.

The youth got a 130-pound buck with a 45-90 rifle made in 1886.

The rifle was originally used by his great-grandfather when he rode with Buffalo Bill Cody in the days of the building of Western railroads. The rifle was used to kill buffalo to provide meat for railroad crews.

Clatsop County has a museum of a sort.

The exhibits are widely varied, there are many of them and they represent substantial value from a monetary viewpoint and even more by historical standards.

The “museum building,” however, is makeshift in its use for this purpose. Although dry and convenient for the public, the upstairs corridor of the former courthouse is far from adequate, in the opinion of Walter Johnson, president of the Clatsop County Historical Society.

“We’re happy to have these facilities, of course,” Johnson said Wednesday. “For the first time, residents here can see and enjoy nine showcases full of exhibits which are priceless now and will grow more valuable to future generations.

“But a collection of this quality deserves more room and a showplace of its own. Counties far less rich in historical lore than Clatsop have long since set up real museums which attract thousands of visitors yearly.”