10 years ago this week — 2014

The educational exchange between Astoria and Japan, foisted on the Asian nation 166 years ago by a native Astorian bent on leaving his whaling vessel and joining its relatively closed society, restarted earlier this week.

Honoring the spirit of Ranald MacDonald, an Astoria native and Japan’s first English teacher, the MacDonald’s Encouragement Study Fund sent two students and their English teacher from Rishiri Island to Oregon this past week.

The group has been sightseeing around Portland and shadowing their host students at Astoria High School.

ILWACO, Wash. — Even as its celebrated creator recently received the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for art, a key Pacific Northwest example of her work dedicated less than a decade ago is already being eaten away by time, neglect and intense coastal weather.

Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., went to work in Cape Disappointment State Park after being selected in 2001 to lead a major interpretive project along the Columbia River.

She built the westernmost installation of the Confluence Project to help mark the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial and the Chinook tribes’ deep connections with the land.

Washington state’s then-Gov. Gary Locke attended the April 2006 dedication of the expansive outdoor art project above Waikiki Beach, one element of which is a 12-ton block of carved and polished basalt that serves as a fish-cleaning station.

This month, Lin won the $300,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”

The results are all in and the times recorded for the 33rd annual Great Columbia Crossing, held last week on the Astoria Bridge, spanning the Columbia River.

There were 1,230 runners who finished in the 10K portion of this year’s event.

The overall winner was Scott Pinske, who finished in 33 minutes, 10 seconds, while Jordan Rehfeld was the winning female in 38:01.

The constituents of the Port of Astoria on Thursday crowded its second-floor meeting room in the new Pier 1 offices, from mayors, city councilors, current and former Port commissioners and state legislators to businesspeople, neighbors and staff.

In the middle of the room stood Jim Knight, the Port’s new executive director, two weeks off from his job in Olympia, Washington, and fresh in Astoria to hunt for a home.

50 years ago — 1974

Opposition to the proposed AMAX aluminum plant in Warrenton attended the seven-hour public informational hearing on the smelter Friday and Saturday in Astoria by the state Environmental Quality Commission.

Some 46 persons testified and all but a few opposed the AMAX plant. Another 100 persons were signed up to speak but the hearing was adjourned Saturday noon before they had a chance to speak.

The common theme in testimony by opponents was that inadequate study had been given to the potential impact of smelter emissions on the lower Columbia River estuary and, consequently, Clatsop County’s fishing industry.

Proponents stressed the economic benefits of the plant and said they would outweigh any environmental harm.

More than 700 persons attended the hearing Friday night, making it one of the largest hearings ever held in Oregon. Another 100 to 200 persons showed up when the hearing continued Saturday morning.

CANNON BEACH — A little federal money could go a long way to solve a passel of planning problems that have swamped the Cannon Beach Planning Commission in the past year.

If the city’s application for a $15,000 federal 701 planning grant is approved, commission member Bruce Haskell said Friday night, a number of longstanding concerns can be taken care of together.

— A review of the city zoning ordinance.

— Completion of a comprehensive land use plan for Tolovana Park and its inclusion in the city’s plan.

— Zone changes requested for a large section of Tolovana Park.

— A review of the city’s density requirements (the number of homes allowed per acre or lot) for various zones in the city.

— An update of the city’s sign regulations.

— Review of the city’s Design Review Board.

Tremendous Tenasillahe Island, a 1,700-acre piece of real estate dominating the midsection of the Columbia River across from the old cannery town of Clifton, is in the process of becoming part of the Columbian White-Tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge, encompassing three smaller islands on the Washington state side of the ship channel and about 1,000 acres of Wahkiakum County mainland adjacent to them, contains one of the only two remaining herds of rare Columbian white-tailed deer.

About 200 of the rare species inhabit Tenasillahe or other portions of the refuge, experts with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service estimate.

Only a handful of the deer, a species once prevalent from Astoria to Woodland, Washington, on both sides of the waterway, exists outside the refuge area.

The great white barn which stands over the landing on the Oregon side of Tenasillahe and the dozen or so houses which once made up ranch hand housing for a cattle operation on the island will probably be bulldozed when the government takes over.

The old gillnetters’ practice of drawing lots for the best fishing spots in various areas of the Columbia still goes on near the abandoned Clifton cannery.

Each evening during the season, gillnet boats gather at the one place they always have and draw numbers. The boat skipper drawing the lowest number leaves for his favorite spot while the losers wait patiently for their turn.

Some nights now, only two boats tie up to draw lots where once there were 10.

75 years ago — 1949

The wooden 1,343-ton Panamanian lumber schooner Salina Cruz was burning “furiously” today but the 17 persons aboard abandoned ship in two whale boats 180 miles west of Grays Harbor, Washington, the U.S. Coast Guard reported.

A message from a Coast Guard PBY search plane sent to the scene from Port Angeles, Washington, said, “Ship burning furiously. All 17 men in two whale boats. Trying to make contact with all ships in the area.”

The Salina Cruz flashed a distress message at 7:05 a.m. today reporting a fire in the engine room. At that time, the crew expected to abandon ship shortly.

The Coast Guard cutter Balsam off the mouth of the Columbia and the weather ship Bering Strait 150 miles northwest were racing to the scene. The Balsom was expected to arrive at the scene at 10 p.m. and the Bering Strait at 11 p.m.

The PBY radioed it had dropped signaling and ration kits and an emergency life raft, “all of which have been picked up by the two whale boats.”

Astoria and Tillamook high school student councils were scheduled to meet together in Astoria High on Wednesday morning to attempt to iron out a rift in athletic relations of several years standing.

The rift is so serious, according to authorities of both schools, that the state high school activities association will suspend both from athletic competition for a year if either one makes another complaint against the other.

The trouble started in 1945 when the two schools quit playing football against each other following incidents at the game in Tillamook.

It grew worse in the 1947-1948 basketball season when Tillamook officials alleged that someone had tampered with the wheels of a bus carrying the Tillamook basketball team home from a game in Astoria.

It reached its climax during the basketball season last winter when trouble occurred on Astoria’s downtown streets following a game in Astoria.

The Astoria student body had to pay $200 for damage done to Tillamook students’ cars, and the state association issued its warning that further complaints would bring suspension of both schools from all athletic competitions for a year.

Appraisal of Fort Stevens property to determine the fair value at which it can be sold will be started Wednesday by the war assets division of the General Services Administration, according to E.B. Herron, Seattle, regional chief of the division.

Herron was here Monday conferring with Mayor Merton Olney and other officials of the town of Hammond, which is eager to acquire parts of the fort.

In addition to the town of Hammond, Joseph Hill, of Portland’s Hill Military Academy, is still much interested in getting the buildings and some acreage for school purposes, Herron said.

The state game commission wants about 1,400 acres for a wildlife refuge, Herron said, and will probably get the part it wants.

A proud little U.S. Fish and Wildlife service vessel was steaming toward San Francisco today with 17 rescued sailors of the lumber schooner Salina Cruz tucked safely aboard.

The vessel Black Douglas teamed up with the U.S. Coast Guard here to cut itself a slice of glory in an after-dark rescue last night 150 miles off the Columbia River lightship.

The wreckage of the schooner was declared a menace to navigation today and the cutter McLane was sent to tow it to port for possible salvage.