Water under the bridge

Published 11:30 am Monday, February 2, 2026

Compiled by Bob Duke

From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers

10 years ago — 2016

LONG BEACH, Wash. – U.S. Coast Guardsmen traveled en masse to theaters over the weekend to see “The Finest Hours,” the Disney thriller about one of the service’s most famous rescues at sea.

What some senior surfmen from Station Cape Disappointment saw was an homage to one of the greatest operations in Coast Guard history, a bit of drama and a reminder of how far their lifesaving technology has come.

The movie recounted the rescue of 32 of 33 mariners trapped aboard the stern section of the SS Pendleton, an oil tanker split in two by rough seas and run aground on a shoal. The rescue crew, coxswain Bernard Webber and three other Coast Guardsmen from Chatham, Massachusetts, was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal, on of the highest honors in the Coast Guard.

Models strutted down the runway during the second annual La fete fashion show fundraiser Saturday night at the Masonic Temple.

Challenged to only use items found at the Deja Vu Thrift Shop, local designers created a variety of outfits using everything from fur to wedding dresses. Emily Johnson won the Judges’ Choice with a set of dresses made from sewing patterns while Mary de le Salandra won the People’s Choice competition.

The event raised nearly $4,000 to benefit The Harbor, which assists survivors of stalking, domestic and sexual violence.

Lose the fancy streetscape. Forget the expensive underground parking.

The Astoria City Council, if it moves ahead with a new library and housing project at Heritage Square, wants the price tag reduced.

A pared-down project would still run about $20 million to $25 million, according to Kevin Cronin, the city’s community development director. But that could be more palatable than the initial estimates of $29.7 million to $38.7 million.

“As we go through this process, we’re going to have to look at trade-offs,: Cronin told the City Council Monday night.

Astoria, known as the oldest settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, is rife with historic buildings dating from the 19th and early 20th century.

Just as the city draws tourists, Clatsop Community College’s unique historic preservation and restoration program draws students from around the U.S. wanting to learn how to restore those old buildings.

Over the weekend, students restored nine sash windows on the attic and turret of the 131-year-old Capt. George Flavel House Museum, a Queen Anne mansion completed in 1885 for river pilot Flavel and his family. Teaching the workshop was Chris Gustafson, a professional window restorer.

50 years ago — 1976

A Portland architect said Friday the development potential of the Astoria waterfront compares favorably with that of Seattle. The opportunities here, he said, “Make my heart churn.”

Among the opportunities listed by Donald Stastny of Architects Atelier Northwest which helped design Seattle’s waterfront park were:

– Public viewing of ship loading at the Port of Astoria docks;

– Establishment of public fishing piers;

– Creation of publicly owned dead-end streets to stimulate increased commerce; and

– reuse of existing waterfront buildings.

Lower Columbia River gillnet fishermen will have five days to pursue their winter catches of chinook salmon this year, Oregon and Washington fisheries agencies decided on Friday.

The season, which opens Feb. 29, is not as long as the 1975 winter season and will be the shortest on record because of the agencies’ concern for the chinook run in the Willamette Rivers, which made a poor showing last year.

Even the short season didn’t come quickly, as the two states stalemated on nine separate proposals before agreeing to the five-day season.

Gillnetters would have stayed home all winter if the majority of the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission had its way, but Washington Dept. of Fisheries Director Donald Moos successfully pressed for a compromise.

Phil, the famous groundhog from Punxsutawney, Pa., may have seen his shadow Monday, but Woodrow, a cardboard counterpart from Astoria, certainly didn’t.

Woodrow, the creation of Astoria artist Joe Coulombe, came out of a hole at 714 Harrison where Coulombe has his home about 7:05 Monday morning.

Woodrow stayed out all day, but saw nary a trace of his shadow – or any other shadow for that matter.

A substantial inbound cargo will begin moving through the Port of Astoria’s Pier 1 within about a week, it was announced Monday.

About 11,500 metric tons of bulk ammonium sulfate fertilizer will be offloaded here from the Japanese ship Star Asahi when it arrives about Feb. 10.

The fertilizer is imported from Holland by Pacific Supply Cooperative, for use primarily by farmers in western and central Oregon, according to Hollis Goodrich, a spokesman for Pacific Supply Cooperative.

Coast Guard enforcement of a 200-mile offshore U.S. fisheries zone would involve ships, helicopters and airplanes and eventually might use satellites, the Coast Guard commandant says.

Aircraft of medium and long range would patrol known fishing areas and alert Coast Guard cutters to the locations of fishing vessels. Helicopters from the cutters then would check for fishing, and the cutters would then move in, with boarding where necessary for search and seizure.

In addition, airplanes would provide periodic coverage of the entire 200-mile range within U.S. jurisdiction to detect fishing vessels entering the area and to watch for changes in patterns of fishing activity.

75 years ago — 1951

Six or seven Clatsop County people have expressed interest in manufacturing alder plugs for the ends of paper rolls, according to Clarence Richen, Portland, chief forester for Crown-Zellerbach corporation.

Richen was here Friday, bringing three boxfulls of sample of several dozen kinds of alder plugs used by the company, to display them to possible manufacturers here.

He said inquiries were received by the company as result of a recent Astorian-Budget news story telling that Crown-Zellerbach was looking for a new source of supply for alder plugs.

The corporation uses several million alder plugs annually, Richen said. He displayed one type of which four and half million are used a year, and various other kinds in which the use runs well into the thousands each year.

John Harvey Bugg, better known as Cowboy Jim Williams, was back at his old stomping Gearhart grounds Thursday, after an enforced two-year absence.

Bugg is the riding academy cowpuncher who was pals with the Gearhart kids a couple of years ago until a sharp-eyed pair recognized his description over a radio crime detective program.

That marked the end of freedom for Bugg, who was wanted in Jasper County, Missouri, for kidnapping a sheriff and for armed robbery. Seems sheriffs in Missouri and elsewhere, don’t take kindly to being kidnapped.

On July 26, 1948, Williams, or Bugg, waived extradition and was turned over to Sheriff Hickman of Jasper County. Presumably the likable cowboy spent the time since then in jail.

Bugg found plenty of friends in Gerheart. Parents of children who had ridden at the academy and found Cowboy Jim and an approximation of the colorful cowpuncher of the wild west that kids in Oregon hear about but never see, rose in his defense.

Lower Columbia youths who aspire to drive in the annual Akron, O., soapbox derby can get started building their racing cars by picking up the official rules books that arrived in Astoria today.

The books are necessary guides to the construction of the racer. They may be had at the Astorian-Budget office or at Lovell Auto sales rooms.

The winner of the Astoria derby, which is being sponsored by the Optimist club, supported by Lovell’s and the Astorian-Budget, will get a free trip to Akron next summer, plus scores of gifts upon his arrival there.

If he wins the big derby he will receive a $5,000 four-year college scholarship. All entries at Akron will get prizes.

The weather was back to “normal” in Astoria again today after a strong south wind brought rain that washed away the cold weather and icy conditions prevalent on city streets Thursday.

A Sause Brothers log barge broke loose from its tow in the Columbia River during the night and drifted ashore near McGowan but the tug reclaimed it this morning and headed upstream toward Portland, the Coast Guard reported.

Clatsop County’s civilian defense program appears ahead of most counties in Oregon, but state officials warned that sabotage and bacteriological warfare were more threats here than atomic bombing.

John Poorman, state coordinator of civil defense programs, informed a gathering here last night of about 100 civil defense members from every area in the county that Clatsop County was well organized.

Local fishing operations were virtually halted today as high winds and choppy water kept the boats at home.

Columbia River gillnetters, who have been stopped by icy weather this week, are now held up by heavy winds.