10 years ago this week — 2014

“When they came here, there was an abundance of fish they hadn’t seen in Europe,” said fisheries historian Irene Martin about the Columbia River, which runs more than 4 miles wide in front of Astoria and drew thousands of Scandinavians to the region in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Friday night, Martin, Portland State University professor Katy Barber and Columbia River Bar Pilot Robert Johnson memorialized the Columbia River, which over time has developed into a commercial corridor, irrigation and power supply — sometimes at the expense of others.

The presentations were the first of “Tribute to the Columbia,” the inaugural two-day conference organized by Clatsop Community College to draw people to the college in the summer and teach about all aspects of the Columbia. The conference this year focused on history and restoration.

Martin said nearly half came from Sweden, which was going through famines in the mid-19th century.

Some of the influx centered on the depletion of herring and cod stocks. Sweden sent many of its men out on 15-year merchant marine missions, easing the demand for food and providing income to Sweden.

“A lot of them found a place to jump ship, and that’s what they did,” she said of the immigrants.

By 1920, Scandinavians made up more than 45% of the population of Astoria.

NEHALEM — A fire that climbed from the beach up a steep embankment and damaged four homes in Nehalem could serve as a warning for those who light fires in beach grass or driftwood on Cannon Beach, according to Capt. Matt Gardner, of Cannon Beach Fire and Rescue.

LONG BEACH, Wash. — Wielding garden tools, power sprayers and cat litter buckets, the artists who came to Long Beach Saturday only needed a few hours to transform their humble medium — mounds of damp sand — into imaginative sculptures.

As the final moments of the contest loomed, some sculptors fretfully peeled away wood and plastic forms, while others rushed to scavenge decorative touches from the beach.

The finished creations included everything from a cartoonish sea creature to a giant couch to a tribute to Latvian folk music.

NASELLE, Wash. — Her collection of copper teakettles was not worth giving up her marriage.

A retired school principal from Anchorage, Alaska, and full Finn, Juliana Armstrong has spent the last 20 years collecting antique copper teakettles from Finland.

She identifies authentic Finnish kettles by their small engravings located on the handles and from years of collecting antiques.

Her collection of teakettles lines the tops of 17 tall bookshelves — three or four to a shelf — and after downsizing from a three-story to a one-story home, husband Glenn Armstrong kindly asked that she part way with a few of her teakettles — or 40.

While driving down the Oregon Coast last summer, they noticed a sign for the 2014 Heritage Days, Naselle’s biennial Finnish American Folk Festival. It seemed like the perfect spot for Juliana Armstrong to find new homes for her copper teakettle keepsakes.

50 years ago — 1974

SEASIDE — For those intent on watching people, the main attraction at the Miss Oregon Pageant parade Saturday was not the 18 contestants riding through town in all their glamour.

The main attraction was the several hundred people gathered to watch the parade.

Persons both young and old and of all sizes and shapes came together on the streets of Seaside Saturday to watch the afternoon’s festivities. Those gathered represented a cross section of American life, as everyone from braless women to white-haired octogenarians were present.

A few young people invaded the rooftops of stores in search of that perfect viewpoint, but the majority of those present were content with sitting on or near a sidewalk curb.

Comments like, “When’s the parade going to start?” to “I’m tired, let’s go home” could be overheard among the many present.

SEASIDE — Director Walter Doniger peered through the camera, surveyed the scene and said, “OK gentlemen, let’s try it again from the beginning.”

A man wearing a yellow shirt tells everyone to be quiet.

The sound men position themselves and the 35mm camera starts its silent whir.

Actors Claude Akins and Frank Converse begin to talk beneath the hot lights.

Sound like Hollywood? Maybe so, but the above action took place at the Seaside General Hospital Tuesday afternoon.

The action was one scene from an episode of the television series “Movin’ On.” Two episodes of the show are being filmed in the Seaside and Astoria areas, and a third and fourth are scheduled to be shot in Portland.

CANNON BEACH — Nancy lolled on the beach Friday enjoying the bright sun and seemingly undisturbed by the people who walked around her.

They stared at her prostrate figure and touched her arms and sides and patted her face. Some sat down and leaned against her.

Perhaps their actions seemed rude, but then Nancy was a mermaid and few people here have a chance to get that close to one, let alone see one.

She had come to Cannon Beach to herald the 10th annual Sandcastle Contest this Saturday.

SEASIDE — The movie “American Graffiti” plays every Saturday night in Seaside.

However, you won’t find it playing in the theater. Instead, it’s being acted out live along Broadway.

Nominated for the best picture of 1973, the film, the acclaim of critics and audiences alike by showing a California city’s nightlife along one of its main streets.

That activity consisted mainly of “cruisin,’” or driving, along the city’s streets and the action that accompanied it.

Advertisements for the film played up big the current nostalgia fad and asked, “Where were you in ’62?”

If Seaside on a Saturday night is any indication of local entertainment, one need not go back to ’62 to find out what they were doing. They’re still doing it in ’74.

What they’re still doing is “cruisin.’” That, combined with the honky-tonk activity taking place in the various arcades along Broadway, gives the street an almost carnival-like atmosphere.

75 years ago — 1949

A parachutist who missed the Clatsop Airport and landed unhurt in a tree after his parachute had failed to open properly was the unscheduled feature of the Clatsop Air Day show yesterday that attracted over 2,000 people.

Rain and fog elsewhere in Oregon prevented the arrival of many pilots who had planned to attend, but otherwise, the local program ran smoothly under sunny skies.

More than 2,000 people attended the show, including 50 pilots who flew their own planes, bringing nearly 100 passengers from as far away as Seattle.

A commercial airline provided free courtesy flights for 78 children, taking them up for 20-minute trips over the Columbia River to the coast at Seaside and back. Local and visiting pilots took dozens of adults on sightseeing flights.

Professor L.V. Voss, “The Man of the World,” pushed his bike-wheeled cart into Astoria at 4:15 p.m. Monday afternoon and almost caused a traffic jam.

Not that the professor was plodding down the middle of the street. He’s much too sane for that.

But while Astorians, not entirely unaccustomed to rain, scrooched about in raincoats and ran from one shelter to another in the continual drizzle, the professor placidly strode down the highway clad only in shoes, socks, knee-pants and short-sleeved polo shirt.

NEAH BAY, Wash. — An exhausted skipper, lost for three days after fishing tuna off Astoria, arrived here today 180 miles from his destination with the aid of marked charts dropped to him by a U.S. Coast Guard plane.

W.R. Hasse, of Estacada, brought his 40-foot Missionary of Estacada into this lifeboat station early this morning after being at the wheel for three days.

Co-owner Harold Johnson, an unidentified crew member and the other men aboard, were seasick, the Coast Guard told the United Press.

Hasse told officers he had lost his radio direction finder and his compass was in error.

Hasse told the Coast Guard he left Portland Monday and headed out to sea to fish for tuna, but couldn’t find the mouth of the Columbia.

Tarpaulins were being sought throughout the Northwest today to provide protection for 250,000 to 300,000 bushels of wheat that will have to be dumped on the ground here if storage facilities are not found in the next few weeks.

The Astoria Chamber of Commerce announced Saturday that it had been unsuccessful so far in its efforts to obtain the canvas.

Al Hetzel, chamber secretary, said that neither the U.S. Navy, the Maritime Commission nor the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway had been able to find canvas for the wheat.

Meanwhile, about 50 cars a day were rolling into Astoria loaded with grain. North Pacific Growers have begun shoring up the three half sections of Pier 3 to store some of the million bushels of wheat and barley there.