13 years ago this week — 2011

It was likely shouted then, it will likely be shouted now.

But this time, it’s not the party working to establish the fur trade and stake claim on the North Coast. Instead, it’s the party for a family, coming from England and New York to celebrate Astoria’s bicentennial and see the place named for their multiple-great’s ancestor.

“We couldn’t have a 200-year celebration without having Astor as part of the party,” said Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen. “Their visit will be the crown on the entire event.”

Lord and Lady Astor, the eighth John Jacob Astor, the 3rd Baron Astor of Hever, and his wife, Elizabeth, are coming from their home in England to the Bicentennial Regatta weekend, arriving Wednesday for a four-day stay.

Accompanying them are their son Charles, 21, and daughter Olivia, 19, to view Astoria for the first time.

Lord Astor has been to Astoria, first in 1961. He was 14 years old, arriving for the sesquicentennial — the 150-year anniversary of the town. According to news clippings at the Clatsop County Historical Society, Astor lost his camera during that celebration. It is not known whether that camera was ever recovered, but there are several photos of the young Astor with the camera in hand during his visit.

As a newlywed, he returned in 1971 with his first wife, Fiona.

For many of its citizens, Astoria comes comfortingly close to realizing that “shining city on a hill,” the paradisaical promised land residing in the collective American consciousness.

For others, the city is remarkable as a rendezvous for ethnicities, explorers and empires.

And for historians, it is perhaps best conceived as a town whose narrative, epic and episodic, will continue to unfold indefinitely because endurance is built into its character.

“Walk down any street in Astoria and you’re going to learn something. There’s a great story on every corner,” said McAndrew Burns, executive director of the Clatsop County Historical Society. “If you listen for it, this place will speak to you.”

Liisa Penner, archivist for the historical society, says excitement attended Astoria’s origins.

“I don’t understand why a great Hollywood movie hasn’t been made of these adventures,” she laughed.

Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains. The Astoria Regatta, which began in 1894 to celebrate the end of the fishing season, is the oldest American festival on this corner of the continent. This year’s event begins next week and has a bicentennial theme.

“When I ask people to name the iconic towns of American history, they think Jamestown, Gettysburg, Los Alamos, Little Rock and so on,” Burns said. “People are often surprised when I mention Astoria.”

In the mid-1800s, however, almost everyone in the nation knew of Astoria.

This was, in part, thanks to a popular 1836 book, “Astoria,” penned by international bestselling author Washington Irving at the request of fur tycoon John Jacob Astor.

50 years ago — 1974

“Movin’ On,” the television series partly filmed in the North Coast area, moved on to Portland Wednesday.

The show stars actors Claude Akins and Frank Converse, who play the roles of two gypsy truck drivers. The show focuses on their adventures as they travel throughout the West.

While in the North Coast area, the cast and crew filmed in the Seaside General Hospital, in the arcades along Broadway and at various other locations. On Wednesday, they finished the final North Coast filming by shooting scenes in and around the Bank of Astoria.

There, a couple, played by guest stars Marlyn Hassett and James Keach, forced Akins and Converse to cash a $1,000 check for them. The couple’s plans go slightly awry, however, and they end up shooting a gun as they flee from the bank.

The slogan “crime doesn’t pay” holds true in this episode as the couple is apprehended by the Astoria police shortly after they steal the money and a car. The car, a battered 1963 Chevy, was driven by extra Becky Mills, Miss Clatsop County for 1974.

For only the second time in the history of Astoria, a mother has given birth to triplets. The last time it happened was in 1946, according to Columbia Memorial Hospital officials.

Mrs. Gary Lind, of Manzanita, gave birth to the three boys this morning at 8:35 a.m., 8:36 a.m. and 8:37 a.m. at Columbia Memorial Hospital.

The birth of triplets this morning in Astoria was being touted as a good omen as Columbia Memorial Hospital trustees voted Thursday to build their new hospital at the old naval hospital site in Walluski.

Like clay on a potter’s wheel, so sits the Clatsop Plains open space plan, being shaped and molded by the hands of planners, consultants and county officials.

The open space plan is just one-fourth of the broader environmental plan for Clatsop Plains. The other areas of the environmental plan deal with landscape units, critical hazard areas and priority resource areas.

County planning officials, consultants from Oregon State University and two county commissioners met Thursday to begin molding the rough draft of the open space plan into a workable document — one that will fit into the university’s planning model of the Clatsop Plains comprehensive land use plan.

At first referred to as A, B and C, Alleen Lind, of Wheeler, now has an easier time distinguishing her three new sons Garth Alain, Jared Austin and Aaron Adrian.

Contrary to earlier reports, it was the fourth, not the second time, in Astoria’s recorded medical history that triplets were born here.

There were the Medley triplets born in 1924, the Koski triplets born in 1946 and the Camberg triplets born in 1955. Alleen and Gary Lind’s sons were born last Friday.

75 years ago — 1949

A special meeting of the Port of Astoria Commission was called for tonight at 7:30 p.m. by Chairman George Gray, Seaside, in an effort to iron out a dispute over how much space is to be leased for the storage of grain here.

Gray announced the special meeting after conferring with several port commissioners upon his arrival in Astoria yesterday after a three-week vacation in the east.

When questioned by reporters, he declined to express any views on the current port-grain dispute until he had met with the commission.

He did say, however, that he had offered the North Pacific Grain Growers half of the available space on Pier 3 before leaving for the east.

The traditional controversy between septic-tank owners and prospective builders of new homes has been aired at two successive meetings of the Astoria City Council, and is due for further discussion at the Aug. 15 session.

A proposal for a sewer line at Hermosa, West Harrison and West Madison was warmly disputed July 18.

Signed by 29 property owners in the proposed assessment district, a petition presented to the council strongly opposed the measure. Another 31 owners and residents favored installation of the line.

Each side was represented by several people in the audience.

The Columbia River Salmon and Tuna Packers Association defended the fishing industry today in a prepared statement and stated that the grain program here was being “subsidized” by the Port of Astoria.

The packers association cited that the fishing industry is annually spending $13.6 million in wages and expenditures for fish in Clatsop County.

The statement, signed by James H. Cellars, secretary of the association, asked that the Astorian-Budget review its side of the controversial port-grain program.

The text of the statement said that the present grain storage program calls for rates far below those of other grain ports on the coast.

Also, it was stated that the Port “has never subsidized the fishing industry,” and that “the revenue from the fishing industry has been eagerly sought by the Port during the years when it had no other business.”

Dense smoke poured out of the Astoria bowling alley on 10th Street shortly before noon today when dust from cleanup operations in the establishment suddenly caught fire.

Astoria city firemen answered the call and were forced to don smoke masks before entering the smoke-filled building.

Firemen said the blaze apparently started when the dust caught fire suddenly. It was not known immediately today the extent of damage to the alleys.

The damage was limited largely to heat and smoke as the blazing refuse from the cleanup operations was swept hurriedly outside to the sidewalk.

Electrical power was off for 45 minutes all over Astoria and in some rural areas Wednesday after a small electrical explosion and fire in the Astoria substation, according to J. Dan Webster, Pacific Power and Light Co. district manager.

The outage affected 4,445 customers, Webster said.