10 years ago this week — 2014

WARRENTON — When the National Parks volunteer asked the visitors of the weekendlong Wintering Over event at Fort Clatsop to imagine that they were in the year 1805 it had to be difficult, what with modern winter clothes on their bodies and electronic gadgets in their hands.

But stepping inside the replica of the fort where the Corps of Discovery spent the winter 209 years ago, it became a little more real.

The smell of wood smoke was strong, and the site visitors encountered a number of character interpreters portraying historical figures from the Corps.

“The guy I came out with from Colorado in 2001, he impressed upon me that we are interpreters, not reenactors,” said Jim Phillips, a longtime member of the Pacific Northwest Living Historians, who have taken on personas of historical figures from the Lewis and Clark Expedition for the last 12 years.

“An interpreter takes on the persona of an individual. You get into the character, the individual. You adopt them, get to know them and actually be that person. It’s our intention to honor the folks who actually did this,” he said.

They’re only one game into the league season, but it’s no secret that the team to beat in Cowapa League girls basketball wears red, white and Columbia blue.

The Astoria Fishermen were the first team to get a shot at the No. 3-ranked Seaside Gulls on the opening night of league play.

And while the Lady Fish had their moments in the second half, they still came up short on the scoreboard, 66-32, as the Gulls won the Clatsop Clash at the Brick House.

ARCH CAPE — Fire crews from around the North Coast contained two separate fires — one in Arch Cape and another in north Tillamook County.

Some 125 acres burned Thursday and overnight in the two separate locations. As many as 120 firefighters from the Oregon Department of Forestry and local fire departments tackled the two fires.

The larger of the two fires covered about 100 acres near Falcon Cove in Tillamook County.

A girl nearly drowned at the Astoria Aquatic Center Monday night during a team practice.

City Parks Director Angela Cosby confirmed there was a near-drowning incident at the pool, and City Manager Paul Benoit said he believed the girl was a member of the North Coast Swim Club.

“In the last month and a half we have had two incidents where a swim team member has gone to the bottom of the pool,” Benoit said. “And our lifeguard just jumped in instantly and got (the swimmer) out. Our lifeguard took care of business, and again last night.

Sixteen cruise ships, carrying nearly 30,000 total estimated passengers, are scheduled to stop at the Port of Astoria in 2014.

“It’s serious money to our community,” said Bruce Conner, who uses the Cruise Lines International Association estimate of $125 spent per couple. Four out of five passengers usually leave the vessel, he added in a report to the Port of Astoria Commission Tuesday.

Astoria is a popular stopover for the cruise industry between Canada, Alaska and California.

50 years ago — 1974

Four Astoria women — Gertrude Johanson, Pat Bugas, Peggy Enlund and Anne Washer — received coveted George awards for community service Saturday at the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce annual banquet.

Johansen, a hairdresser, was honored for her volunteer work with the elderly, giving them shampoos and beauty treatments while they are convalescing. Enlund received a George Award for her work organizing a volunteer group to assist persons receiving public assistance.

Bugas was cited for her leadership, persistence and drive that led to the creation of a long-term rehabilitation center for troubled adolescents in Astoria. Washer was congratulated for her tireless efforts cheering up elderly persons in Crestview Care Center by holding frequent birthday extravaganzas.

The Astoria City Council decided Monday to apply for federal assistance in operating a city-financed bus system, which is scheduled to begin July 1.

Whether the city actually uses the federal money depends upon how many strings are attached to any grant.

The council may decide to reject the grant if federal control over the bus system is too strong.

In one part of the Seaside High School gym, a high school boy hurls a giant of a craft toward the rafters.

The sharply pointed plane knives through the air with ease, its purple construction paper body slapping the floor finally 50 meters away and skidding to a stop.

In another part of the gym, a grade school girl sends a green sheet of folded notepaper fluttering a few feet aloft as her toddler brother chews contentedly on another paper plane behind her.

It was Saturday and the first annual Seaside school system paper airplane contest was on.

There were contests for originality, distance, stunts, time aloft and gliding ability.

Stars and stripes. Lewis and Clark. Americanism. Josephine Love. The words tumble out, associates and synonyms. They fit together as easily as one of the 15-star, red, white and blue flags flying over Fort Clatsop.

One of Love’s 15-star flags, that is.

Anyone who knows anything about Lewis and Clarkism, Astorianism or just plain Americanism knows that Love, Oregon’s Americanism chairwoman, makes flags. Or used to, before the strain of the close-up work forced her to quit.

She estimates she has made more than 50 flags. “It’s my hobby,” she said matter-of-factly.

SEASIDE — Jim Paden, owner of a Chevron station in Seaside closed since Dec. 12, said Thursday it feels good to have a gas pump in hand and gas in his storage tanks.

His January allocation, 85% of what he received last January, arrived Tuesday, just 22 days into the month.

Paden said he thinks it will be enough to get him through the end of the month. However, if other stations run out of gas, there may be a crowd at his place, he added.

Seaside gas station owners interviewed Thursday said they are running low on gas, but are trying to ration it out.

75 years ago — 1949

The weather bureau said today it could not predict a definite break in the recond-tying 25-day Oregon cold wave.

The only prospect was for slightly warmer weather tomorrow west of the Cascades, the bureau said.

The weather bureau said the long cold spell had tied the state record for the prolonged winter chill of 1893.

Residents of Astoria and the rest of Oregon and northern California were treated to a display of the northern lights or aurora borealis Monday evening, a display which old-times here declared was the most brilliant aurora ever seen in these parts.

The northern and northeastern skies glowed for several hours with a pale bluish-green light, with beams that occasionally reached upward toward the zenith in parallel rows.

Ice in the Columbia River has halted the Westport-Puget Island ferry and blocked the launch of Imperial at Cathlamet.

The ferry did not run Wednesday or Thursday, but Elmer Danielson, operator, said he expected to make a try at the run Friday.

The ferry could not make it into the ice-choked Puget Island slip Tuesday afternoon, so it tied up at Peterson’s dock and unloaded its passengers over a plank. Three cars were left aboard.

A winter landscape was spread out over Astoria hillsides today, but the beauty of the scenery was marred by people counting bruises suffered in falls and car owners counting property damage resulting from automobile accidents.

Wednesday’s 3-inch fall of snow made for ideal sledding conditions that brought out-of-town youths, who went “belly-busting” down hills until late at night.

The police marked off the 16th Street hill with flares and issued radio warnings, asking motorists to drive carefully with an eye out for sleds.

A Japanese trading firm has shocked officials of a local fish packing company by proposing that it go in with the Japanese organization in a joint operation for using Japanese fishermen and fishing vessels to exploit the Bering Sea and Bristol Bay fisheries.

“We desire to cooperate with you in the fish and packing industries off the Alaskan coast, especially in Bristol Bay,” the Japanese firm wrote, “where the resources of salmon and crabs are reported to be very rich and their fishing and packing industries can reasonably be expected to thrive by U.S. and Japanese co-investments, since we have every reason to believe that the Japanese fishermen can turn out equal or better quality of canned goods at lower costs.”

ASTORIA — Flying lessons, under the direction of Jolin Paquet, will be given to the aeronautics and machine shop classes this semester.

Several students have already signed up for the course. They will pay $36 to solo. This includes gas, oil and rent for the airplane, which will be obtained from the airport or a private owner.

The aeronautics classes are also working on a flying wing from a pattern in Flying magazine. The wingspread of the wing will reach nearly 6 feet.