10 years ago this week — 2013

According to his coach, Warrenton’s Rogue Bergerson wrestled “the best tournament of his life” over the weekend, as the sophomore wrestled his way to a second-place finish Saturday in the finals of the Class 3A state wrestling tournament at Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

In the girls’ state tournament, Knappa’s Iris Rankin placed second in her division. She wrestled in the OSAA girls’ state tournament, also held at the Memorial Coliseum.

Wet Dog Cafe was full to the brim with diners Friday night; there was a waiting list to snag a table. Waiters weaved in between patrons, carrying trays laden with burgers and beverages. But Tele Aadsen’s soft voice ran clear as a bell above the low buzz of laughter and clink of dishes.

It was the 16th annual FisherPoets Gathering, a weekend that saw about 70 commercial fishermen and women assemble from the across the country in Astoria to read poetry, tell stories and sing songs about their occupations.

“You see things that a lot of people don’t get to see,” Jon Broderick, co-founder of the FisherPoets Gathering, said of working as a fisherman. “It’s not just the fish. It’s the work we do and the people we know.”

FisherPoets read from their repertoire at Clemente’s Restaurant Friday in support of efforts to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay.

The bay’s pristine headwaters could become a district for open-pit mining of copper deposits, and potential impacts on the environment and fisheries have fishermen and other keenly concerned.

Many North Coast commercial fishermen travel to Bristol Bay to fish the large salmon runs that make it a premiere spot.

WARRENTON — In the morning, they look peaceful, overlooking Youngs Bay from the water’s edge in the sunrise. In the evening, they’re majestic, as they graze in the setting sun.

But the horses — seven of them — that have taken up residency next to U.S. Highway 101 in Warrenton have not been entirely welcomed, and are making a mess of the public trial, Warrenton City Manager Kurt Fritsch told the city commission Tuesday night.

City Attorney Hal Snow spoke with the owner about removing the horses, Fritsch reported, and the owner agreed.

50 years ago — 1973

CANNON BEACH — Montana stackers, fog bowl, Mickey Mouses, Plutos, pilgrim hats, tea pots, beehives…

Those are some of the nicknames used in the relatively new hobby of collecting glass and porcelain insulators.

Insulators? That’s right, those strange looking objects high up on power and telephone pole cross arms that support the wires.

Hundreds of people throughout the United States collect, trade, buy and sell them. Events like the National Eastern Insulator Meet feature them and a few books have been written explaining, cataloging and pricing them.

Why? It’s a fun and easy hobby, as well as being financially rewarding. Some of the older and rarer insulators bring premium prices ranging from $50 up to $1,000 for the rarest of all — a clear glass insulator called a Pluto, because it’s hound-dog shaped.

Cannon Beach motel owner Walter Texmo has collected over 2,000 of the many colored and variously shaped insulators. He considers his collection one of the largest on the West Coast.

All three Astoria pharmacies are open for business this week, but are operating with non-union, supervisory help after members of the Retail Clerks Union were ordered to stay home.

The state Corrections Division is looking at a new site for a proposed prison camp in Clatsop County, but hasn’t abandoned completely the Beneke Creek Guard Station site near Jewell.

“We are looking over the Sterling Ranch area out (on U.S.) Highway 26 about 15 miles from Jewell,” disclosed Garland Godby, a state Corrections Division official. “We are trying to get cost estimates now and will look over the property today.”

The Port of Astoria will welcome Thursday the largest ship ever to dock here and Port officials hope it will launch a new era in shipping possibilities.

The 820-foot long, 100-foot wide and 35-foot draft U.S. Cuffe will discharge empty lighters or small barges, starting a cycle of shipping under the Lighters Aboard Ship concept.

The method allows a large, oceangoing vessel to cut turnaround costs by stopping at the first port of call, discharging lighters that can be towed to their destination and loading lighters to transport elsewhere.

“This concept is just right for ports like Astoria at the mouth of a river where it is expensive for large vessels to steam upriver,” enthused Port Manager George Grove. “It is the trend in shipping for the next 20 years.”

In addition to economies for the shipper, Grove said employing the cargo movement concept in the lower Columbia eventually could reduce the need for maintaining a 40-foot shipping channel up to Portland.

A decision by a Clatsop County Circuit Court judge has given developers the go ahead to continue construction of a controversial 175-unit condominium at Breakers Point in Cannon Beach.

The ruling was another setback in Attorney General Lee Johnson’s efforts to prevent completion of the project on the sand dunes just north of the mouth of Elk Creek.

75 years ago — 1948

A converted U.S. Navy landing ship named the Saipan and equipped as a floating tuna factory was en route to the tropics today to challenge southern California’s domination of American tuna fishing.

The Saipan was converted by Columbia River Packers Association, of Astoria, to quickly freeze 75 to 100 tons of fish a day and store 1,000 tons for delivery in the Northwest. Its master and chief engineer are Andrew and Paul Marinkovic, of San Pedro, California.

The goal of the 327-foot vessel is to reach the waters off Costa Rica, where it will act as the mother ship for five tuna clippers and convert the fresh fish.

The Saipan was made into a fish freezer along with a sister ship, the Tinian. The two ships will alternate in Costa Rican waters.

Judge Howard K. Zimmerman took a stern view of the six Hammond youths stealing canned fish when they appeared before him Saturday for sentencing.

He refused to accept the view that the stealing of the canned fish, a total of 21 cases, was a prank. It was represented as such by a minister who said the boys were not bad. Leniency was urged by some others.

Judge Zimmerman ordered the six held in the county jail for 60 days. He indicated that each one would be given a five-year prison term and paroled. The youths are to reimburse the Point Adams Packing Co. and Service Auto Freight for the canned salmon they stole. They are also to reimburse the county for costs of investigating and prosecuting the cases.

Within 30 days, the Pacific Explorer, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s $4 million factory ship, which has been tied up at Pier 3 since July, will be fishing for king crab, bottom fish and other edible deep-sea fish in the Bering Sea, it was learned here Wednesday.

No details of the Bering Sea mission have been announced. The Pacific Exploration Co., headed by Nick Bez, of Seattle, is to direct the undertaking for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Some of the crabmeat and possibly fillets of bottomfish will likely be discharged here.

After the Pacific Explorer completed its maiden trip to the west coast of Costa Rica, the corporation modified the lease with Bez.

He interpreted the original lease as permitting him to operate the Pacific Explorer and its flotilla of four trawlers where he found it feasible. California tuna interests objected to the presence of the Pacific Explorer in the middle of the rich tuna grounds of Costa Rica, in direct competition with private enterprise. Bez claimed the California tuna industry was a monopoly and that the trip was productive of results in technological and biological fields.

The Russians who have 10 U.S.-built refrigerated ships may be interested in Bering Sea fish as well. These grounds were exploited before the war by Japanese crab fleets.

SEASIDE — Seasiders soon will find out what a real Gull-oot looks like.

Twenty-five Gull-oots, members of a newly organized civic promotion group modeled on the Caveman Club, of Grants Pass, met here at noon Wednesday to adopt their official costume.

The Gull-oots will dress as frontiersmen — they’ll stage the annual Lewis and Clark festival here — with coonskin caps, leather-fringed shirts and trousers — and shooting irons. The Gull-oots plan to make their first out-of-town expedition to the Puyallup, Washington, daffodil festival late in March.

Clatsop County sold 2.2 million feet of hemlock and spruce on the stump Thursday for $10 per 1,000 feet. This is the highest price ever paid for county and state timber in Clatsop County. Hemlock sold for about the same price 10 years ago, logged and ponded.