World Gone By …
Published 1:30 am Saturday, July 26, 2025
83 YEARS AGO
July 20, 1942
Six hundred Fort Lewis soldiers earned up to $5 picking black raspberries Sunday for Yelm farmers who also provided two free meals and transportation.
The harvest was organized by Miss Alice Helenius, manager of the local U.S. employment office, through Fort Lewis officials. Nine bus loads of soldiers, plus a number in private cars, went to the fields and picked 40 tons of ripe berries.
July 21, 1942
For 40-odd years Jasper Bunch fought the Quinault river floods and tamed them. His weapons were brains and muscle, dynamite and a peavy.
Twice a year, and sometimes oftener, newly formed freshets would turn the river into a growling, tearing thing of destruction, which grabbed and raked at the banks, swallowing the good soil and the tall trees. Snags and logs and heavy rocks would congregate at the head of the old channel and to insure its being open to carry away the freshet crests, Bunch and his neighbors with dynamite and peavies and axes, blasted and cut and sawed and toted away the channel-blocking jams.
Now CCC crews working for the Olympic national park have built two wing dams and told Jasper and other ranchers to “leave them alone.” The ranchers are worried that means the next time the river rises , the CCC wing dams will throw the full force of the flow slam-bang into their road, their schoolhouse and their farms. And in a season or two, they fear that their years of labor to turn forests and stumpland into homes and ranches will be “gone down the river.”
July 22, 1942
“Kongo,” a nine-year-old, 265-pound gorilla, said to be one of four gorillas in the United States and the only animal of its kind ever shown in this state, will be exhibited here this week.
The beast, described as one of the last animals brought back from the Belgian Congo by the late Martin Johnson, will be shown in the parking lot at Wishkah and I streets.
“Kongo” is exhibited in the world’s largest traveling cage, weighing 17,400 pounds. The gorilla is insured by an $18,000 Lloyd’s policy.
July 25, 1942
An increase in wages was granted hotel, restaurant, beer parlor and fountain workers in Raymond as a result of negotiations completed between an AFL union committee representing Willapa Harbor managements and workers affiliated with the Washington state restaurant association. The advance provided a straight 10 percent increase for dish washers, fountain lunch workers and waitresses and 25 cents a day increase for dinner cooks, fry cooks, bar tenders, bar maids and combination workers.
Sam Bagron is helping to fight the axis from the tops of swaying Grays Harbor forest giants.
Bagron, a veteran highclimber, “thought he had retired” from the dangerous tree-topping game two years ago. He’d been at it for 14 years and felt it was a “job for the younger fellows.” So he doffed his spurs, put away his belt and ax and went to work for the West Coast Plywood company.
But the war has upset his retirement program. Uncle Sam needed men and one by one the Harbor highclimbers have entered the service. With their tree-toppers gone, Harbor logging operators “put in a draft call for Bagron.”
He answered — willingly.
Recently, at one of the shows on Big Creek, Bagron showed his skill by limbing and topping a big spruce in three and one half hours. The knots of the spruce were so tough that the ax often bounced off and Bagron had to keep sharpening the blades with a file to finish the job.
58 YEARS AGO
July 20, 1967
Westport’s five town councilmen acted in unison to draw the purse strings tight on the financial operation of the town at a special meeting last night, called at the councilmen’s request and presided over by Mayor Byron Cramer.
The council unanimously voted to allow no payment of any claims against the town until the next regular meeting, Aug. 7 and to limit each hourly employee’s work day to eight hours and his work week to 40 hours.
Loren Tucker, supervisor of the state Department of Natural Resources’ fire control division, estimated Wednesday that the battle to control the 6,000 acre Quinault Reservation fire cost up to $130,000.
Mop-up crews were manning the lines Wednesday in the Raft River area west of Lake Quinault, where the blaze raged out of control for nearly five days before it was brought under control early Tuesday.
July 21, 1967
A graphic and sympathetic picture of how American soldiers, seriously wounded in Vietnam, are being helped on the long road to recovery was given the Montesano Chamber of Commerce Thursday by Paul Fournier, Montesano attorney and deputy prosecutor.
He and his wife recently returned from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, visiting their son, Paul Jr. who was seriously burned in a plane crash on May 22. For weeks, his recovery hung in the balance but now he is able to walk a little and can be taken on short rides.
“The spirit of the wounded boys is wonderful,” Fournier reported. “Never once did I hear one gripe.”
Every Monday, a plane load of badly burned arrive at the hospital, which is a research center for burns. Many are minus legs and arms, yet all of the many with whom Fournier came into contact were facing their ordeal with good cheer.
July 25, 1967
Five hundred dollars for four minutes, 10 seconds work! How about that, clam fans?
That’s exactly how long it took Ron Smith, a 28-year-old Raymond logger, to dig his limit of 18 clams and scramble back up the beach to the official judges’ stand at the first international free style pro-am Ocean Shores “Clam Prix” clam digging championship Sunday morning.
Besides his $500 first prize, Smith will have his name engraved on the Clam Prix perpetual trophy — a huge, 11-foot long, 90 pound clam shovel that will remain on permanent display at the Ocean Shores News Bureau.
Mr. and Mrs. Bogdanovich are back in Montesano with a handsome clock trophy on their mantel won by chugging the round trip from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. in their shiny 1913 Ford touring car, resplendent with brass.
The trophy is a national award from the Horseless Carriage Club of America won by the Montesano couple for second place in the classification of 1913-15 Model T Fords. The Bogdanoviches have polished the brass on their prized Model T for four years, but this was the first time they entered national competition.
33 YEARS AGO
July 20, 1992
The Grays Harbor Nationals rolled unbeaten into the title round of the District 2 Babe Ruth-14 tournament Sunday in Chehalis by thumping Grays Harbor American, 14-4, in a five-inning winners’ bracket final.
Chris Dunsire went the distance on the mound for the Nats, allowing only four hits. He struck out just three but didn’t give up a single walk and retired the last seven batters in order.
He also drove in two runs, scored twice and collected the game’s MVP award.
July 21, 1992
Aubrey Floyd “Aub” Schmidt, 78, a well-known local musician during the Big Band era and owner of a popular music store in downtown Aberdeen for 35 years, died Monday at St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Aub Schmidt Music in the Elks Building on Wishkah Street was a place where young people gathered to listed to the latest 45s before deciding whether to buy. The parents, meanwhile, rented band instruments for their children.
July 23, 1992
For 80 years, classes have come and gone from Old Montesano High School.
Alumni will get their last look at the historic Wheeler Building this weekend.
Before its demolition — expected later this year — the Wheeler Building will be the site of one last memory.
It will be “A Class Act” when graduates reunite for an all-school reunion, which begins Friday night with a re-acquaintance social and concludes Sunday afternoon with a family picnic.
Among those registered to attend the reunion are Robert Moch of the Class of 1932. He won a gold medal in the ‘36 Olympics as a member of the U.S. crew team. Longtime principals Lloyd Enz and former band teacher Bert Soderstrom, a 1943 graduate, also have registered.
July 25, 1992
The first-ever shipment of Russian lumber to the United States arrived yesterday at the Port of Grays Harbor in Aberdeen.
The test-shipment of 90,000 board feet of kiln-dried rough-cut lumber from Siberia cleared customs and was being trucked to Oregon before noon.
The lumber import business could become lucrative for the Port, which is struggling to diversify its cargo base away from raw log exports.
More than 1,000 Harley owners will get their motors running and head out on the highway for the 5th annual Sun and Surf Run this weekend.
The main action begins Saturday morning with the parade of Harleys. The group, some arriving from as far away as St. Louis and New York City, will leave Hoquiam at 10 a.m. and create a lengthy cavalcade of black-clad bike riders. At Ocean Shores, the group will have a police escort to lead them through town.
Gary Loman can’t fight fires any more. Now, the former fire marshal is fighting a debilitating disease that sent him into early retirement — Crohn’s Disease.
Today, instead of fighting fires, he’s building replicas of the big red rigs he knew so well and his work, along with that of retired firefighter Harry Denny, will be on display all weekend at the Montesano Post Office as the Monte Fire Department celebrates its 100th anniversary at the Festival of People.
Loman is currently working on a replica of a 1917 American LaFrance. When it’s done, it’ll be realistic down to the last detail — complete with the Washington State “horseless carriage” license plate.
July 26, 1992
The Port of Willapa Harbor has received $750,000 in state loans and grants for an industrial expansion of the Pacific Hardwoods Mill in Raymond.
The expansion will double the mill’s production capacity and create 46 permanent, full-time jobs, according to Port Manager Jim Neva. Another eight jobs that might otherwise be lost will also be salvaged with the expansion, Neva said.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom, Editorial Assistant at The Daily World. You can contact her at karen.barkstrom@thedailyworld.com or call her at 360-537-3925.
