World gone by
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 6, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
March 1, 1941
Bones of early day Indians and the possessions they were buried with are being ravaged by the sea on the Cape Elizabeth side of the Quinault reservation, Gilbert Sotomish of Taholah said today.
Gold coins buried in the graves years ago now are being strewn on the beach, he said. The action of the sea year by year has cut into the hillside until many of the graves are open. Coins washed down from the graves have been picked up by residents of the reservation after the tides go down. The coins are 50-cent, $1 and $5 pieces.
March 3, 1941
While CCC boys and neighbors searched the Wishkah wilds for him, John Carlstad, eight-year-old Wishkah valley boy, walked into his home at noon today after being lost in the woods since yesterday morning. Dan McGillicuddy, Aberdeen woodsman who aided in the hunt, said the boy showed no apparent ill effects from his overnight stay in the woods.
Mute, but not deaf, the boy could not tell just how or where he spent the night, but in answer to questions indicated he found shelter under a windfall last night and made his way home this morning.
The boy, who disappeared yesterday from a trip into the timber to gather kindling wood, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Pete Carlstad who live some 10 miles up the river from Aberdeen.
March 4, 1941
Representatives of four service clubs, 150 strong, will attend tomorrow night’s Aberdeen-Elma basketball game at the Miller gym to honor the high school cagers and Coach Wayne Toivanen.
“Rotarians, Kiwanians, Activians and Lions will attend and be seated in a special reserved section,” Athletic Director “Jud” Graham said today. “Weatherwax students are planning half-time entertainment and other features for the club members.”
March 6, 1941
Employees of the Acme Door company in Hoquiam have been granted a 2 1/2 cents an hour raise under agreement reached by the management and the plywood workers’ union. All Harbor plants where the union has bargaining rights are now paying a minimum of 67 1/2 cents an hour.
March 7, 1941
This athletic year is one that will be remembered for a long time at Miller Junior High.
The Kittens have yet to taste defeat in any kind of competition. And they boast three victories over their arch-rivals, the Grizzly Cubs.
Coach Larry Werner’s boys played five football games, winning four and tying one. They went through the season unscored upon and wound up by taking the “little big game” from the Hoquiam juniors.
They completed the ‘41 hoop year Tuesday by whipping Auburn for their ninth consecutive victory against no losses.
The names of Harold Boettcher, Leon Vigus, Kenny Harrison, Gordon Peterson and the others who helped write up the records are ones that should be marked down for future reference.
60 YEARS AGO
March 1, 1966
Clearing skies today allowed airplanes and helicopters to scramble aloft in an aerial search for Elma pilot Lewis Lentz, missing since yesterday afternoon, while ground parties continued to press their hunt west from Elma.
The airplane Lentz was flying apparently went down during a snow flurry after taking off from Summit Field near Montesano.
A helicopter piloted by Gayle Neet of Aberdeen with Jim Alwood from the FAA, has begun to comb the area along with a State Patrol airplane and one manned by Tex Jones and Carl Scott from Bowerman Field in Hoquiam.
March 2, 1966
The Quigg Brothers McDonald concrete barge Success, now moored in the Hoquiam River, was recently purchased by a Seattle waterfront restaurateur, Ivar Haglund, to be used as a floating restaurant on Lake Union.
Haglund, of Ivar’s Acres of Clams fame, will moor the floating restaurant parallel to the shoreline at a site looking across the lake toward the Space Needle and downtown Seattle skyline.
Stewart’s Foodliner at 2nd and B streets in Aberdeen is advertising a dozen donuts for 49¢. They have 29 varieties including pineapple, banana, butterscotch, Dutchie cherry flip, bowtie, pecan-apple fritter and glazed chicken bone.
March 3, 1966
A young lady of many talents is Julie Hayes who will play the lead role of Rosie in the Weatherwax High School production of the Broadway musical, “Bye Bye Birdie.”
“Music is my very favorite pastime,” Julie says. “As the days of my performances draw nearer, I find myself becoming more and more excited.”
March 4, 1966
The body of Lewis Lentz, 46, Elma pilot, was found and recovered late yesterday afternoon from the crumpled fuselage of his Cessna plane on the Schafer Game Farm, five miles up the Satstop River from Brady.
Lentz, object of a three-day search, was found by his employer, Robert Bush of Bayview Lumber Co. of Elma.
Lentz and his aircraft disappeared in a snow flurry Monday afternoon after taking off from the Summit airport near Central Park.
March 5, 1966
The Review Club will celebrate its 75th birthday with a tea Wednesday afternoon at the Grays Harbor Country Club. Guests and members are asked to be present promptly at two o’clock as the Drama Department of Grays Harbor College under direction of Richard Lane will present a musical program.
The Review Club is the oldest cultural club in the state of Washington. It was founded in March, 1891 “for the purpose of reading and discussing good books.”
• South Aberdeen will have its first church dedication in recent years with a ceremony Sunday at the new South Aberdeen Baptist Church, Clark Street and Fordney.
Following the 3:30 service, an open house will be held until 6:30 and members of the church will give tours of the church and refreshments will be served.
The structure was built almost entirely with volunteer help and as a result the actual cost per square foot is less than $6.
March 7, 1966
Raymond High School’s basketball fortunes reached the loftiest pinnacle at U.F.S. Fieldhouse in Tacoma Saturday night as the valiant Seagulls snared the state class A cage crown with a 46-42 triumph over the Foster Bulldogs in the tense and dramatic battle in the tournament finals.
The final buzzer proclaimed the Seagulls as state basketball champs for the first time in the school’s history.
35 YEARS AGO
March 1, 1991
Harborite Calvin D. Clark was one of seven anonymous GIs in the reported “one killed and seven wounded” during a skirmish Feb. 20 inside Iraq.
The 21-year-old former Aberdeen and Quinault Lake high school student was hit by shrapnel and is now recovering at an Army hospital in Germany.
He called his dad Tuesday. “He said he’s got a hole in his leg and a hole in his arm,” said Cal Clark, owner of the popular Red Rooster Tavern and Restaurant along Highway 101 at Axford Prairie. His son said he could walk around fine and made it sound like they were a couple of minor wounds, said the former Marine, clearly both proud and relieved.
March 2, 1991
Dockside rail service at the Port of Grays Harbor got its first test this week and officials are praising the results.
Steel coils and aluminum “T”s from as far away as Indiana rolled into town on flatbed railroad cars, which were then pulled alongside a waiting freighter at Terminal 4. Large cranes hoisted the 18- to 22-ton coils and aluminum aboard the Hoegh Miranda.
This week’s shipment, which left Thursday for Japan, marks a milestone in efforts to lure new export cargoes and help break the Harbor’s economic reliance on timber, said Port spokeswoman Tami Garrow.
“We did a marketing survey back in ‘87,” she explained, “and it indicated, basically, that if we wanted to attract diversified cargo we’d need dockside rail service. It saves money, it saves time and that’s what shippers want.”
The Raymond Gulls got a hot hand on offense from omm’a Givens in the first half and great defense from Casey Collins in the second half to beat Brewster 65-53 and out the Bears from the state boys Class B basketball tournament Friday.
Givens, a 6-8 freshman, scored 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
March 3, 1991
The 91 workers at ITT Rayonier’s Hoquiam pulp mill who argued for 3 1/2 years that the company’s on-call policy violated federal labor laws have won a gigantic $57.6 million settlement.
The disputed on-call policy, implemented in November of 1987, was abolished in January of this year. It had required workers in the pulp mill’s maintenance division, who are known as mechanics, to be on call before and after their regularly scheduled work shifts. Workers were told that failing to be available for call-in duty would, ultimately, lead to dismissal. U.S. District Court Judge Jack Tanner ruled that workers receive overtime pay at time-and-a-half for hours they spent on call. And, because he ruled that the policy violated the Labor Act, the workers are entitled to double damages.
March 4, 1991
ITT Rayonier will appeal a federal judge’s decision to award $57.6 million in back wages and damages to 91 Hoquiam pulp mill workers who were on call around the clock for more than three years.
Individual awards range from $46,000 to $832,000 with the average award about $700,000.
March 5, 1991
Senior Jason Jex received two awards at the Hoquiam High School wrestling banquet Monday night at the Hoquiam Elks Hall. Jex collected the inspirational Award and shared the Captain’s Award with junior (and state 190-pound champion) Brett Bradley.
March 6, 1991
Thirty-five allied prisoners of war, including 15 Americans, arrived today in Saudi Arabia from Iraq, where Saddam Hussein’s security forces struggled to put down rebellions flaring in the north and south.
The allies also freed the first Iraqi POWs today, about 500 out of more than 63,000 held by coalition forces. They left northern Saudi Arabia for Baghdad aboard two planes.
The plane carrying the former allied prisoners arrived in the Saudi capital after a flight from Baghdad. “Every one of them’s a hero,” Gen. H. Norman Shwarzkopf said. “They looked happy to be home, happy to be in freedom,” the commander of the U.S. forces in Operation Desert Storm told reporters. “It’s almost over.”
Mark Bruener added Aberdeen’s basketball MVP award to his numerous football honors as AHS boy basketball players were honored last night at the Huntley Cafeteria.
Bruener, a two-way all-state gridder, led the Bobcats in rebounding by a large margin and also in scoring despite being double-teamed by most opponents.
Senior forward Sean Brown collected the prestigious Victor Pavletich award and Cory Erickson, also a senior forward, received the George Palo award.
March 7, 1991
The Lamb Grays Harbor Co., feeling the effects of a national recession and economic troubles in the pulp and paper industry, is poised to make a number of layoffs in its Hoquiam operation and across the country.
“The number will be significant,” said David Lamb, corporate services manager but he would not disclose exact numbers.
“Thar she blows” again. In Westport, March comes in like a whale.
The season for whale watching, Westport’s spring tourist draw, kicked off officially March 1. It was a slow start as heavy rain kept the boats docked throughout the weekend, but charter boats have carried whale watchers this week and the season is expected to be good.
John Smith of Aberdeen, a former Grays Harbor College administrator, began organizing weekend whale-watching tours about seven years ago.
He continues to operate Northwest Educational Tours, chartering fishing boats in Westport and arranging tours with the Seattle Aquarium and the Pacific Science Center.
Smith, who has a doctorate in biology, will make a presentation on whales at the lecture hall next to the Maritime Museum on Westhaven Drive.
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.
