World gone by

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 24, 2026

85 YEAR AGO

July 26, 1941

Grays Harbor will celebrate the success of its scrap aluminum drive at a combination patriotic-athletic show tonight in Olympic Stadium.

Between two softball games, the two-day “take” of aluminum, donated by Harborites to further national defense will be trucked around the stadium turf, while the weight of each community collection is called out. A huge American flag will be awarded the community which, on a percentage basis, exceeded its quota by the greatest margin.

The average tourist passing through Aberdeen is a carefree chap who appreciates the cool weather here, likes a airy room with a bath and is traveling with his wife, the youngsters being left at home with grandma.

At least that is the description given by hotel clerks and service station men as they sum up impressions of Olympic peninsula visitors.

In many instances the traveler has a set of golf clubs and a fishing pole. He wants to land a fish and has a yen for seafood. If the highway isn’t four lanes wide and paved, he complains. He has only a passing interest in sawmills and is skittish of loaded logging trucks. He doesn’t like detours.

July 28, 1941

Some eight tons of scrap aluminum, needed in national defense, was donated by Grays Harbor in a two-day drive last week, with Grayland winning a big American flag for collecting the most metal per capital.

The South Beach community, represented by Ed Heikla, turned in 406 pounds, against a campaign quota of 72 pounds.

Five trucks, piled high with the accumulation paraded around Olympia Stadium Saturday night while a large crowd cheered. The aluminum was piled at the port dock today, awaiting shipment to a state collection center from which it will be sent to a smelter for reduction to bars and eventual use in national defense.

July 29, 1941

The “V for victory” campaign came to Aberdeen again this morning when a large red letter, fully five or six feet in height, appeared on the side of the water tower atop Pilgrim Heights.

The tower long has been the locale for “painting” feuds of high school students seeking to keep their graduation year before the eyes of sky-gazing Aberdeen people. Last numeral to appear on the tower was ‘42 which recently was painted over to number ‘43.

July 31, 1941

More than 1,000 men this afternoon were on fire lines or about to go into action in an effort to control fires raging over 12,000 acres of the Quinault reservation, where logging camps, timber and communities are threatened and on 600 acres of slash in the east end of the county around Gurrard Creek.

Two hundred Polson men and 150 from the Aloha Lumber company went on the fire line when the fire forced suspension of their operations.

Although not as spry as they used to be, at least two score old timers on the Humptulips Pioneer Association roster are to take part in the association’s annual picnic Sunday on the Humptulips school grounds.

Newton Brittain, who settled in the district in 1883, is considered the dean of the old timers. Five years later Kate Hottors came to the district, being the first bride of the district when she married Gust Murhard. N.T. Loomis, who has operated the Humptulips store since 1889, is one of the main figures in the district. Mrs. Florence Glover Edwards’ father, who located at the Queets in 1894, was a passenger on the Lucy Lowe, which was shipwrecked at Neah Bay. All passengers were saved.

60 YEARS AGO

July 25, 1966

The Aberdeen Feds today were training their sights on new foes and a new objective after completing a three-game sweep through the District 10 American League tourney yesterday at Olympic Stadium.

Slim Jim Richardson wrote a fitting climax to an outstanding league season in yesterday’s finale, in the tension-packed clincher, 3-2.

Next stop for manager Don Narrance, coach Larry Gayda and the Feds will be a double elimination affair at Fort Borst Park for the area crown and berth in the following week’s state tourney at Richland.

July 26, 1966

The Hoquiam City Council last night condemned the long-abandoned Glenwood Hotel on Simpson and the building will finally be razed following a long dispute with the city.

The Harbor Rexall Drug Store at 8th and J was purchased for the Urban Renewal Project. The split-level structure will be purchased from George and Edward Wandell with federal funds totaling $41,350. The men will retain the land and rebuild their drug store.

July 27, 1966

Members of the Temporary Advisory Council on Public Higher Education, meeting this morning in the Aberdeen Federal courtesy room, heard Ernest Ingram, Aberdeen attorney, press an impressive case for the location of a four-year college in the Grays Harbor area.

In making the presentation, Ingram noted that there are two obvious motives for the Harbor or any other community desiring a four-year college — economic benefits and cultural advantages.

He made three main points for Grays Harbor specifically: (1) It is not an area of heavy population although it is accessible to large urban areas; (2) it is a good place to live; (3) it has two beautiful sites for a college campus.

July 28, 1966

Commercial fishermen from Grays Harbor and from all other Washington and Oregon ports stopped fishing as of noon today, pending settlement of a price dispute with fish buyers.

Allan Rolf, president of the Westport branch of the West Coast Trollers Association, said the fishermen voted yesterday to stop fishing until their price demand for 40 cents a pound for silver salmon is met. Fish buyers had offered 37 cents but the Westport fishermen rejected the offer with only one dissenting vote, Rolf said.

July 29, 1966

Eight highway bridges now span the Columbia River between the states of Oregon and Washington. And only two small ferries remain.

Opening day of the Astoria Bridge near the mouth of the Columbia marked the end of nearly 46 years of ferry service there.

The only interstate ferries still operating on the Columbia now are from Westport, Ore. to Puget Island — and far upriver — from Arlington, Ore. to Roosevelt, Wash. Each can carry a half dozen or so cars.

As early as 5:30 this morning a dozen cars were lined up, ready to be among the first to cross the bridge.

Last night, hundreds of nostalgic ferry boat riders left the Astoria slip on the M.R. Chessman at 9 p.m. and returned from Megler, Wash. at 10:20. It was the final run.

July 30, 1966

Tomorrow George Lamb, president of Lamb Grays Harbor, will celebrate his 65th birthday, but his 500-plus employees didn’t wait. They gave him his present yesterday — a memorial fountain in honor of his father, Frank H. Lamb, the company’s founder.

It was somewhat ironic that the approximately 10-foot high green fountain should be pumping water down its side when a few miles away in Aberdeen water for lawn sprinkling is being rationed.

But the fountain was only on a short time.

35 YEARS AGO

July 25, 1991

Ken Bowe, owner of Deep Sea Charters in Westport, says almost every charter boat company in the area reports that almost every angler is getting the limit of two salmon per day.

So where’s the catch? It’s in the bigger picture, Bowe says.

Back in the 1970s, the charter boat recreational fishing season could be 260 days long. “Now it often runs 40 to 50 days a year,” he continued. “We used to have 250 charter boats in Westport. Now we have 60. We’ve got an 88,000 coho quota for Westport for sport fishing. We used to have a quota of 200,000 to 350,000.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe in the future of it,” says Bowe.

People still make a living running charter boats in Westport, he says. “The marginal operators are gone. The survivors are here,” he says.

An array of musical talent will highlight the Polson Museum’s annual Afternoon in the Park from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday in the museum yard.

The Chehalis Valley Stump Ranchers Barbershop Quartet will sing a medley of favorite songs and Bill Seaman of Ocean Shores will bring along his many musical instruments.

July 26, 1991

This week, Mary Ann Mobley, Miss America in 1959, was at Weyerhaeuser’s Clemons Tree Farm, south of Montesano, starring in a film promoting tree farming.

The idea of the film is to convince people that the timber industry replants timberland it logs.

“Nationwide — even within the state — a lot of people don’t know we plant trees,” says Jim Walls, coordinator for the Aberdeen-based Columbia-Pacific Resource Conversation and Development District which commissioned the film.

Walls’ agency promotes economic development in Grays Harbor, Pacific and Wahkiakum counties, funded mostly by local governments, Indian tribes and non-profit organizations.

The film grew out of the planning for the 50th anniversary of Weyerhaeuser’s Clemons Tree Farm and Weyerhaeuser has worked closely with Walls.

July 27, 1991

The Grays Harbor Nationals went on a hitting rampage in Kelso Friday and demolished Puyallup, 21-1, in a losers’ bracket game of the Southern Washington Babe Ruth 14 Baseball Tournament.

The Nats took charge by scoring 12 runs in the first inning. That made the game a breeze for Phillip Sayamnet, who went the distance on the mound for the winners and hurled a one-hitter.

The Harborites sent 16 batters to the plate in the first inning and collected 9 hits. Catcher Brad Ecklund belted a double and single and Beau Beck doubled. Tossing in singles were Zack Walker, Josh Parbon, Anthony Mizin, Jaime Johnson, Chris Pisani and Sayamnet.

July 28, 1991

The Ocean Shores Police Department Surf Rescue team pulled three swimmers from a dangerous rip tide in the ocean this weekend, and private citizens rescued two other swimmers.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday, the rescue team got word that three swimmers were in trouble near the Ocean Shores Inn. Two male teenagers had gone into the water to help a female teenager but the rip tide proved too strong for them, and they thus became the rescued instead of the rescuers.

In the other rescue, two Federal Way residents saved a 30-year-old man and his 10-year-old son who were caught in a rip tide and in the water almost 25 minutes.

The Ocean Shores Fire Department treated all the rescued swimmers for hypothermia, and all survived in good shape.

July 29, 1991

Pacific Veneer Ltd. of Aberdeen has found a way to save enough electricity every year to power nine average homes.

On top of that the Bonneville Power Administration has paid Pacific Veneer $11,000 just because the company got savvy about how to save electricity. They were preparing to buy a very large machine, an automatic veneer stacker, and the manufacturer agreed to assemble it with more efficient motors. In looking around the mill, managers also found other places where they could use more energy efficient motors.

It meant they had to invest in new motors. But under its new incentive plans, the BPA was willing to pay about 80 percent of this investment cost.

The PUD went out of its way to help mill managers do the analysis, said Art Mahlum, mill manager. “They were trying to get to know their customers. That’s valuable.”

July 30, 1991

When he’s coaching basketball, Anthony Cemelich attains a state of near bliss. Considering the alternative, in his case that’s not surprising.

Cemelich, who was on the Harbor last week for the 25th year reunion of his class of Hoquiam High School, makes his living most of the time painting houses in the crushing heat of South Florida.

For the No. 10 man who held down the end of the bench for Bill Meyer’s 1966 HHS basketball team, coaching is the refreshing oasis of his existence.

That and his faith in Christ.

A devout Catholic involved in the Cursillo and charismatic movements, Cemelich was able to unite his two passions last fall then he became the first-ever coach of the Athletes in Action women’s basketball coach. The AIA, sports arm of the Campus Crusade for Christ, has long fielded competitive men’s basketball teams. Last year’s women’s team was the first in AIA history.

July 31, 1991

Cancer and good times are not generally associated with each other, but at the American Cancer Society’s Camp Goodtimes, the two come together with a purpose.

The seventh annual camp held the first week in July on Vashon Island, united kids with cancer with their siblings for a worry-free, hospital-free week of fun while providing the security of on-site medical personnel and equipment.

A special feature for the past several summers is an all-camp trip to Seattle where the 200 campers and staff board “The Spirit of Seattle” ferry for a 2-hour trip. With plenty of food, three decks to explore and music, the trip is over too soon for the campers.

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.