World gone by
Published 1:30 am Friday, June 26, 2026
85 YEARS AGO
June 28, 1941
The blueback salmon are running in Lake Quinault!
The sleek, silvery-blue fish are making the anglers’ mouths water, but Harbor casters shouldn’t get ideas about wetting a line here.
The running salmon are private property of the Quinault Tribe.
The rule doesn’t stop visitors to the lake from rowing to its inlet where the white water runs and watching the fish start their fight upstream in search of a place to spawn and die. At times the water literally boils as 40 or 50 fish rocket themselves at once into the air, twisting frantically to gain against the current.
The bluebacks are a specie of sockeye, and run only in two rivers, the Quinault and the Queets. They are considered “tops” in the salmon world for eating.
June 30, 1941
Seventeen Aberdeen and Hoquiam boys are registered for the first annual soap box derby to be run off Saturday afternoon under the auspices of the Lions club, Bigelow Chevrolet and the Aberdeen World.
I street has been selected for the racing course, with the start at the crest of Sixth and the finish near the armory. Aberdeen police will barricade I street to prevent any possible collisions between the soap box cars and automobiles.
July 1, 1941
American airplane builders are pooling their productive resources to give the United States and Britain an unprecedented fleet of long-range four-engine heavy bombers.
It was reported today this cooperation would produce an estimated 50 bombers monthly in 1942. Three Pacific Coast manufacturers — Boeing of Seattle, Douglas of Santa Monica and Vega of Burbank — have agreed upon a cooperative program for production of Boeing’s B-17E bombers. Consolidated Aircraft and Douglas are building two $22,000,000 plants to build B-24 bombers.
July 2, 1941
Next month Miss Delphine Rasmus is leaving to help spread the gospel in a land of voodooism, witchcraft and black magic.
The young Aberdeen missionary, fresh from Bible Institute, will depart about Aug. 15 with two other Northwest people to spend an indefinite period on the island of Haiti. She’ll spend about a year in Cuba familiarizing herself with the language of Haiti. “There are relatively few missionaries in Haiti, she said, “and the need is great.”
Asked how long she expected to remain in Haiti, she answered, “Maybe only a month, maybe five or six years. It all depends on how well one can stand the climate.”
July 3, 1941
Swarms of yellowjackets kept Hoquiam city firemen on the jump yesterday afternoon as they answered three calls to exterminate the bees.
The fire truck first raced to Hill Avenue and later to the 700 block of Fourth and 400 block on L Street in pursuit of yellowjackets. The hives, located under house cornices, were exposed to cyanide fumes.
Only one casualty was marked up among the firemen. One was stung on the ear.
60 YEARS AGO
June 28, 1966
It took two tries and half an hour before Dave Perkins of Aberdeen could fight a 51-pound halibut into a 15-foot boat Saturday out of Port Townsend.
Perkins’ father-in-law, Joseph Capriotti of Montesano, gaffed the 50-inch-long fish once, but the halibut flipped its tail, tore loose from the gaff and sounded. Perkins worked the fish up to the boat again, and this time Capriotti gaffed him for a second time.
Perkins was fishing with herring and using a 54-pound test line.
June 29, 1966
Twin Harbors beach, south of Grays Harbor, is the richer by 400,000,000 baby razor clams planted experimentally by Department of Fisheries’ patrolmen and biologists with the help of local residents.
The young clams, averaging 1/4 inch in size, were taken from Roosevelt Beach, north of the Copalis River, where billions of the small clams have been washed up on the beach.
Heavy initial mortality is expected, but there is hope a worthwhile number will live to reach a dig-able size of 4 to 4 1/2 inches two years from now.
June 30, 1966
Taxidermy learned the hard way through a mail order correspondence course and early disappointment, has become an extensive hobby with Mrs. Hawarth (Anna Hoffer) Rowe, Raymond housewife and mother of three small sons.
The Rowe home now abounds with some 120 specimens of her work ranging from stuffed animals, birds and fish to an assortment of fine pelts, some fashioned into attractive covers on footstools.
Outstanding among the specimens are a rare Gilbrechets Hawk, a Honey Creper, an Ocelot head and rug mount, a Jaguar head mount and a white faced monkey. The largest of her specimens is an alligator, 7 feet, 10 inches long, from which she designed a skin and head mount.
July 2, 1966
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Descher of Hoquiam announce the engagement of their daughter, Patricia Ann, to John C. Hughes, son of Mrs. Mildred Bedwell of Aberdeen. Plans are being made for a September wedding.
Miss Descher, a graduate of Hoquiam High School, attended the University of Portland. She is now employed by Timbermens National Bank in Hoquiam.
Her fiance, a graduate of Weatherwax High School, attended Grays Harbor College, the University of Puget Sound and the University of Maryland. He served with the Gemini Control Command Post team in Bermuda while in the U.S. Air Force. He is presently the East County reporter for The Aberdeen World.
35 YEARS AGO
June 28, 1991
The weatherman says you can look for clouds this weekend. But if you look in downtown Aberdeen, you’ll also find a good time.
Aberdeen’s “All-American Salute” to troops and veterans got under way today with the annual Kiddie Parade at 1 p.m. at Franklin Field. The 6th Annual Geriatric Olympics kicked off at 1:30 in South Aberdeen.
Tomorrow, all the events are centered around Broadway, including a pancake breakfast, the parade, a Push Rods car show and a street dance. On Sunday, Splash moves to Zelasko Park on the bank of the Wishkah River.
June 29, 1991
Gordon and Harriet Fleming of Elma are getting out of the tire business. They have spent 15 years as true partners, selling tires at their Les Schwab store in Elma.
“And we’re still talking to each other, too,” Harriet says as the couple looks forward to retirement after handing the business over to a Les Schwab manager today.
Gordon, 59, and Harriet, 48, went into the tire business in 1976 when Gordon, who was a building contractor, built a building he couldn’t rent. They sat down and asked, “What does Elma need?”
Their answer was that it needed a tire shop. There were hundreds of dump trucks and trailers around here (during construction of the Satsop nuclear power plant), Gordon says. In the course of a day, we’d probably average between 25 to 50 trucks and trailers a day getting flats changed.”
Sometimes in that period, he even slept at the shop during the four hours a night that trucks weren’t limping in to get flats fixed..
Doan Nguyen of Hoquiam captured his fourth national powerlifting championship, winning the 114-pound title in the American Drug Free Powerlifting Association meet in St. Louis last weekend.
John Bowers, like Nguyen an Aberdeen High graduate now living in Hoquiam, placed fourth in the 220-pound class.
June 30, 1991
Aberdeen’s 12th-annual Splash celebration continues today and will conclude on Thursday, July 4 with the return of the tall ship Lady Washington and a fireworks display.
Some families, like the Bruners of Aberdeen, never miss the festival, especially not the parade.
“It’s fun to see your friends,” said Dolores Bruner who was watching the parade with her husband, Peter, and their two sons, Timothy and Christopher, “and I like a chance to express patriotism. Every year is different.” Their daughter, Sarah, 11, was marching in the parade with the Summer Reading Club from Timberland Library.
Christopher, 8, said his favorite part was “seeing the troops come back,” and Timothy, 5, said he liked watching the Aberdeen High School marching band. “The marching band practices in our neighborhood,” explained his mother.
July 2, 1991
Michael Landon, the boyishly handsome actor who battled cancer with the same affability he brought to roles in “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie,” died Monday. He was 54.
Born Eugene Maurice Orowitz to show-business parents, he selected his stage name from a phone book. He was a national champion javelin thrower in high school, attending the University of Southern California on a scholarship.
July 3, 1991
The Taholah School gym is silent, except for puff-puff breaths, filtered through mouthguards.
The air moistens and the room fills with the dense smell of sweat.
Boys from 7 to 17 — some even older, some skinny, some chubby, some superbly conditioned, biceps glistening with perspiration — jab and flurry in bobbing patterns, shadow-boxing unseen opponents.
Every afternoon after stretching and wrapping their hands, the boxers move through this ritual, focusing on an invisible foe.
Lately, the program has focused on the fight against drugs and drug abuse. Team members wear jackets boasting that they’re “Boxing Against Alcohol and Drugs.”
Being a member of the team isn’t easy. The boxers work out two hours a day, five days a week. And if they choose not to train hard, Coach Larry “Bear” Bradley sends them on their way. “We’re not here to babysit,” he says.
A parade, fireworks and canoe races are all on tap for Quinault Indian Days, a four-day celebration July 4-7 at Taholah. A salmon bake will take place at Lions Park, with a presentation honoring all veterans to follow.
The chairman this year is Shelley McCrory of Taholah.
More than 100 youngsters are already registered for the “Field Days” at Finch field and it is probable that double that number will be enrolled by the close of summer.
A big percentage of the boys seem to favor baseball. Other field sports include three-legged races, wheelbarrow contests, crab races, relay runs, and water and land tug-o-war. Some of the smaller children enjoy the wading pool most. The slides, swinging bars and rings, regular swings and various other apparatus all have their devotees.
Three instructors are supervising the activities which run from 9 o’clock in the morning and lasting until 7 o’clock in the evening.
