75 years ago
September 11, 1942
With one of the largest fleets in history operating out of Westport this season, landings of crabs already have broken existing records, and salmon and tuna catches threaten to set new tonnage marks.
Port officials reported today that crab landings at the Westport dock in the first eight months of this year totaled 80,005 dozen, four times as much as the average for the last 10 years. Since January the totals for salmon is 460 tons and tuna 423 tons.
50 years ago
September 11, 1967
A crowd estimated at more than 3,500 lined Hoquiam’s downtown streets Saturday afternoon for the Elks-sponsored Loggers’ Playday parade. That evening more than 6,000 were on hand for the playday lumberjack show at Olympic Stadium.
Curly-haired Frank Hale, 26, took home the big hardware at the lumberjack show — the first one in the Pacific Northwest ever held at night. He collected $275 in prize money, a huge trophy and a kiss from pretty Leslie Chase, loggers’ playday queen.
He and his dad, Jim, operate Hale and Hale Cutting Co. with headquarters in Central Park.
The log rolling contest between Hoquiam Mayor Rolland (Omar) Youmans and Aberdeen Mayor Walt Failor was one of the evening’s highlights. After some preliminary coaching from Russ Ellison, three time world champion burler, the rival mayors took their places at opposite ends of the floating log. A few seconds later, they both splashed head over heels into the drink, much to the amusement of the crowd.
Failor won the first fall — Youmans took the second. Before the crucial third bout, they shook hands then came out rolling. Omar emerged victorious and when he helped Walt out of the pond, the crowd responded with a thundering round of applause for a pair of good sports.
25 years ago
September 11, 1992
A fisherman who moved to Westport from Norway as a young man sailed into his heritage when choosing a name for the new bowling alley he built for the South Beach community.
“Halibut John” Lein, who came here in 1951, said he chose “Viking Bowl” — complete with viking ship logo — to remind him of his homeland.
Scheduled to open within the month, the 16,000-square foot, eight lane bowling alley is on the site of the old Driftwood Bowl, which burned down 10 years ago.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
