85 YEARS AGO
August 3, 1940
Probably the most lonesome thing on Grays Harbor, excepting the politician who isn’t promising to reduce taxes and raise pensions, is James Rock, which sticks out of north bay like a big toe out of a blue sock.
The rock, to go back a geologic year or two, undoubtedly was part of the main shore, but got into a geographical huff one day and cut itself adrift. It is now about a quarter-mile away from Point New, its nearest neighbor and not far from where Old Kettle used to raise such a fuss at the mouth of the Humptulips.
Captain Whidby first called it a “flower pot.” That was in 1792 a few months after Captain Robert Gray thought “Goldfinch” harbor would be a fine name for this area.
In 1843 the Wilkes party, government surveyors, called it “Ned’s Rock” after a youth in the survey crew. But Wilkes had about as much luck with “Ned” as Grays did with “Goldfinch.” It just wouldn’t stick, so it remained for the spunky James family to pick the rock as an eternal monument, relatively speaking, to its name and its kind. It’s James Rock to this day and probably will be for some time to come.
August 5, 1940
With Harbor and out-of-town cars arriving in a steady stream throughout the day a record crowd, estimated at 10,000, yesterday visited the South Beaches, state patrolmen and officers of the Twin Harbors Beach Club said today.
More than 1,000 attended the Aberdeen Eagles picnic at the Twin Harbor Beach state park, while resorts had capacity business and beaches were crowded with thousands of bathers and clam diggers.
While plant operators and fish workers met again this afternoon in an attempt to set up seasonal wage and working conditions for pilchard reduction, Harbor tuna buyers visioned a rapid increase in tuna landings following discovery of new schools of fish off the coast.
The Seattle trollerman Belle yesterday discharged 7,000 pounds of tuna at Westport.
August 7, 1940
School authorities today ordered barricades placed at the entrance to the McDermoth school playground and banned its use because of extensive vandalism which culminated in the smashing of more than 50 panes of glass in the school building.
Secretary Ray Colby said the windows were broken with stones, not accidentally in baseball games. He said many broken panes were on the upper floor and that stones were found in the rooms.
August 8, 1940
Meeting for the first time in their new hall, American Legionnaires last night advanced plans for seeking an “iron lung” for Grays Harbor, adopted a resolution against renewal of the United States-Russian trade treaty until Russia issues passports to allow deportation of undesirable Russian aliens in this country, and heard H.E. “Jack” Rundell, conclave committee head, report plans are compete for the state Legion convention in Aberdeen next week.
The Legion will underwrite the cost of an “iron lung,” used in the treatment of infantile paralysis. George Noe, chairman of the iron lung committee reported one would cost between $1,400 and $1,500.
60 YEARS AGO
August 3, 1965
Aberdeen firemen, having a good year in fire prevention, suddenly saw their statistics radically inflated last month as the Weyerhaeuser dock-ship fire caused the largest fire loss on the Harbor in 25 years.
Damage to the Weyerhaeuser dock and the freighter Sanyo Maru totaled $700,000. The large fire was nearly twice as destructive as the big Kress department store fire of June 14, 1962.
August 4, 1965
Razed and burned this week to make way for construction of the new Aberdeen First Methodist Church were two of the first “hill” homes built in Aberdeen.
The homes, at 104 and 106 E. Second streets are a long way from what is now considered hill district, but at that time (about 1890) building in that area was looked upon as “moving away out of town” much as the construction many years later of the first homes in the Bel Aire district.
Carl Nelson’s father, Nels Nelson, founder of Nelson & Son Machine Co., built the first “hill” home at 106 E. Second. He recalls that the only access to the family’s new home was over a single plank from the downtown area and the Nelsons and visitors walked through forest to reach the house.
August 5, 1965
A local hard hat diver and the story of the Catala will be part of the “Wanderlust” television program Monday evening on channel 11. Host-producer of the show is former Harborite Ron Sanford.
Sanford’s brother, Dick Sanford, will demonstrate the use of traditional diver’s garb: the canvas suit, long air hoses and brass helmet. Bob Ward, public relations man from Ocean Shores, will be interviewed on the show regarding the past and future of the sunken Catala.
Ron Sanford, now staff announcer at KTNT-TV, is a 1952 Weatherwax High School graduate.
A traffic control signal intended to stop traffic on Highway 410 to allow vehicles on Central Park Drive to safely turn onto the highway will be activated by the State Highways Department this afternoon.
The traffic light is the result of petitions and a public meeting held in Central Park in June.
August 6, 1965
Top 10 records of the week picked by young people: 1.”What’s New Pussycat” by Tom Jones; “Save Your Heart for Me” by Gary Lewis; 3. “I’m Henry the VIII” by Herman’s Hermits; “I Like it Like That” by the Dave Clark Five; “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones; “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops; “Don’t Just Stand There” by Patty Duke; “Cara Mia” by Jay and the Americans; “What the World Needs Now is Love” by Jackie De Shannon and “All I Really Want to Do” by the Byrds.
August 7, 1965
An armed man staged a mid-afternoon robbery yesterday at the Capital Finance Company in downtown Hoquiam and escaped out the front door with a little over $100 just as police arrived at the back door.
“If he would have taken the back door like a normal robber, we would have caught him,” said Police Chief Burton Foreman.
The man arrived at the loan company about 2:40 p.m. and asked for a loan. He introduced himself as Donald Cox. William L. Minton, vacation relief manager, took the man into a conference room and the robber drew a 25 or 32 caliber pistol.
“It might as well have been a cannon: the effect was the same,” Minton related.
35 YEARS AGO
August 3, 1990
Cosmopolis’ Vicky Strada and the Washington team had another rugged day in Edmonton Thursday as the Junior Americans Cup girls’ golf tournament came to a close.
Strada, the newly-crowned state junior girls’ champion, shot an 86 over the 6,087-yard par-75 Glendale County Club Course and missed by one stroke of being medalist for the Washington team. The team finished eighth in a 17-team field.
August 4, 1990
A pile of charred debris is all that remains of the Brooklyn Tavern, which was much more than a watering hole. Consumed by flames early last Saturday, the tavern was the only business for miles among the evergreen and farmland meadows in the Brooklyn-Vesta area.
It opened in 1933 and for the next 25 years it served as the entertainment center for nearly 600 men who worked at the Saginaw logging camp in Brooklyn, the Saginaw shake mill in Vesta and the North Western Logging Co. camp nearby. It was decorated with winch blocks, sickles and other mementos of the region’s logging and farming heritage.
The tavern had been closed for a year when the new owner, Ray Damitio of Tenino, reopened it last May. He is on a trip to Indonesia and unavailable for comment. He may not even know his tavern is ashes.
On Aug. 13, Lorrie Lane of Aberdeen, will be asking for letters and buying vowels on her appearance on Wheel of Fortune. Expect to see her on the air two to four weeks after the taping.
Lane, 31, is a legal assistant for Phillips, Krause, Brown & Godfrey and has been a fan of the show since she attended Hoquiam High School. Attending a tryout in Seattle earlier this year, she was one of 750 people tested and was one of 30 selected as future contestants.
August 5, 1990
You could say the Sunshine Kids now officially have a “mom.”
Marion Mills of Montesano was installed July 27 as the first female president of the Grays Harbor Active Club/Sunshine Kids Inc.
The philanthropic organization is a Harbor tradition that dates back to the 1920s.
The group meets the second Tuesday of each month at Pizza Hut. The only membership requirements are paying the annual $10 dues and being 21 to 45 years old. Mills, 35, has been active with the group for 12 years.
August 6, 1990
John Rumsey was at the Atlanta Braves’ season opener in 1986 when the baseball team’s owner, Ted Turner, leaned over and said,”Guess what? We got the Bounty.”
That was the year Turner bought MGM Studios. Part of the package was the ship built in 1960 for MGM for the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty.”
Almost 30 years to the day after it was christened, the 169-foot replica Bounty will sail into Grays Harbor and dock along-side the 103-foot Lady Washington at the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport in Aberdeen. The Bounty has been at the Goodwill Games at Seattle and will visit Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. before heading down the Pacific Coast.
• Duane Dewees at Wishkah & Alder is advertising a 1990 Dodge Dakota 4×4 with automatic transmission, power steering & brakes, AM/FM cassette for $13,625.
August 7, 1990
A native of Aberdeen who earned a pilot’s license as a teenager is now second in command of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea as the Iraqi crisis continues.
Capt Kenneth G. Bixler, a 1963 graduate of Aberdeen High School, is executive officer of the USS Independence.
His wife, from the family home in Oak Harbor, says she believes her husband is fairly safe where he is. “I can’t imagine too many people wanting to attack a U.S. carrier.”
The captain’s mother, Dorothea Bixler, is following the crisis from Aberdeen. His father, Leroy Bixler, who was a flight instructor at Bowerman Field, died in 1981.
August 8, 1990
It may not be civil war, but the line in the sand at the beach in Ocean Shores clearly divides north from south.
Signs that prohibit motorized vehicles from driving south at the city’s main beach access force all traffic north, and on weekends the line separates two completely different worlds.
To the south of Chance A La Mer access, a scattering of people play on the sand and splash in the surf on a typical sunny Sunday.
Beginning immediately after the bright red signs that mark the “pedestrian use only” portion of the beach, rows of parked cars stretch down the length of the sand. Moving in and out of the parked vehicles is a stream of cars, people and mopeds. Farther north, large groups of horses join the crowd.
“It’s a potential accident waiting to happen,” said Sandi Fulbright, owner of Rising Star Ranch. “We fight the cars, we fight the mopeds, we fight the kites.”
Sonny Haarmeyer of the Seahorse Ranch asserts that the danger holds more than mere potential. “We’ve had more mishaps this year than ever before because of the congestion,” he said. “There’s no organization out there, so people are kind of fending for themselves.”
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.
