Bay City grapevine

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Bay City Grapevine

Featuring the latest news happenings in and around Bay City, Oregon, plus occasional features, a weekly column and a picture or two every now and then. And, from time to time, we’ll throw in a bit of humor or tongue-in-cheek commentary on world events. Read and enjoy

-- John R. Sollman, Editor and Publisher

Bay City United Methodist Church

Bay City United Methodist Church

City Councilors Come and Go while the sparks fly

New Bookmobile on its way -- Also Salmon Eggs

Games a foot to resurface the outdoor tennis court

Articles this issue:

Letters to the editor

Dr. William C. Hawk and the Tillamook Bay Hospital

The Rise and Fall of the "San Francisco of the North"

The Bay City/Tillamook newspaper wars of 1891-‘93

Tsunami safe zones now marked

Fire station paint job benefits Project Graduation

Earthquake Survival

Over The Back Fence

Planning Commission tackles Transportation System Plan

The Slug's Eye View

Childhood memories: Going Away

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
by John R. Sollman

Though the Lewis and Clark expedition is highly touted in many history books as the first crossing of the North American continent by white men, they were certainly not the first. The Hudson's Bay Company was well-entrenched in Canada, and the Northwest was a favorite source of furs and pelts for the French trappers of that era.

It is even rumored that Sir Francis Drake might have visited the Pacific Northwest in the Golden Hind two centuries earlier, and that Tillamook Bay was actually the Drake's Bay of legend. The tall, straight firs of the Pacific Northwest were highly prized as masts for English men of war. All said, the Indians of western Oregon and Washington were well-acquainted with white men long before Lewis and Clark.

Joseph L. Meek had been raised in Virginia and was well educated. But the lust for adventure, to be part of something new, drove him to St. Louis, Missouri, in the fall of 1828, at the tender age of 18 years. He applied to trader William Sublette for a job as a trapper with his trading company. After some soul searching, Sublette took the lad on, and in March 1829 Joe Meek became one of 54 trappers en route to the Rocky Mountains.

The rest of the story

Dr. William C. Hawk and The Tillamook Bay Hospital
by John R. Sollman

Dr. William Calvin Hawk received his medical degree from Rush Medical College in Illinois and married Emma McLain about 1870. The couple traveled around the country, first in the South, and then westward. In each location, he would hang out his shingle, and she would open up a millinery shop. She also taught the local ladies how to make their own stunning bonnets. According to a piece in "Tillamook, Lest We Forget" by the Hawks' grandson, Herbert "Hub" Miller, Dr. Hawk was in Tombstone the day of the famed Gunfight at the OK Corral. Dr. Hawk and his family finally settled in Jefferson, near Salem, and opened a practice there.

But the Westward urge was strong in him, and in 1905 he traveled to Tillamook County to see whether there would be any prospect for him to establish his practice there. He soon acquired property in Bay City and returned to Jefferson to close out his practice and move his extended family to Bay City.

The rest of the story

Law and Order and Public Services in Old Bay City
by John R. Sollman

Herbert "Hub" Miller, in his book, "Adventures of an Oregon Country Boy," describes a society where murders were rare, most thefts were petty, and domestic spats always got more coverage in the "Headlight-Herald." Most of the action was in white-collar crime --- people getting swindled out of their money through blue-sky investment scams.

Bay City once had a town marshal named Longcore, who threw people in the town jail for fighting, or being drunk and disorderly. After sobering up following a night in the city jail, the now-chastened inebriate would be released after paying a hefty fine of about $2 and promising to lay off the sauce. But rarely were those promises kept for long --- sometimes no longer than 10 or 12 hours. That hefty $2 fine may seem trivial today, but it was a day's wages then.

The rest of the story

The Rise and Fall of the "San Francisco of the North"
by John R. Sollman

When the City of Bay City was preparing to incorporate for the second time in 1910, the region was well along in its transition from the pioneer days to the modernity of the 20th century. Greed was truly alive in well in those days of blue-sky speculation on everything from dairy animals to logging to real estate development to railroad building.

The area which was to become Bay City had the advantage of a large, reasonably deep bay protected from ocean storms by a sand spit some four miles west across the bay. When Captain Gray first transited the bar in the sloop, Lady Washington, to enter the bay in the late 1700s, he had 36 feet beneath the ship's keel at low tide. (There continues to be speculation whether Tillamook Bay was actually the Drake's Bay described in the ship's logs of Sir Francis Drake some 200 years earlier.)

A mill and shipyard had been established south of Bay City's Goose Point area where the "Morning Star" and several other vessels were constructed. The channels, in those days, were sufficiently deep to permit ocean-going vessels to transit the bay without danger of grounding. The Bay City area provided good docking and moorage potential, and a pier was constructed to facilitate movement by sea of Tillamook products, such as cheese, butter and timber, to consumers in Portland and the Willamette Valley.

The rest of the story

The Bay City United Methodist Church
by John R. Sollman

Bay City's defining feature is the Bay City United Methodist Church, situated at the corner of 5th and D Streets. The church's origins go all the way back to the 1860s.

Lucy E. Doughty writes in her history of the Bay, or Kilchis, Church that when her family "arrived in Idaville or Bay District" in September 1870, they found that there was already an established church. It was called the "Bay Preaching Place," and met in the Kilchis River School House near the bay shore. (The Idaville area was once known as Jawbone.)

In those days, the bay shore was not where it is now. In fact, the mill where the Morning Star and other boats were built is located on the present-day Pioneer Museum property south of Bay City's Goose Point area, nowhere near today's bay shore. But that is another story.

Doughty writes as follows in "Tillamook History":

"There were only eight white families on the whole bay shore: the Vaughns and Aldermans on the little 'prairie' or open land reaching back from Idaville, Mr. and Mrs. Coleman on the tideland nearby, the Davidsons at the mouth of the Wilson River, the Hiram Smith and Hiram Terwilliger homes at the present site of Bay City, the Elmers across the bay on what is now the Beals place, and the Bayleys at Garibaldi; besides these, Webley Hauxhurst lived on the Sandspit that is now Bay Ocean."

More . . .

City Councilors come and go while the sparks fly
By John Sollman

BAY CITY March 20, 2010 --- The revolving door to the Bay City Council chambers is working well.

On March 9, Attorney Lois Albright administered the oath to newly-appointed Councilor Robert Pollock, whom the Bay City Council appointed to replace Ron Tewalt.

At the end of the March 9 Council meeting, Councilor Amy Fullan resigned from the Council because she is moving out of town. Fullan's seat will be filled through another appointment.

The Council, on a three/two vote, appointed John Gettman president of the City Council, replacing Ron Tewalt in that position. The president presides over Council meetings in the absence of the mayor, and has authority to sign checks, also in the absence of the mayor. But that appointment would be short lived.

More . . .

New Bookmobile on its way --- also salmon eggs
By John Sollman

BAY CITY March 20, 2010 --- Friends of the Library held their long-overdue semiannual meeting today at the Bay City Community hall. The Friends last met March 21, 2009, one year ago. The Friends would have met last September in Garibaldi, but for the death of Friends of the Library president Pat Peterson last August. Pat Vining wielded the gavel as president pro tempore.

But things have come together quite nicely during the hiatus, thanks to a fund-raising spaghetti dinner last August which yielded about $500. But we did learn a lesson at that fund-raiser, said Assistant Librarian Leo Schreiner. "We learned to have some 'to go' plates on hand." Apparently some of the diners preferred to have their pasta in the park.

Schreiner also announced that the new Bookmobile would be departing soon for its final destination, its reserved parking slot at the Tillamook County Library. "It's due April 14," Schreiner noted, to which a member shot back, "Tell 'em to drive carefully!"

But the major announcement of the meeting was made by County Librarian Sara Charlton: The library board has approved a salmon propagation project at the Bay City branch library as a science education feature.

Diane Griffin, who had introduced salmon propagation as a science class project for her fourth and fifth graders at Garibaldi Grade School, was disappointed that the project was not continued following her retirement.

Each January, about 250 Chinook eggs were placed in her classroom fish tank. The children watched the eggs hatch into tiny fish; saw how the fish got their nourishment from the egg sacs clinging to their bellies; and observed how the sacs disappeared and slits in the fish's bellies closed up. Then it was off to Patterson Creek to launch the little guys on their journey to the sea. The children learned firsthand now Nature works if given the chance, and how that chance depends upon having clean water and a clean environment.

Griffin still has her license to rear baby salmon, and the Trask Fish Hatchery is providing some of the equipment needed. Local children will once again be able to benefit from Griffin's resourceful and innovative environmental science project.

Vining brought the Friends up to date on Bay City's planned Centennial Celebration on Labor Day weekend, and displayed one of the tee shirts sporting a picture of old Bay City, which will soon go on sale to raise funds for the Centennial.

Charlton also announced that the library's photos of old Bay City could be made available to the Arts Center for display during the Centennial.

The Bay City and Garibaldi branch libraries each received $5 thousand to make needed improvements during the summer, including new carpeting, paint and some furniture. Also, Charlton advised, the libraries will now have copies of the Oregonian for patrons to read.

Since there had been no meeting for a whole year, it was assumed that all members owed some dues. Several members suggested tiered memberships, depending on amounts contributed. Joe Wrabeck recommended an Adopt a Book program and suggested, tongue-in-cheek, the following membership tiers:

Paperback Membership: $10. You get into any County library for free.

Volume Membership: $25. Any member of your family gets in for free.

Encyclopedia Membership: $100. You can get into other libraries for free; and, you get the tee shirt and a discount on extra tee shirts purchased.

World Wide Web Membership: $500. You get nothing, but you're virtually satisfied.

The Friends agreed to meet September 11 at the Garibaldi branch library and elect officers at that time. They will hold a second fundraiser at the Bay City Community Hall September 18.

Game's afoot to resurface the outdoor tennis court
By John Sollman

BAY CITY Feb. 24, 2010 --- Mayor Shaena Peterson, appearing before the Bay City Boosters Club February 19, announced that a grant request to Tillamook P.U.D. was nearing completion to help fund Phase One of the project to resurface the Bay City outdoor tennis court.

Phase One will remove the existing asphalt covering of the court and replace it with a two-inch lift, a prerequisite of the U.S. Tennis Association for installation of a regulation playing surface. Phase One will include engineering, grading and improving drainage, preparing and compacting the sub-base, leveling and applying the two-inch asphalt lift.

More . . .

Surviving the Big One
By John Sollman

BAY CITY Jan. 15, 2010 —Mayor Shaena Peterson held a Town Hall meeting last December to urge Bay City residents to make preparations to survive a disaster. We've seen many major storms that produce landslides in the mountains and cut the Coast off from the Valley for from several days to several weeks. The December 2007 storm was such a disaster --- some of us would liken it to a major disaster --- but it pales in comparison to a major subduction quake offshore followed by a tsunami: the so-called "Big One."

More . . .

Rails to nowhere
By John Sollman

BAY CITY Nov. 23, 2009 --- 1911 was a big year for Tillamook County. That was the year modern rail transportation arrived. The Pacific Railroad and Navigation Company, incorporated in October 1905, punched a rail line through the Coast Range and down the Salmonberry Canyon, ultimately meeting up with the other end of the line under construction from Tillamook northward through Bay City, Garibaldi, Rockaway Beach and Wheeler. The completed line initially offered Portlanders a scenic eight-hour trip to luxuriate on Oregon's magnificent beaches, a welcome alternative to suffering mal de mer aboard the Elmore or the Argo and braving the hazards of bar crossings at Astoria and Garibaldi.

More . . .

Fireplace and chimney inspections urged
By Don Reynolds, Bay City Fire Chief

BAY CITY OCt. 13, 2009-- On Friday, October 8, the Fire Department responded to a chimney fire in Bay City. The circumstances of this fire pointed out several lessons that everyone must be aware of. The occupants had been painting and had not reinstalled the smoke alarms after finishing the paint job.

Lesson number one: Smoke alarms don't work unless they are properly installed and have good batteries in them.

They build a fire in the fireplace and sat down in the room to keep warm.

Lesson number two: Inspect the fireplace or wood stove to be sure it has good internal integrity before starting a fire. If you're not sure, have a qualified inspector look at the unit.

The fire in the fireplace was burning down when the occupants noticed the smell of smoke and noted smoke in the upstairs portion of the house.

Lesson number three: Call 911 as soon as you are aware of a problem in the house.

All went well as far as lesson three was concerned, and the fire department was on scene 8 minutes from the time the residents called.

The fireplace had cracks in it that allowed fire to migrate outside the chimney and created a fire in the wall of the house. The firefighters had to open the wall to get at the fire, causing some damage to the wall that will have to be repaired. Fortunately, no one was injured; only a small amount of damage was done to the house, so repair costs should not be too high.

These folks were lucky. Everyone should take a minute to review their own house for the lessons learned. November 1 is our return to Standard Time, and this makes it a good time for you to check your smoke alarms and make sure your house is fire safe. If you would like a fire audit of you home for your own benefit, please contact the fire station at 503-377-0233 and leave a message if no one is there. We will get back to you.

But, do not call that number if you have a fire or medical emergency. For those kinds of issues, CALL 911.

The Bay City/Tillamook newspaper wars of 1891-‘93
By Peter B. Smith

BAY CITY Oct. 10, 2009 — On June 8, 1888, with word of a town being platted to the North at Obet Thomas’ Landing by timber cruiser Winfield Scott Cone, Tillamook businessmen started a staunchly Republican propaganda organ called the Tillamook Headlight.

Cone dubbed his town Bay City after his home town in Michigan. Backed by Salem businessmen, Bay City was deemed a threat to Tillamook politicians and real estate speculators, whose fortunes depended on Tillamook’s remaining the center of county commerce.
That year, Cone and C.E. Wilson purchased 52 acres of land from Washington and Martha Jacoby, which the Jacobys had purchased from Martha’s uncle, John Monroe. He, in turn, had inherited it from an earlier settler, Obet S. Thomas, in 1882. More. . .

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Over The Back Fence
John R. Sollman, Editor and Publisher

BAY CITY, August 31, 2010 --- It's going to happen. Come Saturday, we'll have a gala Centennial celebration. As I pointed out to Linda Vining the other day, we're at the point where it's going to happen in spite of anything we do.

The weather prospects, as of today, look pretty good, but lots can change in the five days remaining before the event unfolds. Let's hope we actually get the sunshine we are being promised today.

At our final Centennial planning meeting, Patti Watson reported that there would be 45 vendors, some selling food, occupying 53 spaces. Vendors will be on B Street, outside City Hall and the Fire Station. The street will be closed for the event, and some of the vendors will be located in the middle of it. Though most of the vendors will be on the street, there will be 11 vendors inside the Community Hall.

Click here for more back fence. . .

Planning Commission tackles Transportation System Plan
By John Sollman

BAY CITY Feb. 24, 2010 --- The Bay City Planning Commission held a public hearing February 17 to give local residents and other interested parties an opportunity to comment on the proposed Transportation System Plan.

A plan is ordinarily adopted by City Council resolution. But a Transportation Plan is different, dealing, to some extent, with land use. Oregon Administrative Rules require that a Transportation System Plan be made a part of the Comprehensive Plan.

The proposed Transportation System Plan has a somewhat convoluted history. It began with an application for a Transportation Growth Management Grant to develop a Transportation System Master Plan in January 2007. In July 2007, an ODOT representative gave City Planner Sabrina Pearson some boilerplate transportation plan language derived from a Transportation Refinement Plan recently developed for Rockaway Beach.

More . . .

Childhood memories: Going away
By Anna Martin

Introduction: Anna Martin is an old high school chum of my wife, Sharline. I had known her briefly during the several months I attended Milwaukie High School in 1948, where Sharline and I met. Anna, a lovely person, is a Native Alaskan, daughter of an Upick mother and Danish father. The Upick people are related to the Inuit. Anna grew up in the village of Levelock, nestled on the south bank of the Kvichak River, which empties into Bristol Bay on the north shore of the Alaska Peninsula. As a child growing up in Alaska, Anna had many experiences a child in the Lower 48 would never know. She shares these experiences in this and other memoirs I will publish in the coming months. John Sollman

I'm going away. Daddy asked me if I wanted to go to Naknek to school. I said yes. I didn't know what school was. Mama doesn't want me to go. She is crying. She and Daddy had a fight. He wants me to go. She is always saying we have to do what Daddy says, and makes us promise not to tell him about her secret fish that is buried in a hole until it is rotten, which she loves to eat. I want to be like her and please Daddy.

It's cold and windy. The summer fishing season is over. There is no school here in Levelock. I don't feel right getting in the boat. But I know it is the right thing to do. Mama hugs me, crying softly in a high, sad noise. I don't like to hear it. I'm feeling like I might fall apart, but Daddy is stiff and strong in his determination. Mama ties her blue kerchief tighter around her black hair. She's coming apart, too. I watch her crumble softly into the long fall grass on the river bank. She shrinks smaller and smaller as Daddy's boat pulls us down the river, taking me away to school.

The diesel engine chugs fast and strong. Exhaust steams out the right side of the boat, curling and mixing with Daddy's pipe smoke. They stink worse than the sweet, spoiled odor of Mama's secret fish.

I'm cold. The boat bounces up and down with the grey, slapping waves. Daddy doesn't look at me. I wonder why he is taking me. He doesn't like to talk. Now I can see all the houses in Levelock getting smaller and smaller. I'm leaving Mama, aunt Natalia, uncle Wassie, my brother and baby sister. I can't even hear the dogs barking anymore. I feel trapped like a muskrat. Nothing to do but watch the trees go by. A song starts singing in my mind and goes along with the sound of the boat engine, over and over, repeating itself in a monotonous monotone. I hate the smell of Daddy's pipe. He coughs and taps out the tobacco on the side of the boat as if he read my mind. He tells me to bail out the water that's between the ribs on the bottom of the boat. I know how to bail water real good. The wind blows some of it back in my face. I feel a little excited now.

We pass Koggiung Cannery, Squaw Creek and Coffee Creek. We eat some pilot bread and butter. Daddy lets me steer while he pumps up the kerosene stove to heat water for coffee. I'm eight years old and can do a lot of things --- carry wood into the house, pump water, wash dishes, pick berries, set a muskrat trap, pluck a goose. Now I'm going to school in Naknek.

We travel the whole day. I'm taken to the home of a Norwegian couple, John and Edna Johnson. They are told my name is Anna. This is news to me. I had always been called Bibsy. Daddy meant well, I'm sure, but my fate is sealed. He soon left and my schooling began ...

Predictions for 2010
By John Sollman

BAY CITY, Dec. 30, 2009 --- Where has the year gone? 2009 seems to have ended before it got going, and now we have 2010 staring us in the face.

As is the custom at this time of year, we reflect on what has happened in the year just ending and make our predictions about what the new year will bring. These predictions have always been known for their uncanny accuracy. Endowed with the gift of sight at this time of the year, I'll tell you what's in store for 2010. Sort of.

Much of 2010 will be driven by the War on Terror, which, because of the challenge offered by the Underwear Bomber, will be pursued with renewed zeal and vigor.

Jan. 4: Top bureaucrats of the Homeland Insecurity Department and Directorate of National Intransigence will offer their individual analyses of the Underwear Bombing imbroglio mostly by blaming the other guy.

More . . .

Mill at Bay City razed by fire
By Peter B. Smith

THE TILLAMOOK HEADLIGHT, May 21, 1924 — "The Oregon Silver Spruce Company's mills at Bay City were totally destroyed by fire Monday afternoon and evening, and the entire city threatened with flames by a stiff southwest wind.

"The fire started in a hot journal in the trim saw about 2:30 in the afternoon. The mill was said to have been connected to the city's low-pressure water system which was inadequate to reach the flames. The blaze quickly spread and in a short time the entire mill destroyed at an estimated loss of $75,000 to $100,000. The capacity of the entire mill was 60,000 feet daily and a large amount of the cut lumber was consumed by fire.

"The Tillamook Fire Department's ladder truck responded to a call, but found its equipment was handicapped by lack of water pressure. City Mayor Smith*, and Fire Chief Coats authorized the city's pumper to go to the scene and accomplished effective work after damming a creek from which water was pumped. The entire force of the Tillamook Department fought the fire for over four hours. The Whitney company's mills at Garbaldi shut down in order to release their men to aid Bay City.

The rest of the story

History of Bay City
by Peter B. Smith, with the assistance of John Sollman

When headlines in the February 1913 Bay City Examiner announced, “Bay City Cannery Closed Indefinitely,” locals were not surprised.The railroad had been running through town for two years. The docks were built, Bay City real estate sales were booming, and the mill and at least two canneries were running around the clock when local fishermen went on strike.

Strikes between fishermen and processors were not new. The first battles with Northwest Coastal fish processors began in the 1880s on the Astoria docks, and have never stopped. As recently as 2005, price disputes delayed the crab season for a month. . .

Click here for more back History. . .

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Earthquake Survival

By Don Reynolds -- Bay City Fire Chief
There are two things everyone needs to understand about earthquake and tsunami survival:

  • You will be on your own for most of the survival period; and
  • you should know what to do if you are caught in either of these life threatening situations.

Your fire department will give you information to help you to survive. The first installment, Earthquake Survival, is based on a talk by Doug Copp, Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager for American Rescue Team International, the world's most experienced rescue team. Doug has been inside 875 collapsed buildings in 60 countries and knows of what he speaks. Doug's ten tips, summarized below, could save your life.


TEN TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

  1. People who "duck and cover," or get under objects like beds, desks or cars are generally crushed to death.
  2. Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position, a natural survival instinct. You should too. Get next to a sofa or some large, bulky object which will compress slightly but leave a void next to it where you can survive.

More . . .

Tsunami safe zones now marked
By John Sollman

BAY CITY Sept. 15, 2009 — It’s been a while in coming, but they’re finally here. During the past few days, the Bay City Public Works crew has been going about town painting silver-blue lines on all the streets where they emerge from the presumed tsunami run-up zone.
According to Public Works Superintendent Dave Pace, the lines mark the 80-foot elevation level, above which one should be safe from tsunami run-up. And, Pace said, there’s more to come. Soon you’ll see lettering on the streets advising that you’re above the tsunami danger zone.

The most recent mapping by the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries indicates a tsunami run-up of about 57 feet, but these maps were made a number of years ago. The 80-foot elevation was selected to provide an extra margin of safety for the City.

Thanks to the stimulus, DOGAMI is re-mapping coastal elevations, starting on the South Coast, using the new LIDAR process. This process should enable a far more accurate delineation of tsunami run-up areas.

The Disaster Mitigation Committee, headed by Fire Chief Don Reynolds, continues to develop plans to help mitigate the effects of “The Big One” when it finally happens. It’s a question of “when,” not “if.” It’s inevitable, and it is the goal of the Disaster Mitigation Committee to have plans and resources in place to care for our survivors until help can arrive from the Valley. Reynolds says we should be prepared to hold out for several weeks, at least.

The Slug's Eye View

by Peter B. Smith, (additions by John Sollman)
The Mothers' Club 1948
In the top drawer of a file cabinet in the Tillamook Library, in the "Bay City" rubric, one may find an early record of the Bay City Mothers' Club. The sheets are tattered and hard to read, but worth the effort.

In 1948 a constitution was written and the club began raising funds for various civic projects. In 1955 the club began discussing the park as a project and approached the Bay City Boosters Club which, happily, voted to turn over their interest in the park to the Mothers, helping out whenever possible.

In July 1955, the Mothers put on a dance, with proceeds dedicated to park upgrades. A work party cleared brush and planted donated grass seed, which quickly sprouted. The restroom was restored to working order, whether it was an outhouse or a more sturdy structure with plumbing was not stated. (The original facility, according Betsy Griffin, was a "two-holer" outhouse at the far end of the ball field.)

Playground equipment started with a donated backyard children's swing set, and evolved from there. The City Council voted to provide a drinking fountain, sand box, teeter totter, and rings, with local stonemason Al Griffin building the drinking fountain and a barbecue as well, from which the steel grate was later stolen. (Griffin would serve as the town's mayor for many years, and after he died in office in 1998. The park was named in his honor.)

 

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