Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
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Fishing in Southwestern Washington This past month I have witnessed a prolific amount of people along the Columbia River fishing. This is not an unusual event as it is not only the commercial fishermen trying to make a decent wage, but also the average Joe with his family or friends enjoying a weekend on the water. In all the years I have lived here I have never witnessed the amount of boats on the water near the Astoria-Megler Bridge and numerous people fishing from the banks of the river. I personally think it is because the lifted...
Deciding whether a child should attend school in person or continue remote learning this fall has been a very personal issue for many families in Wahkiakum County. I was able to catch up with five such families. Three have decided to return to school in person, and two feel more comfortable keeping their children home for the time being. Natalie Sutton’s family is excited to start school. Their youngest, Thomas, will be starting classes for the first time as a kindergartener. HIs introduction t...
Wahkiakum County commissioners breezed though a light agenda Tuesday, approving some personnel changes, discussing 9-1-1 telecommunication issues and hearing a report from the county's health department administrator. Health and Human Services Department Director Chris Bischoff had three issues to discuss as the commission met as the county board of health: 1. Anticipation of another appropriation of CARES Act funding to address pandemic issues; 2. the start of in-school classes in Cathlamet schools, and 3. the approach of the flu season....
Naselle-Grays River School District classes will resume the week of Sept. 14 Following is an outline of the district's plan to educate students during the covid-19 pandemic. Superintendent of schools Lisa Nelson specified that there will not be any mandatory screening for covid-19 as a prerequisite for attending school. Those that do attend school must have all their vaccinations as required by the State of Washington. The district has decided to delay the start of school for students until Sept. 14 to better prepare their staff and families...
What is happening with the SR4 Slide? Celeste Dimichina, the communications consultant for The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), has informed me of an update on the State Route 4 Emergency Stabilization Project. As of Aug. 20, this project was awarded to Granite Construction Company. Typically, once a project has been awarded, it can take up to 45 days before construction can begin. This would mean construction on this project will begin sometime between late September and...
Appelo Archives Center Hires New Director The Appelo Archives Center is located at 1056 State Route 4 in Naselle. It has a new director named Annika Kay. She was born in Anaheim, Calif., and raised in Orange County. She received her bachelor of arts degree from California State University at Fullerton and her master's degree in Fine Arts from the California Institute of Arts. She believes that working for the Appelo Archives Center fits her life style because of the creative and intellectual...
Mary Ellen (Simukka) Saari, 85, of Naselle, WA, died peacefully on August 18, 2020, in Longview, WA. She was born on February 13, 1935, to Matt and Ester Simukka and was a life-long resident of, in her words, “good-ole Naselle.” She loved her Lord, family, friends, hometown, and her Finnish heritage. While in high school, she played the clarinet in the band as well as in the Naselle Assembly of God orchestra. She also played the piano and sang duets with her sister Helen in church. She graduated from Naselle High School in 1954 and wed the lov...
If anyone in Wahkiakum County is struggling to put food on the table, it just doesn't have to be that way. There are a lot of resources available and a network of willing volunteers who want to ensure no one is going hungry in the community while the byproducts of a covid-19 pandemic wreak havoc on people's income, savings, and more. Cecile Bamer is a relative newcomer to the community. She was looking for connection, and something to do, when she got involved with a group that may have started...
Give Me Your Input I have often been approached by readers of The Wahkiakum County Eagle who have ideas for stories, some of which in no way, shape, or form can I print. I do not usually have trouble getting the stories of interest to the readers of The Eagle. My goal has been to bring the readers stories of public interest that are of a historical nature of the area where we reside. I also like to bring stories that are either educational or entertaining. My goal is to become the historical authority on the history of the area. I understand...
Where It All Goes Years ago I decided that I could save money by taking my trash to the KM Transfer Station. I saw all the recycle for glass, plastic, cardboard, etc. Although I was familiar with recycling, I wondered where all the rest of the trash went to. As a boy I was able to go to landfills and I was amazed at the tons of refuse that people throw away. What amazed me more was that there were people at the dump who picked through the trash looking for some kind of treasure to them. There is a saying that one man’s trash is another m...
The number of confirmed cases of covid-19 in Wahkiakum County remained at five as of Tuesday night, with 371 tests having been conducted so far. Cowlitz County is reporting 457 cases with 244 considered active. Pacific County is up to 44 positive cases, 15 active. Across the river in Columbia County, there have been 84 confirmed cases, 11 of which are active, and in Clatsop County they have 81 positive cases, with 16 still active. Health and Human Services Director Chris Bischoff said in his...
An Acquired Taste Over the decades I have had the opportunity to taste authentic cuisines from all over the world. One thing I have found in almost every culture is that they all use some form of grain and make that into bread, tortilla, or any other type conveyance to place other vegetables and/or meats between them. In the United States we call it a sandwich. It is an incredible fact that Americans eat more than 300 million sandwiches a day. Americans consume almost as many sandwiches as there are people in the nation. The sandwich might be c...
By Rick Nelson Members of Wahkiakum County's board of commissioners would like to see an increase in public restrooms available to travelers. On Tuesday, they explored the concept with representatives of Port District 1 and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. All agreed this would be a long-term project and that they would see what each could offer to the project. In other business at the board's meeting Tuesday, commissioners accepted the resignation of another member of the county planning...
Only Time Will Tell A century from now historians and the curiosity seekers will look back and ponder at the things that have occurred in the last year between 2019 and 2020. This recent pandemic, regardless of one’s opinion, has reshaped our generation and we have yet to see the outcome or aftermath. The one thing that comes to mind concerning some of this is when some have suggested defunding the police. In a perfect world that would be an ideal situation. In the real world the last thing we need is not having any type of police. Anarchy a...
The Naselle/Grays River Valley School District Board of Directors met for a budget hearing on July 21 followed by a regular meeting to conduct the district’s business. The district's business manager presented the proposed budget for the coming school year with projected revenue of $7,749,759 and projected expenses of $7,852,05. The budget was subsequently approved. K-12 school enrollment was forecast at 284, with unknowns around enrollment because of the pandemic. Along with the budget presentation, the board reviewed its goals for the 2...
Odd Behavior Explained In a previous article in The Wahkiakum County Eagle, I wrote about the importance of cats in the county. This story was partly inspired by the feral cats I saw at Deep River Camp and because my daughter rescued a European Shorthair cat that was already trained to use the litter box. This breed of cat is believed to have originated in Sweden and was found to be very common as well in Finland before being seen across the United States. I remember a scripture in the Bible...
It will be a wholly different Wahkiakum County Fair this year, much of it thanks to youth who are leading the way. Wahkiakum County Fair Manager Patty Dursteler has been working on new computers and a much improved internet service at the fairgrounds in Skamokawa, upgrades recently provided by Wahkiakum County. She is tackling some heavy duty data entry, getting a recently purchased program ready to showcase entries online for this year’s virtual fair. Soon, fair participants will be able to u...
Local officials covered a lot of ground July 14 when they met for a round table and meeting of the Wahkiakum County board of commissioners. l In the roundtable hosted by the Cowlitz/Wahkiakum Council of Governments, State Sen. Dean Takko and Rep. Brian Blake said it is unlikely there will be a special legislative session in August to deal with the impacts of the covid-19 epidemic. Blake, chair of the House Rural Development, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, said one issue upon which he is focused is boosting hatchery production i...
NICE--We're finally getting a bit more summer-like weather and with that, it means our gardens need a little extra drink and it also means more people out and about on the waterways, so be extra careful out there. Then of course, the increased sunshine means one should not be leaving their animals in their rigs at this time as those dogs can't sweat like humans do, so here's hoping everyone is adhering to this common sense idea and leaving Fido at home. It should go without saying that one should not leave a child in a hot car, but sadly this...
Katherine Lee Rostad, at 66 years old, died on July 18, 2020, of a 12-year battle against cancer. She was the loving wife of Bjarne Rostad. They spent 42 wonderful years together. Born in Longview, Washington, on March 17, 1954, she was the beautiful daughter of Oral and Thelma Thompson. She graduated from Columbia River High School, and Lewis and Clark College. She worked as a teacher and substitute teacher until becoming a full-time wife and mother. She was a devoted Seventh-day Adventist,...
The Lower Columbia Sr Babe Ruth baseball team travelled once again to Ernie Aiken Field in Astoria, Oregon on Monday afternoon to take on the Vancouver Mavericks. Lower Columbia had just come off a two game split against "The Yard" baseball club of Salem, Ore. The team played both contests at the Salem- Keizer Volcano's stadium in Keizer. Salem- Keizer is the single A minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. The bats were quiet for the local players on Monday. Ex-Wahkiakum Mule Luke...
Let There Be Light As a bored teenager walking down the aisles of my high school library perusing the book shelves for nothing in particular, one book caught my eye and would forever change the way I looked at light. I even asked myself why this particular book would even be in a high school library because there were no studies in this particular field of science at my school. The book was written by a very well-known theoretical physicist by the name of Albert Einstein. His book The Theory of Relativity and Other Essays was written in 1950,...
Peter and Nancy McGuire and Robert and Carol Virkelyst announce the marriage of Keely McGuire and Mark Virkelyst on July 18, 2020 on Harstine Island. Keely is a 2012 graduate of Naselle High school and was the 2009 Wahkiakum County Fair Queen. Both Keely and Mark graduated from the University of Washington. They will make their first home in Seattle....
The Power of Water: Grays River Grange Landslide In some of the previous articles I have discussed the power of water and how it has affected our lives. It is more evident in Wahkiakum County every year by freshets flooding the lowlands and the numerous landslides that permeate the area. In this last month the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has been clearing debris from a new slide on State Route 4 across from Grays River Grange #124 just west of Duffy's Irish Pub. This...
Travelers who use State Route 4, SR 401 and US 101 to go between Longview and the Astoria/Megler Bridge will need to plan ahead for delays as work to resurface several sections of the roadway gets underway. Beginning Tuesday of this week, the Washington State Department of Transportation’s contractor, Granite Construction Company, will start work to chip seal (resurface) several sections of the highway in Pacific and Wahkiakum counties--a 14-mile stretch of SR 4 between Kandoll Road west of Rosburg and the SR 401 intersection in Naselle, and a...
