75 years ago
July 20, 1942
Six hundred Fort Lewis soldiers earned up to $5 picking black raspberries Sunday for Yelm farmers who also provided two free meals and transportation.
The harvest was organized by Miss Alice Helenius, manager of the local U.S. employment office, through Fort Lewis officials. Nine bus loads of soldiers, plus a number in private cars, went to the fields and picked 40 tons of ripe berries.
July 21, 1942
For 40-odd years Jasper Bunch fought the Quinault river floods and tamed them. His weapons were brains and muscle, dynamite and a peavy.
Twice a year, and sometimes oftener, newly formed freshets would turn the river into a growling, tearing thing of destruction, which grabbed and raked at the banks, swallowing the good soil and the tall trees. Snags and logs and heavy rocks would congregate at the head of the old channel and to insure its being open to carry away the freshet crests, Bunch and his neighbors with dynamite and peavies and axes, blasted and cut and sawed and toted away the channel-blocking jams.
Now CCC crews working for the Olympic national park have built two wing dams and told Jasper and other ranchers to “leave them alone.” The ranchers are worried that means the next time the river rises , the CCC wing dams will throw the full force of the flow slam-bang into their road, their schoolhouse and their farms. And in a season or two, they fear that their years of labor to turn forests and stumpland into homes and ranches will be “gone down the river.”
50 years ago
July 20, 1967
• Westport’s five town councilmen acted in unison to draw the purse strings tight on the financial operation of the town at a special meeting last night, called at the councilmen’s request and presided over by Mayor Byron Cramer.
The council unanimously voted to allow no payment of any claims against the town until the next regular meeting, Aug. 7 and to limit each hourly employee’s work day to eight hours and his work week to 40 hours.
• Loren Tucker, supervisor of the state Department of Natural Resources’ fire control division, estimated Wednesday that the battle to control the 6,000 acre Quinault Reservation fire cost up to $130,000.
Mop-up crews were manning the lines Wednesday in the Raft River area west of Lake Quinault, where the blaze raged out of control for nearly five days before it was brought under control early Tuesday.
July 21, 1967
A graphic and sympathetic picture of how American soldiers, seriously wounded in Vietnam, are being helped on the long road to recovery was given the Montesano Chamber of Commerce Thursday by Paul Fournier, Montesano attorney and deputy prosecutor.
He and his wife recently returned from Fort Sam Houston, Texas, visiting their son, Paul Jr. who was seriously burned in a plane crash on May 22. For weeks, his recovery hung in the balance but now he is able to walk a little and can be taken on short rides.
“The spirit of the wounded boys is wonderful,” Fournier reported. “Never once did I hear one gripe.”
Every Monday, a plane load of badly burned arrive at the hospital, which is a research center for burns. Many are minus legs and arms, yet all of the many with whom Fournier came into contact were facing their ordeal with good cheer.
25 years ago
July 20, 1992
The Grays Harbor Nationals rolled unbeaten into the title round of the District 2 Babe Ruth-14 tournament Sunday in Chehalis by thumping Grays Harbor American, 14-4, in a five-inning winners’ bracket final.
Chris Dunsire went the distance on the mound for the Nats, allowing only four hits. He struck out just three but didn’t give up a single walk and retired the last seven batters in order.
He also drove in two runs, scored twice and collected the game’s MVP award.
July 21, 1992
Aubrey Floyd “Aub” Schmidt, 78, a well-known local musician during the Big Band era and owner of a popular music store in downtown Aberdeen for 35 years, died Monday at St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Aub Schmidt Music in the Elks Building on Wishkah Street was a place where young people gathered to listed to the latest 45s before deciding whether to buy. The parents, meanwhile, rented band instruments for their children.
Compiled from the archives of The Daily World by Karen Barkstrom
