85 YEARS AGO

March 30, 1940

More than 100 Olympic elk, all apparently in “fine shape” were sighted by Chester Young and Allan Grant on a trip this week to the Oscar Smith ranch on the upper Queets River, they say.

Seventeen members of the Five O’Clock club braved the rain and wind yesterday at the Grays Harbor Country Club to open the 1940 golf season, but “Czar” Bert Hulbert called off the playing at the completion of four holes and the group adjourned to the club house for a banquet and business session.

April 3, 1940

Struck by a flying snag while working in the rigging at the Clemons Logging company works near Melbourne, Raymond Hobson, 25, was in serious condition with a fractured skull and other injuries at the Aberdeen General Hospital today.

The snag struck the top of his head and between his shoulder blades, bruising his back and fracturing his skull.

April 4, 1940

An advertisement for the Aberdeen Safeway store opening at the corner of W. Wishkah and I reads, “You’re invited to the spectacular Grand Opening of Aberdeen’s beautiful new Safeway Store … A spacious free parking lot eliminates your parking problems when you shop at this new store.” Advertised specials include pot roast for 15-cents a pound; sirloin or rib steaks for 19-cents a pound; a choice of pork chops or bacon for 18-cents a pound.

April 5, 1940

Plans for replacing the burned Aberdeen Plywood plant with another plywood plant, to be locally owned, were under way today immediately following the decision of the Aberdeen Plywood company stockholders, meeting at Olympia last night, not themselves to rebuild.

The replacement plans call for raising the required capital locally, and some offers of readiness to subscribe have been made already. Details have not been completed. While no site has been chosen, that of the old Slade mill, on Heron street just east of the Wishkah bridge, is prominent in the preliminary discussions. The site, which has both water and rail connections and is regarded as admirably suited for the purpose, was acquired recently by the city at the county tax sale.

The plans as now discussed call for a plant of equal capacity with the burned plant. It would employ about 450 workers.

60 YEARS AGO

March 30, 1965

Terrorists set off an estimated 250 pounds of explosives in a parked car alongside the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, South Viet Nam today, killing at least 17 persons and wounding at least 151.

The South Side Fire Station was gutted and burned yesterday in preparation for construction of the new two-story $69,000 fire house. The old building housed Engine 6 and a reserve pumper and two men were on duty around the clock for years, according to Fire Chief Louie Larson.

March 31, 1965

Gene Thompson, fast-balling Hoquiam right-hander, hurled the Harbor area’s first no-hit no-run game of the young baseball season yesterday as the Grizzlies drubbed Montesano, 8-0 in a six inning contest.

Thompson struck out 11 Bulldogs while walking only two. Line drives by Greg Moore, Larry Packard and Tom Conley were the only well-tagged balls hit off Thompson, and all were swallowed in Grizzly gloves.

April 3, 1965

In a marathon that started out as a late afternoon contest and ended up under lights after 7 p.m., Aberdeen High School’s baseball team nipped Hoquiam 1 to 0 in 11 innings at Pioneer Park yesterday in the SWW Conference Northern Division opener.

Righthander Mike Hatley shut out the Grizzlies on five hits while fanning 15 and walking only two. Terry Church, Hoquiam’s strong-armed fireballer, lost a tough one, striking out 15 and giving up just seven hits.

April 5, 1965

Joseph J. Kaufman, 81, died unexpectedly Sunday in a Tacoma hospital. He was born in Benson County, Minn. He came to Aberdeen in the early days and started what is now the Kaufman-Scroggs Furniture Co. in 1903. He had been president of the National Retail Furniture Association.

30 YEARS AGO

March 30, 1990

Fans hoping to hear tunes from the Fab Four weren’t disappointed by the Fab One as Paul McCartney kicked off the final leg of his international tour last night at the Seattle Kingdome.

At the “Flowers in the Dirt” concert, McCartney bridged the generation gap with tunes such as “Let It Be” and “Hey, Jude.” But he also sang some new songs which also pleased the crowd of about 55,000.

Genie Benson, 39, got hooked on McCartney when she first saw him on the “Ed Sullivan” show when she was 14. She talked a ticket scalper down from $1,000 to $550 for a pair of second row tickets.

“I’ve gone broke on this person,” Benson said, adding that she spent $1,000 in November flying to Los Angeles when the U.S. tour began, for three McCartney concerts, seven T-shirts and two programs.

Michelle Grover’s leadoff home run triggered an eight-run first inning that led unbeaten North Beach to a 10-0 victory over Hoquiam junior varsity in a non-league softball game Thursday in Moclips.

Dawneen DeLaCruz homered in the second inning for the Lady Hyaks. Grover wound up with three hits and DeLaCruz and Juli Sutter two apiece for the winner.

March 31, 1990

Approaching the final startup phase of his fledgling motorbike assembly plant in Hoquiam, businessman Jack Phelps is still riding a bumpy road and hardly finds time to relax. But the founder of Pacific Northwest Bikes says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I know it’s going to happen but I won’t rest easy until that first one rolls off,” he said.

The first large shipment of parts for the foldable, street legal Di Blasi motorbikes is expected to reach Seattle in late April or early May.

Phelps concedes he’s a bit behind schedule but says pre-production orders from companies nationwide have already topped the $25 million mark. And negotiations are intensifying with a Chicago-area developer interested in establishing a Midwest manufacturing plant for the motorbike parts.

Unable to find a place to dock so late in the game, the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport in Aberdeen has canceled plans to attend the Rose Festival at Portland this summer.

Meantime, the tall ship Lady Washington is set to consort with television magnate Ted Turner’s Bounty during the Goodwill Games at Seattle July 15 to Aug. 10.

The 18th-century ships will be moored side by side on Lake Union provided the Seaport board gives final approval for the trip, said Janet Richardson, volunteer executive director of the Seaport.

April 3, 1990

Westport lost some of its best lure when salmon seasons were cut in the early ’80s but merchants are realizing that there are bigger fish in the sea. A lot bigger.

More and more visitors are flocking to Westport each spring to catch a glimpse of the magnificent gray whales that pass by Grays Harbor on their annual trip from California to the rich feeding grounds in the Bering Sea.

Actually, whales aren’t fish. They’re mammals, but that just makes them all the more fascinating for hundreds of curious people from Seattle and points east.

Last Saturday, the Westport dock area was bustling with camera-toting whale watchers. More than 150 people paid $22 to $25 each to board several whale-watching charter boats.

John Smith of Aberdeen, a former administrator at Grays Harbor College, started organizing weekend whale-watching tours about six years ago. As operator of Northwest Educational Tours, Smith charters fishing boats in Westport and organizes tours with the Seattle Aquarium and Pacific Science Center.

April 4, 1990

Two Grayland boys will walk 18 miles this Saturday to raise funds for Mike Beck, a South Beach resident who is struggling with medical bills from a kidney transplant.

Boyd Vinson, 11, and Tommy Roman, 10, plan to walk from the Tokeland Marina to the Westport Viewing Tower. They have been collecting pledges for more than a month and their goal is to raise $1,000.

April 5, 1990

Like most any other day, the green chain at the Mayr Bros. sawmill was humming this morning with workers in hard hats hovering over conveyor belts and diverting streams of freshly cut lumber into tall stacks.

But from loggers to sales people, there was only one question in the minds of the 190 employees who work for the family owned Hoquiam company: “What now?”

Tom Mayr, president of the resilient company founded by his father and uncle, scanned the newspapers. The banner headline on Page One screamed, “Scientists side with the owl.” Another said, “NW braces for curbs in logging.”

Asked if he had a few minutes to give his reaction to the recommendation by a government panel of scientists who urged further cutbacks in logging on national forest lands, Mayr put the newspaper down. “Yeah, it looks like I’m going to have lots of time now.”

“As I understand it, they are virtually saying, ‘Shut the Olympic Forest down,’” Mayr said.

“The most disturbing thing to me is the fact that they gave no consideration to management practices that would enhance owl habitat,” he said.

He said he isn’t ready to throw in the towel but acknowledged that new technology to handle smaller timber “would take more money to modify the mill than the mill is currently worth.”

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.