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December 7, 1996: Yaquina Bay Lighthouse Relit

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Yaquina Bay Lighthouse (photo by Oregon Attractions on Flickr)The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse on the bay in Newport, Oregon was built in 1871 and decommissioned only three years later. But on December 7, 1996, it was re-lit as a privately maintained aid to navigation.

The light shines with a steady white light from dusk to dawn (and sometimes on dark days, because it is controlled by a photocell.) The light is 161 feet above sea level.

The lighthouse had originally been active only three years due to the construction of the Yaquina Head Light, three miles north, which made it obsolete.

Photo credit: Yaquina Bay Lighthouse by Oregon Attractions on Flickr, used here under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

December 5, 2006: New Fort Clatsop Replica Dedicated

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Heather at Fort ClatsopMembers of The Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter of 1805-1806 at the hastily constructed Fort Clatsop at the mouth of the Columbia River.

Probably built of fir and spruce logs, the fort measured only fifty feet by fifty feet, not a lot of space for more than thirty people. Nevertheless, it served its purpose well, offering Expedition members shelter from the incessant rains of the coast and giving them security against the Native peoples in the area.

Local community members built a replica of the fort in 1955 to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Alas, in 2005, just as celebrations of the bicentennial were beginning, the replica fort burnt down. Hundreds of volunteers rebuilt the fort, now a National Memorial, and on December 5, 2006 the new replica fort was dedicated.

November 25, 1948: Ed Parsons Invents Cable Television in Astoria

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Leroy E. “Ed” Parsons‘ wife had witnessed television in all its glory at a 1947 broadcasters’ convention in Chicago. On the couple’s way back home to Astoria, Oregon she informed her engineer husband that she wanted a television. At that early date there were no television stations on the west coast, and in fact Portland, the large city closest to Astoria, wouldn’t see television until 1952.

In early 1948 a Seattle station, KRSK (now KING), however, announced broadcasting plans. The manager, Bob Priebe, was a friend of Parsons. Working together they determined that an antenna placed atop the eight story Astoria Hotel just might be able to pick up the signal, and with the use of an amplifier, and coaxial cable, Parsons figured he might be able to extend the range of that signal. With permission from the hotel Parsons constructed an antenna, and gave his idea a shot; in his own words:

Well, I strung a cable from the top of the hotel roof over to the three-story building where my penthouse was, and we had the television set in our living room. By the way, going back, after we heard Priebe was going to build a television station, I ordered a television set from Chicago. It was only a 9-inch, black and white set, and I bought it primarily because it was a hi-fi set AM/FM and a record player. I told the wife that we were wasting our money with the television addition, but at least I would try to get her television. It was a Howard set. I ordered it from Chicago and had it flown out to Astoria. Told her it would be a great waste of money, but if you want it, you can have it. Use it for furniture if nothing else.

On Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1948, KRSK went on the air, and the Parsons and his wife watched cable television. By the crowds his television drew, he knew he was onto something, and extended the cable network throughout Astoria.

November 19, 1983: Blue Magpie Runs Aground at Yaquina Bay North Jetty

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The Oregonian front page, 21 November 1983At 7:38pm on Saturday, November 19, 1983 the 350 foot freighter Blue Magpie, on its way to pick up a load of lumber, hit the rocks at the north tip of the Yaquina Bay north jetty (The Sunday Oregonian, 20 November 1983).

The Coast Guard had advised the freighter earlier in the evening to lay off the bay because of the rough seas, which were breaking across the bar in 14-foot, flat-sided waves. [Coast Guard Cmdr Clinton W.] Carter said a pilot could not be dispatched to guide the freighter into the bay. However, he said, the unidentified skipper “ignored our advice to stay out there.”

After the empty freighter hit the rocks all 19 crew members were lifted to safety by Coast Guard helicopters. That was the good news.

The abandoned freighter proceeded to break up into three pieces and had leaked at least 3000 gallons of oil by Sunday night (The Oregonian, 21 November 1983). Within three days 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel had escaped, and within five days another 60,000 gallons of bunker C oil had leaked out of the wreck. Ultimately hundreds of seabird deaths were attributed to the spill, which was one of the worst in Oregon history (The Oregonian, 4 February 1988).

Sunday Lecture: Matt Love on the Yaquina Bay Bridge (20-November-2011)

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The Oregon Historical Society (1200 SW Park Avenue) presents a Sunday Lecture by Matt Love on November 20, 2011 at 2pm. He will be discussing his new book, Love and the Green Lady: Meditations on the Yaquina Bay Bridge: Oregon’s Crown Jewel of Socialism:

Oregon opened the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport on Labor Day 1936. Built during the New Deal, the Yaquina Bay Bridge was the aesthetic and engineering brainchild of Conde McCullough, Oregon’s State Bridge Engineer from 1919 to 1937. For 75 years the Yaquina Bay Bridge has stood magnificently as a monument to excellence in architecture and how a partnership between state and federal government in the throes of an economic calamity can produce something practical, beautiful, and lasting. It is nothing less than an Oregon landmark and a powerful reminder how to build a great bridge.

Author, editor, teacher, and historian Matt Love has written prolifically about Oregon, and in 2009, he won the Oregon Literary Arts’ Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for his contributions to Oregon history and literature. He also runs Nestucca Spit Press.

OHS members and Multnomah County residents are admitted to the lecture free, and entrance to the event is included with regular admission. Call 503-306-5214 or RSVP online.

Matt Love will also be appearing Sunday at the Kick Ass Oregon History DB Cooper Night event, co-sponsored by Dave Knows Portland, at 7:30pm at Mississippi Studios