The Clatsop Plains Chronicles Articles
These are different articles that Tom Smith has written with some being published in the CUMTUX, the CCHS quarterly publication.
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Assistance League Cereal Drive
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Adventures in History Goes Digital
Celebrate our history online with Mac Burns and Tom Smith as they dive into the remarkable success of the CCHS Digital Archive. Tune in to KMUN 91.9 FM for Adventures in History on Sunday, November 16th, from 8:30 to 9:00 PM, where Mac and Tom reflect on the Archive’s extraordinary 6-year journey. They’ll share how the CCHS Digital Scanning Center has grown, how its reach now extends far beyond Clatsop County, and why its work matters—not just for local organizations, but for historians and researchers around the world. Click here to listen online. It’s hard to believe that just over six years ago, CCHS launched its digital scanning initiative to preserve its…
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🌲 COASTAL PORCINI FORAGER’S HANDBOOK
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Homegrown In The Pacific Northwest: James Beard’s Oregon Connection…
If you are a foody like me, then James Beard epitomizes the best in cooking and turns out he learned much while living in Clatsop County. This article covers his history in a well researched 2018 article about this famous chef and his interactions in our North West oregon communities. Summary Jennifer Margulis’s feature explores how James Beard’s Oregon roots profoundly shaped his identity as America’s first true “food sensualist.” Born in Portland in 1903, Beard was nurtured by his mother Mary Elizabeth’s culinary curiosity and exposure to Portland’s multicultural food scene, especially the fresh bounty of the Oregon Coast in Gearhart. Expelled from Reed College in 1921 for being openly gay,…
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Great Coastal Gale of 2007
In the most recent Clatsop County Historical Society Cumtux Vol. 43 No. 4 they published an article based on an interview I had with Shirley See (wife of local historian Paul See) and her daughter Dana Weston. It really helps people understand how bad this winter storm was. After the article there is a gallery of pictures of the aftermath of this storm. Cumtux is a quarterly publication that CCHS sends out to members. Each edition includes 4 to 5 stories (40 to 50 PGS) of local historical interest by local authors. I have included this article so people can see what a bargain being a member of the Clatsop County Historical…
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Changes to Sunset Beach over the last 70 years
There is a lot of confusion about how come the Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation ODPR are using the static Standard Vegetation Line SVL to enforce signs on the beach along the Sunset Beach Recreation area, which is now 400-600 feet east of the current Vegetation Line. Although this static SVL was effective in 1967 the ODPR is just now starting to enforce this rule. Something we found was there is an OAR (Oregon Administrative rules) that require the ODPR to do periodic reviews of the SVL to adjust it if accretion affects the current Vegetation Line. The https://oregon.public.law/rules/oar_736-023-0030 indicates who can request this and how it should be done. For…
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Mystery of finding a gravestone in the back yard of a Surf Pines resident.
Over the last week, since we first found the gravestone of Susanna “Sanna” E. Woisio, we have been doing lots of research and with the assistance from several members of the Facebook historical groups. Lastly we want to thank Susan Underwood and Sandra Bergin, Sanna’s grand daughters for filling in the last bit of information. Please enjoy the rest of the story. T
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Original story about the House with the Blue roof in Surf Pines.
The House with the Blue Roof Story with pictures Yesterday at our Shady Pines Block Party several members asked what I knew about the big house on top of Strawberry Hill in Surf Pines. What many did not know is that Annie and I actually bought this home with a local contractor Mike Maltman. In 2019 we did a presentation for the TNT (Thursday Night Talks) for the Clatsop County Historical society about the story behind the infamous House with the Blue Tile Roof in Surf Pines at the north end of Surf Pines. On top of Strawberry hill in this gated community north of Gearhart, there is a house at the…
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Have we found Gracie yet? or how a lost dog brought our community together.
by Tom Smith Ken and his wife, one of our newer members, moved to Surf Pines after retiring about a year and a half ago. Shortly afterward, they adopted Gracie, who is a beautiful 75 pound white pyrenees dog who was rescued from a Texas dog rescue. This rescue held her for almost a year, after being abused by her original owner, before Ken and his wife found her through a rescue adoption site. Gracie was obviously very skittish of human beings and other animals. Shortly after being adopted, she escaped and hid out along what we call duck lake between the upper and lower roads in our community of Surf Pines.…
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Fifteenth Anniversary of the Great Coastal Gale of 2007
The Great Coastal Gale of 2007 was a series of powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia between December 1, 2007 and December 3, 2007. This is a story of its impact on my wife and I and a great interview of what it was like for Craig and Dana Westin and Dana’s dad Paul See. Thought this would be of interest since this will be the fifteenth anniversary of the big storm. Happy Thanks giving all.
