Communications Committee Report about the new Surf Pines History Page…

Now on to some fun, new and exciting news. As many of you may be aware Annie and I are both history buffs and one of my personal goals is to document much of the here-to-fore poorly recorded history of the Clatsop Plains and Surf Pines. (Some of you may remember the presentation of the Clatsop Plains Chronicles: Early Surf Pines at the 2019 Annual Meeting). 

We now have put together a whole section of our new web just on the history of our area. These will include access to the digital library that the Clatsop County Historical Society has populated with over 1,200 documents including most of the quarterly Cumtux publications, access to several articles that have been written about SP and the plains by members and others, Several old pictures, and maps of the area.

The most exciting news is that Susan Egbert and the family of Alice Gustafson, former longtime Surf Pines resident, has given our association permission to publish their mother’s book Sand Dunes to Surf Pines digitally on our web’s History. She produced this in the early 2000’s and covers much of the history of Surf Pines based on quotes and interviews of several old members of SP. In addition, we have many of her notes and will be adding some of those to supplement her book. 

The second even more exciting news is that our own Dana Westin, her mom Shirley See, and Dana’s husband and son Craig and Tyler have given us permission to digitally publish her dads book about growing up on the Clatsop Plains in the 30s called Reflections of an Ornery Country Boy. 

Both books were also donated to the Clatsop County Historical Societies’ Internet Archive to be available digitally to continue the great work that Alice Gunderson and Paul See. Also the CCHS just received 70 copies of Pauls book from the Westin’s that can be purchased at the Heritage Museum. All proceeds go to CCHS, thanks to the donation from the family.

 In closing, I want to thank Scott Roose, Debbie Eddie, Evan Reed, Roberta Becker, Ken Weist, Bonnie Rogie, Chad Sweet, Clare Lewis and many others for their assistance in contributing their time and assistance updating our data and social presence. We do need volunteers. If you are interested in doing more for your community, please join one of our committees. If you are interested in the history of the area let me know. This is what makes Surf Pines great, it’s you the members…

Click Here to view the new History pages on your surfpines.org web site. This is the public side of our web so all can view the history section.