In this installment of A Look Back in Time, the Saturday, July 18, 1936, edition of The Chronicle featured a story about Randle resident Dan Buchanan luckily escaping a car crash with minor injuries after his pet squirrel crawled out of his pocket up to his neck and distracted him while driving.
Members of the Morton Police Department were preparing to enforce an existing 10 p.m. curfew ordinance for minors for their own safety after there were reports of suspicious vehicles on the prowl in the city, according to the Wednesday, July 18, 1956, edition of The Chronicle.
And in the Saturday, July 17, 1976, edition of The Chronicle, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Chehalis plant workers Don Derkacht and Al Schmitt were featured in a photo “leisurely” picketing after they were among the 40 plant workers in Chehalis joining a nationwide strike the previous day.
Some Sunday and holiday editions were not in the archives, so stories from the previous days’ editions have been featured instead. When The Chronicle was still a daily newspaper, Sunday editions were often reprints of Saturday editions, unless major breaking news needed to be reported.
A Look Back in Time is compiled using microfilm archives at The Chronicle, physical copies stored at the Lewis County Historical Museum — located at 599 NW Front St. in Chehalis — and digital archives on newspapers.com.
Saturday, July 17, 1926
• Several wildfires near Tenino were under control, but not before damaging equipment of several logging companies in the area, while another blaze was burning out in East Lewis County, The Chronicle reported. “Timber fires that have been (burning were) reported under control yesterday, following severe loss to three camps, Turvey Brothers, the Mutual Lumber Company and the Green River Lumber Company. Five donkey engines were reported destroyed with considerable cut timber. A bad fire is also reported to be burning near Lewis, in Eastern Lewis County.”
• Nine more candidates filed to run for Lewis County offices following the opening of the filing period the previous day. “Three of these would be sheriff — Roy R. Poyns, Centralia, Republican; Grant Wright, Salkum, Republican, and Frank T. Canady, Chehalis, Democrat. John Boone, Republican, filed for re-election as county auditor, and Charles H. Sweany, Curtis, Republican, filed in opposition to Mr. Boone. Other filings were W.H. Kenoyer, Chehalis, Republican for county clerk; G.C. Brewster, Dryad, Republican for constable; O.A. Tucker, Chehalis, Republican for justice of the peace, and Margaret Whetzel, Centralia, Republican for precinct committeeman.”
• Potatoes “at Roff’s” were listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds at $0.25 for 10 pounds. A “dandy” six-room “all newly decorated” home was listed for rent for $8 a month.
Saturday, July 18, 1936
• A Randle man’s pet squirrel caused a roll-over wreck which nearly killed his owner, The Chronicle reported. “(A) squirrel nearly cost Dan Buchanan of Randle his life this week. The squirrel, which Buchanana was carrying in his pocket, crawled up on his neck and distracted his attention. Buchanan lost control of his car and crashed into the concrete guard rail on the Hackney bridge. The car turned over several times, but Buchanan escaped with but minor injuries.”
• Oregon territory commemorative stamps were now on sale at the Chehalis post office, The Chronicle reported. “This three-cent stamp will be of particular interest to Pacific Northwest collectors because of its association with the history of this region, Postmaster Lloyd Sullivan said today. The design of the stamp includes a map of the original Oregon territory, showing the route of the old Oregon trail and other historic detail.”
• A “gas station and another going business well located in Centralia, profit $8 (a) day or better” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $1,000.
Thursday, July 18, 1946
• Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies were in the process of updating their radio units, The Chronicle reported. “ The Lewis County Sheriff's Office Wednesday received four radio receiving sets which will make car-to-car and station-to-car communications possible, Sheriff John A. Blankenship announced. The new equipment, which came from a Chicago firm, is receiving sets only, Blankenship noted, and he said he would include a request for transmitters in the next budget. The sheriff’s office has had an obsolete ‘AM’ set, which has not been in use for some time. The new ‘FM’ units, which cost $175 each, are of a lower frequency modulation and will enable contact with Centralia police in addition to the sheriff’s force.”
• Glenoma resident Richard Meade, a World War II U.S. Army veteran who was back home working as a logger, passed away at a Chehalis hospital on Tuesday after being struck by a tree limb on Monday while working, The Chronicle reported. “The accident victim, who served as a corporal in a tank division of the Army during the war, was born Dec. 13, 1918, at Randle. He leaves a son, Richard Adrian Meade Jr., father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Ballard Meade, Glenoma, sister, Mrs. Helen McCain, and three half-sisters, Mrs. Ethel Pearce, San Francisco; Mrs. Rhoda Moorcroff, Randle, and Mrs. Edith Dimick, Seattle; Walt Meade, a brother, Vancouver, British Columbia, and a half-brother, William Marcum, Glenoma. Meade’s body is at the Fissel Funeral Home.”
• An “excellent, large” four-bedroom home with a full basement on 100 acres of land “four miles from Rainier” was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $10,000. A two-room “semi-modern shack” with a foundation started for a new home on three acres of “fence” land “in city limits” in Centralia was listed for $1,950.
Wednesday, July 18, 1956
• Morton police were preparing to once again start enforcing a 10 p.m. curfew for minors in the East Lewis County community after reports of suspicious vehicles in the area, The Chronicle reported. “Youngsters under 18 who are found on the streets after 10 p.m. unaccompanied by an adult will have nothing to laugh about when an existing curfew ordinance is enforced here. Morton Police Chief Orville Amondson said, starting Friday, he and patrolman Bill Mason, pictured above, will enforce a city curfew ordinance. He emphasized the action was not being taken to clamp down on juveniles as a punitive measure, but inaugurated to prevent trouble in the community. He said he decided to enforce the ordinance after he uncovered reports of car-prowls in the city. Unaccompanied youths under 18 will be taken to the police station and their parents called, the chief said.”
• City of Chehalis officials enacted residential sprinkling restrictions as the Mint City’s reservoirs were reaching alarmingly low levels amid drought conditions, The Chronicle reported. “Residential sprinkling restrictions were clamped into effect Wednesday in Chehalis, City Water Superintendent Bill Hanf announced. The sprinkling ban remains in effect indefinitely. Due to the hot weather and unusual demand on existing water supplies, the water levels on the city’s two reservoirs have sunk three feet on the large one, and eight feet on the smaller reservoir, hence necessitating sprinkling restrictions, Hanf declared. Effective Wednesday, householders are asked to sprinkle their lawns between the hours of 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., and 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the evening, Hanf said. Residents with even-numbered house numbers are asked to sprinkle on the even-numbered days of the month, and householders with odd numbers to sprinkle on odd-numbered days of the month. There will be no restrictions on the commercial users of water. Ordinarily, the water levels rise during the night, but Tuesday night the large reservoir level was down an additional foot. The five-million gallon and 800,000-gallon reservoirs are located on the hill near Dobson Park.”
• A “newly decorated,” furnished, two-bedroom home located at 926 N. Tower Ave. in Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $6,800. A “modern, furnished” duplex “three blocks from city center” in Centralia was listed for rent for $50 a month.
Monday, July 18, 1966
• Longview residents were due to vote on a leash law after the Longview City Council approved a ballot measure for the upcoming September special election, The Chronicle reported. “A leash-law measure to handle Longview’s loose dog population was approved for the Sept. 20 special election ballot by the Longview City Council recently. By approving resolution 691, the council provided for the subproposition to authorize an excess tax levy of approximately one mill(ion) to provide some $26,000 to pay the cost of equipment and manpower to enforce a dog-leash ordinance.”
• The Chronicle featured an Associated Press story about the fifth annual Interplanetary Age Convention being held in Eatonville. “Flying saucer fans gathered here for the fifth annual Interplanetary Age Convention and listened to: — an English girl sing, ‘Brothers have you seen their ship?’ — a Seattle lady barber tell of sighting a saucer outside her shop. ‘I went out and looked up and said, ‘Hello there,’’ she reported … The site is near where the first reported sighting of saucers took place in 1947 by Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho, lumberman. Since then, the saucer fans have treated it like a national monument. Mollie Thompson, the English singer, has been singing ever since (and), she claims, she began receiving telepathic messages from outer space. Her lyrics were, ‘Sisters have you seen them glow? As they dance and hover in the sky and make our fastest jets look slow.’ The lady barber, Mrs. Lorena Vogt, said belief in flying saucers stabilized her life. She would like to meet one of the 2,000 persons from other planets, who, she understands, walk the earth today … Convention Chairman Leonard Arlint of Eatonville said, ‘After civilization reaches a certain point people begin to look for a way out. They have turned to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in hopes they can straighten out the bad things of our lives — wars, depression and restrictions on freedom.’”
• A “well kept” three-bedroom home on a “large lot” at 1215 H St. in Centralia was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $15,000. “Furnished units” at the McDonald Motel, located at 11th Street and Market Boulevard in Chehalis, were listed for rent for $40 a month.
Saturday, July 17, 1976
• A pair of striking Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Chehalis plant workers were featured in a photo “leisurely” picketing on Friday. “Don Derkacht, left, worked on his tan as he and Al Schmitt leisurely picketed Friday in front of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Chehalis. The two are among 40 idled workers in Local 565 of the United Rubber Workers. The strike began Thursday night.” According to the Friday, July 16, 1976 edition of The Chronicle, the strike began when union contract negotiations failed at Goodyear headquarters and the Chehalis workers, “joined the 70,000 rubber workers idled nationwide for three months. A picket line was posted at the plant on Bishop Road Friday morning.” Additionally, local Chehalis union members were asking for a 50-cent raise.
• Galvin resident William B. Forrest, 22 at the time, was alive but in critical condition in a Tacoma hospital after he lost control of his car on the Bear Canyon Bridge in East Lewis County, crashing off the bridge and falling more than150 feet into the canyon below on Friday night, The Chronicle reported. His injuries were listed as a fractured skull and neck along with cuts on his head. “The State Patrol said Forrest was seen traveling west on the Morton-Onalaska Highway at a high speed. His 1961 blue sedan hit the right 2-and-a-half-foot guardrail near the east end of the bridge at 8:30 Friday and smashed through the wooden railing on the left side, about 50 feet from the west approach. The car fell 150 feet, hit the side of the canyon, where Forrest was ejected, then rolled another 75 feet, coming to rest under the bridge. The gasoline tank was ripped from the car as it sped off the bridge. The mangled hulk came to rest just 100 yards from other crumbled car bodies at the Bear Canyon dump. Because of the remoteness of the location and the inaccessibility of the canyon, more than an hour was required for sheriff’s search and rescue men and equipment to pull the stretcher, containing Forrest, out of the canyon with the help of a long rope and winch on a volunteer’s pickup truck. The Morton ambulance and Salkum first aid car, along with numerous law enforcement officers and volunteers, aided in the rescue … About 50 bystanders witnessed the rescue, gaping at the hole in the railing, the mangled hulk below and the efforts of the rescuers. Some may have been remembering close calls they had experienced on the narrow bridge with its winding approaches.”
• A home with a daylight basement, large recreation room and shop with a two-car garage on 10 acres of land in Glenoma was listed for sale in The Chronicle’s classifieds for $55,000. A “furnished studio apartment close in” was listed for rent for $100 a month.
