Notable people remembered on a nondescript moss-covered boulder at the end of a rarely-traveled country road

Izaak Walton League Memorial Plaque, Oak Island Game Management Area, Sauvie Island, Oregon, Nov. 19, 2011. Photo Seth S. Moody.

A few weeks ago, I went a-looking for a plaque in North Portland that was not to be found. A few days ago, my intrepid co-explorer Seth Moody and I braved the wilds of Sauvie Island to find another plaque. I'm proud to report that neither of us were disemboweled by the Sasquatch, and that we achieved our goal (and we have proof!).

The plaque we found was installed by the Oregon Division of the Izaak Walton League on September 14, 1957, to commemorate the life and work of Edgar F. Averill and William L. Finley. Both men were long-time members of the League, long-time active conservationists, and long-time water pollution abatement advocates.

Our trek to discover this plaque was somewhat of a pilgrimage for me. In my ongoing research on Willamette River pollution, I have discovered an extensive amount of information about the in-the-trenches work of men and women like Averill and Finley. With every discovery I am increasingly more appreciative of this work, and conscious of these people's relevance and resonance to the present day. I locate my spiritual center in nature and human consciousness, so, in my interpretation, Averill and Finley are two notable and fully human figures—among many—who illustrate the ways in which real people can take real actions in the real world to effect real and positive changes to benefit present and future generations. In my interpretation, this is precisely the realm of the highest spiritual practice.

I will explain what I mean and ground these men in the real world. Below you will find some details of the lives of Averill and Finley to help explain why their names are glued to a nondescript moss-covered boulder at the end of a rarely-traveled country road in an out-of-the-way place like Sauvie Island . . .

DIY History Detective: A Quest in the Wilds of St. Johns

I recently took a fun ride into the wilds of industrial far-northwest St. Johns on a brave quest to see if I could locate a building that was part of the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation's ("Oregon Ship") administrative headquarters during World War II, and later served as the location of Portland State University's precursor institution, Vanport Extension Center.

Why would I do such a thing?

I was curious about this building because I had read in a May 1943 Oregonian article that the Oregon Trail Centennial Commission had re-dedicated a plaque on one of these buildings to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the launch of the first ship that European Americans had built in Oregon, the schooner Star of Oregon. [1]

I was curious to know if this building still existed and, if it did, if the plaque might still be on the building.

The short answer to both of these questions is "no." The long answer, as you might guess, is a bit longer . . .

The Life & Death of Bayocean, Oregon

"Bayocean Sandspit Broken and Shore Resort Periled," Oregonian, Jan. 15, 1939, p. 12.

I came across the Oregonian article recently while researching other things. I've been out to a vacation house at Cape Meares a few times over the past couple of years, but it wasn't until the most recent visit that I realized that we drove right past the former site of Bayocean as we drove west on the aptly named Bayocean Road.

From the article:

"The tremendous seas which hammered at the Oregon coast early this month have spelled the doom of the Bayocean peninsula . . . . What remained of the Bayocean natatorium was swept away. Seas poured into the town of Bayocean, flooding homes and streets."

"Construction of the north jetty in 1914, designed to deepen the channel of Tillamook bay, is blamed for the gradual tearing away of the Bayocean peninsula. Since that time, as the jetty has changed the direction of the sea's sweep, the high sand walls of the peninsula have crumbled away."

Read more about Bayocean on the Oregon Encyclopedia!

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It Seems So Long Ago . . .

. . . because it was!

Cave bear skull placed atop stone in Chauvet cave, ca. 25,000 years ago.

 

Some time about 20,000-40,000 years ago, people created the amazing art inside the cave at Chauvet Pont d'Arc. About 20,000 years ago, the entrance to the cave was sealed, and it was not discovered until 1994.

The people who created the cave art were part of what we now refer to as the Aurignacian culture, a

toolmaking industry and artistic tradition of Upper Paleolithic Europe . . . marked by a great diversification and specialization of tools . . . The art of the Aurignacian culture represents the first complete tradition in the history of art, moving from awkward attempts to a well-developed, mature style."

Werner Herzog has made a 3-D film of the inside of this cave, "Cave of Forgotten Dreams." Read a review from Slate.com here, and listen to Terry Gross' interview of Herzog here. See images at the official Chauvet Cave website here.

Watch the trailer below . . .

My take on Budweiser vs. real pilsner

Budweiser is by far the worst beer I've ever had, for at least two reasons. First, it tastes bland and uninspired. Second, Anheuser-Busch, the company that makes this beer, has the audacity to use the advertising campaign that characterizes this beverage as the "King of Beer." (Using this campaign, they're banking on the fact that a significant amount of the beer-drinking population is daft enough to fall for it and, unfortunately, they've been right about this for many years.)

We recently held a pilsner-style beer tasting at our house, and I recently posted the results of this tasting. At this tasting on January 22, 2011, I didn't have time to taste these beers myself in any systematic fashion, but over the past week or so I was finally able to do so. This post presents the results of my own pilsner beer tasting . . .

Budweiser vs. real pilsner

Budweiser sucks.

Or, at least, this was my hypothesis when I brought together thirteen friends and family members for a blind pilsner taste test on January 22, 2011.

The Vibe.

I had been thinking about hosting such an event for a few years now, but kept finding opportunities for postponement.

I discovered in 1991 that beer meant more than BudCoorsHammOly when I first tasted Paulaner Hefeweizen while stationed in Gaeta, Italy, with the U.S. Navy. My friend PJ and I used to frequent a small pub in Gaeta [PJ: help me recall the name! Update Feb. 13 2011: Bar/Cafe Uno, V. Europa. 20, Gaeta]. The proprietor, Mario, was from Bavaria originally but married an Italian woman and was then living in Gaeta. I distinctly remember one day Mario serving up a tall glass of Paulaner with a lemon slice. I took one sip and was thrust instantly into an entirely new world.

Until that moment in Mario's pub, I equated beer with the highly-carbonated, straw-colored, slightly-bitter soda water that I had been drinking legally (in Europe) for about a year and had drunk other-than-legally in high school. The Heineken, Bira Moretti, and similar styles in Turkey, Morocco, Greece, and the other countries I visited weren't appreciably different than the Hamms, Coors, and Olympia that I ~sampled~ in high school.

After Paulaner had changed my worldview forevermore, I had the good fortune of going home to Oregon, where the microbrewery movement was really starting to pick up speed. After serving my country honorably from the age of 17 to 21, in 1994 I finally received my discharge at an age that I could drink legally in my own country. I had volunteered to die for my country and had been drinking legally in other countries, but once I had turned 21 I was finally able to drink legally at home [one of these days, in another post, I'll rant in excruciating detail about this silly dynamic].

For nearly two decades now, I've been an unrepentant Beer Snob, evolving beer connoisseur, and fledgling beer geek. I regularly snub my nose at American Style Pilsners. I consider Budweiser and Bud Light so bad that I won't even drink them if they're free [Seth can attest to this], and I'd gladly go without beer in any form than drink Pabst Blue Ribbon on a consistent basis (in spite of the ridiculous ongoing PBR billboard campaign here in Portland and elsewhere. Note to Pabst: this campaign is LAME).

However, I do possess just enough self-reflective ability to wonder if I'm full of sh*t. Is Budweiser really the worst beer in the known universe? Continue below the fold to find out . . .

Where to draw the line?

A few months ago, I heard from my bosses in the PSU University Studies Dept. that the Capstone course I have taught now for nine consecutive quarters would come to an end after the Spring 2011 quarter. I was told that the School of Business Administration, under which my Capstone was administered, was reacting to budget reductions by cutting or incorporating within the department 20% of their Capstones, and that my course would likely be on the chopping block.

C'est la vie. Time to make lemonade. Etc.

So, since I heard this news I've been looking for work. I've been looking at a variety of positions that will enable me to apply my expertise in urban environmental history outside of academia. I've applied to a few positions where I would be working with teams engaged in one aspect or another of the Portland Harbor Superfund Cleanup process.

I recently came across a Portland Business Journal article "Attorneys vie for Superfund work," where I read that "Attorneys are lining up to snag their share of Superfund work along the Portland Harbor."

"A-ha!" I thought, "Perhaps I'll see if I can get on with one of these firms, since the Superfund cleanup process is sure to be complex and long-term, and, of course, whomever is working on it will benefit from insights of an historian."

Slam-dunk for me, eh?

There were a number of specific legal firms identified in the Portland Business Journal article, so I navigated to their websites and started to poke around. Then I saw lists of some of their current and past clients. I read on one website that the firm had "Defended salmon aquaculture industry in appeals of waste discharge permits by environmental groups." Another firm expressed a feeling of privilege "to serve market leaders that have been driving forces in their industries."

Uh-oh.

Willamette River Forum 2011

The City of Portland Office of Health Working Rivers is holding its River Forum 2011 the evening of January 18. The purpose of this forum is:

The City of Portland wants your ideas about the future of the city and the Willamette over the next 25 years.

Do we now--or will we--have a vibrant commercial waterfront in the Central City? What should we be doing with our riverbanks to make them more hospitable to native species? How easy is it to get down to or on to the River? What sets us apart as a River town? What's working or not working, river-wise?

We'd like to get your answers to these questions -- or hear what other questions or ideas you have.

Unfortunately, I cannot attend because I'll be teaching my class that evening, but I did respond to their online survey and will keep abreast of these developments & other opportunities to participate.

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The final public tour of the Big Pipe project

A few weeks ago I sent in my name for a drawing of people to take the final public tour of Portland's Big Pipe project. I found out the other day that my name wasn't drawn.[1] Bummer!

Portland's East Side Big Pipe completed

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[1] Brad Schmidt, "City Hall: Five feet at a time, $1.4 billion Big Pipe project is finishing ahead of schedule," Oregonian, Nov. 9, 2010.

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Hop harvest 2010

I harvested our hops today!

I missed the boat!

On the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 11, the Portland Harbor Community Advisory Group (CAG) held its monthly meeting on a boat touring the Willamette in Portland's harbor. CAG member Jim Robison invited me to this tour in July, while I was out of the state on vacation, and I replied that I would certainly be there.

I had taken a tour of the Willamette this past April, and had earlier biked along the Columbia Slough. I was looking forward to another opportunity to experience the river directly. So, I wrote the tour information down in my planner and settled into another week of vacation in sunny Nebraska . . .

. . . and then I got back to Portland, dove in to the remainder of the Summer quarter with my students, and didn't think about that tour until week after it occurred.

I got wrapped up in the final week of the Summer quarter, which was the week of the CAG harbor tour, and the date simply slipped my mind. After the quarter was over, I found myself thinking about how fun the upcoming harbor tour would be, so I checked my planner and realized that I had missed the boat!

Let this be a lesson to myself that I can't juggle 10,000 things without the benefit of my planner, and my planner isn't any use to me unless I actually refer to it consistently.[1] The cost of this oversight is missing-out on opportunities.

So, having expressed this mea culpa, let's get to some details of this harbor tour . . .

Walking in the footsteps of sewage

I wish I had known about this contest in time, as I would have quite enjoyed this visit to the Big Pipe:

Nancy Rommelmann, "Superlatives, questions flow in tour of Portland's Big Pipe," Oregonian, Sep. 4, 2010, Community News sec., E1-E2.

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Blogs of Note: H2ONCoast

I recently stumbled upon a great resource: H2ONCoast, a blog about "Water, Climate and Community on Oregon’s North Coast."

From the blog's "about" page:

Twenty-first century Homo sapiens have built dams, laws, ditches, dikes, treatment plants, industries, and agencies to manage our water. Yet it all comes down to a few simple facts with water–we can’t live without it, we have to keep it clean, and we have to understand its cycle on the planet. This blog is mostly about water in a wet place. The North Coast of Oregon is a place balanced between the Coast Range to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. On the north, it is bordered by the mighty Columbia River and in the South by the Siletz River. It is a landscape that is blessed by a super-abundance of water during the fall, winter and spring, and can be as dry as a bone in the summer. What you can expect from this blog:

1. Research-based facts. I am in the business of bringing the best of the academy to the people of the North Coast and Oregon. Expect some social and biophysical science.

2. Opinion. This site takes its cue from the blogosphere, which is quite opinionated. I will, however, always try to back up my opinions with facts. Note that these are my opinions and not always those of my employer, Oregon State University or Sea Grant Extension. If you have a beef with something you read here, contact me.

3. News. Water hits the headlines regularly. Expect to see entries culled from common and uncommon news sources.

4. Other perspectives. Water is both a global and local concern. Expect to see things related to water around the region, continent, and globe. There are usually lessons to be learned in these examples.

"Historic Past / Proud Future"

Driving through the city of Monmouth, Oregon, on Highway 51 over the past few months, I've noticed some banners hanging from the light poles. The banners read:

"Historic Past / Proud Future"

I just checked the street views in Google Maps and don't see the banners in these images. I also ran an Internet search using the words "monmouth oregon historic past proud future," and did not come up with any relevant hits on the first couple of pages. I was hoping to find some information related to these banners through the City of Monmouth website or a local historical society.[1]

The motto "Historic Past / Proud Future" strikes me as amusing for the following reasons:

My history with worms

Earlier this spring I finally built a worm bin for our household. I was itching to build a worm bin for a long while. I had a worm bin from 2003 to 2005 while living in Bellingham, but haven't been in a position to have one in Portland until now.

We don't give our worms names, but they are valued members of our household nonetheless. The worms digest the bulk of our kitchen scraps, as well as a fair amount of our yard waste and grass clippings.

Our worm friends are amazing little creatures. They process food scraps and yard waste quickly to produce fertilizer that we use to amend our garden soil. This helps us save money that would have been spent on compost and enables us to keep food scraps out of the land fill. In this way, vermiculture is an important component of permaculture: "a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem." [link]

More info and some images below . . .

The value of effective government regulation

Jennifer and I arrived at PDX late last night, returning from our trip to Nebraska. We stood outside the bag claim area, waiting for our ride. The vehicle traffic through the passenger pickup area was clogged, even at 10:45 p.m. We stood there with our luggage, waiting.

After a few minutes, I started to notice that there were quite a few vehicles along the curb lane, idling, their owners either sitting in the driver seat, waiting, or standing outside their vehicles at a door, waiting. More minutes passed, and most of these people continued waiting. The two pickup lanes were almost completely clogged, and vehicles were moving in the two through lanes only slowly.

Eventually, I noticed a handful vehicles along the curbside pickup lane that had not moved in at least ten minutes.

After about fifteen minutes of this, two airport security officers came outside and started directing traffic and pedestrians and ordering that the curbside idling vehicles move on. "The curbside is for active loading and unloading only," as the pre-recorded public service announcement proclaimed every few minutes. The security officers used their whistles and day-glo gloves to direct these drivers to move on. Many of the drivers moved only reluctantly.

Finally, within a few minutes, the traffic lanes began flowing relatively efficiently. The security officers had restored the flow like some moist wad of fiber through a clogged digestive system.

It struck me at this time that this is precisely why we need effective government regulation: individuals do not often regulate themselves effectively. Too many people think that they are the ones for whom the rules do not apply, they are the ones who deserve an exception, etc.

If individuals cannot regulate themselves with such a simple task as picking folks up at the airport, how can individuals and corporations possibly regulate themselves in the complex realms of industrial effluent, worker health & safety, off-shore oil drilling, international finance, etc.?

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Urban history in the ground

This morning I listened to a great program on Steve Scher's Weekday program (on Seattle's KUOW radio), Construction Projects and the Archaeology of City Development. This show focused on some specific urban infrastructure projects in Seattle, but the discussion addressed broadly relevant aspects of archaeology and cultural resource management (CRM) issues in urban settings.

When the 520 bridge design is finally agreed on, the digging will begin. What will we find underground? There are already several major construction projects digging deep under Seattle's urban center. In addition to all the dirt, they may be removing artifacts of this city's storied history. If the deep–bore tunnel ends up going right through a Native American village site, what happens to the construction project? What happens to the artifacts that are recovered? Who pays for the archaeological surveys? What can we learn about Seattle's hidden history from the mega–construction projects?

Blogging the ASEH 2010 (pt. 1): Willamette River Cruise

Hawthorne Bridge. 

Image taken while descending gangplank to the tour boat.

This is my first post discussing my experience at the 2010 American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) conference, held here in Portland from March 10-14. This post will focus on the Willamette River cruise on on Wednesday, March 10, from noon to about 4:00 p.m.

I'll commence with an admission: I spent about two years writing a thesis on the topic of Willamette River pollution, and I grew up on the Oregon coast, but until this river cruise I had not been on the river! Scandalous!! In some sense, however, this doesn't really mean anything -- after all, how many present-day historians of the Civil War were on the field at Gettysburg in the midst of the battle? Nonetheless, there is something to be said for experiencing the actual site(s) upon which unfolded aspects of one's historical research.

Yucatán, December 2008

A year ago this month, I was in Mexico.

Here are the photos.

This was my first trip to Mexico, my first exposure to the Mayan culture. In grad school I read Charles C. Mann's 1491, and learned most of what little I know about the Mayan culture. As good as the book is, it was one thing for me to understand from an intellectual perspective the depth and breadth of historic Myan culture, and quite another actually to visit the historic sites -- Chichén Itzá, Uxmal, Ek Balam, etc. -- and gain an understanding of how technologically and socially developed* the culture was and how dense it was packed.

As with the vast majority of preserved historic sites of this kind (Ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Persian, Chinese, Indian, etc.), what the present-day visitor sees is, largely, the monumental, public, and ruling-class architecture. It would be fascinating to see some of these sites restored to some degree with the color, vibrancy, and multi-class life that they once teemed with.

Nevertheless, to stand atop the main pyramind in Ek Balam and look across the dense, flat Yucatán landscape and see other pyramids way off in the distance was absolutely amazing.

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* "developed" is a problematic, value-laden word, but "advanced" even more so . . . what other word works here?

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Columbia Slough trek

On November 22, Seth and I took a bike trek on a cold day with the goal of following Columbia Slough as much as possible. We started at NE 33rd Ave. and went west to Kelly Point Park, thence south through St. Johns and back to my place in NE Portland.

There were may places where we couldn't follow the slough very closely, as you can see if you look this route up. The City of Portland does plan to purchase property to create an unbroken south-bank trail, but it doesn't exist yet.

I wanted to take this trip to get a feel for the area, since I cover this area in my thesis and plan to cover it in my book. I'll be writing about the topic of pollution in the slough; in the meanwhile, below are some images from the trek:

Above is an image from about where NE 14th Place dead-ends, looking west. Seth and I had to carry our bikes to the top of this dike. We then followed this path west as far as we could (to a few blocks east of MLK).

Below are two images of a concrete fabrication facility on the south bank of the slough E. of MLK, between the slough and Columbia Blvd.:


Below is an image of the slough looking east from the MLK Blvd./Hwy 99E bridge:


Below is an image looking west from the bike trail in Delta Park West:

Below is an image of geese in Heron Lakes Golf Course (this is where Vanport used to be, and now there doesn't appear to be any trace of it left at all):


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