Articles about Surf Pines and Clatsop Plains

Below are several articles that speaks to the interesting events or history of Surf Pines and the surrounding Clatsop Plains. They are listed from the most recent to the oldest. Please enjoy and if you find articles that are applicable to Surf Pines and Clatsop plains please forward those to spaweb@surfpines.org for consideration to add to our collection. 

Weather in Warrenton Oregon from 1953 to current. In researching an article about the flood of 1998-99 in Surf Pines I needed to find how much rain actually fell in those rain years and how much fell the 2 years prior to this event. I found that NOAA has a site called the National Centers for Environmental Information. Through a data request we found that they had all the weather information from the Astoria Airport located in Warrenton. They had each year from 1953 to current time. So I pulled all 70 years into individual files for each year.  While the airport tends to be a bit warmer and a bit less rain than Surf Pines it does provide good information Click here to see all the weather.

Mystery of finding a gravestone in the back yard of a Surf Pines resident. Over the weeks, 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. Click here to read rest of story 

Have we found Gracie yet? or how a lost dog brought our community together - Like most communities we have been experiencing some of the divisive issues that have impacted our communities of late. Unfortunately, this has impacted many of our members on both sides of these issues. Suddenly, with the escape of our wayward Pyrenees all angst seemed to disappear. It was such a pleasure to see how the entire community came together to help. Click here to read rest of story 

House with Blue Roof Article  - (This was published in the Fall 2021 Cumtux Vol. 41, No.4) At the north end of Surf Pines, the gated community north of Gearhart, there is a house at the highest point along Sunset Beach called “The Strawberry Hill". Click here to read rest of story 

Yerke and O'Connor article - (This was published in the Winter 2022 Cumtux Vol. 42, No.1) about how our dune expansion is because of the South Jetty and the changes it made to Sunset Beach over the last 70 years. Sunset Beach has accreted over 1,200 feet of additional beach west of the original property lines since 1949. This has changed ocean views and may affect the consequences of natural disasters such as tsunamis. The dune plantings also affected the area, which went from an open coastal view to a more forested and protected view. Click here to read rest of story

Number of Homes in Surf Pines - At the Safety and Security meeting on May 12, 2021 there was a question on the number of homes in Surf Pines Click here to read rest of story 

Story about Elna Erickson Marlantes who was Barney Lucas's general assistant for years -  The colonel's wife was busting her chops, until Elna said: 'I'm not in your goddamned army!' - It was the 1930s and a young woman was working as the office manager at a Seaside dairy. Occasionally, a driver would call in sick, and she would drive the milk truck. One day, however, the local sheriff pulled her over saying she'd have to get a license or she'd get a ticket...Click Here to read 

Nest of dangers- Building the South Jetty -  Building a four and a half mile-long spine of rocks out into the ocean, so as to direct the River’s outflow and keep sand from piling up in the Columbia Bar, thereby messing up the shipping channel, was a staggering project. Just understanding the hydrology and designing the work was daunting. It would prove to be a long job. Click here to read rest of story 

Nice story about Surf Pines in article - August 22, 1952, two comments about Surf Pines first about all the beach grass, surf pines and scotch broom saving the beach and story of Dick Schroeder (Richie Schroeder’s dad) having a golfing green on his front yard. That is the house at south end of Manion and Ocean Click here to read rest of story

What does a CRANBERRY have in common with the Astoria Country Club? - An article that was recently published on the Astoria Country Club News letter written by Peter Weiss about how a good portion of the grounds for the Golf Course were obtained from a cranberry farm. Click here to read rest of story 

An interesting blast from the past. Locating Lila J Colwell’s home - After returning from Portland, I received a phone call from a gentleman who explained that as a young lad he was taken under the protective wing of Lila Colwell a prominent Interior decorator based in Portland and had a beach home in Surf Pines Click here to read rest of story 

The wreck of the Galena in our back yard - Here is some interesting History for Surf Pines. The Krohn’s house at the west end of Horizon and the two homes on either side have something in their back yard! Turns out that the Bark Galena Click here to read rest of story 

Did anyone know that Surf Pines was originally a flower farm - Yes Barney Lucas was quite the farmer. Not only did he plant thousands of flowers but also planted all the trees here in SP and the scotch broom. Here is a blurb from the 1953 July 3 article about Gearhart and surrounding area. Click here to read rest of story 

Camp Kiwanilong by Kiwanis 1964 - Camp Kiwanilong was built with the help of the Kiwanis and the Girl Scouts. Click here to read rest of story

The Legacy of Ocean Home Farm – Clatsop News Ocean Home Farm is situated just north of Gearhart, Oregon, along the Clatsop Plains. Click here to read rest of story 

Coastal-Gale-2007 - the Great Coastal Gale of 2007 was a series of powerful Pacific storms that affected the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington... Click here to read rest of story  

Lucas Story about Surf Pines - Barney Lucas wrote this history of Surf Pines in 1967... Click here to read rest of story