Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 9392
Washington District Representative Marie Gluesenkamp Perez visited Wahkiakum County on January 29 to meet with PUD leaders and be updated on the progress of the Puget Island well-drilling, which went underway in December 2024. Drilling this well is among the PUD’s final steps in meeting requirements for a Washington State Department of Health-approved Water System Plan for the Puget Island Water System. Congresswoman Gluesenkamp Perez helped to secure funding for the project through her C...
The Wahkiakum PUD Commissioners held their regularly scheduled meeting on Feb. 4 where they discussed the recently submitted PUD/Town of Cathlamet consolidation study submitted by Grant and Osborne. Commissioner Gene Healy suggested scheduling a workshop where the three commissioners could reassess both the positive and negative implications, address any misinformation that has been circling, and answer the public’s questions. “Put notes on the whiteboard, everybody participates, and we have a workshop that allows the public and anybody els...
9 marks 40 years since the St. James Family Center began serving the Wahkiakum County community. To celebrate four decades of enhancing the lives of those in our community, we are excited to invite you to the official launch of our upcoming fundraising campaign: 40 for 40. Our goal is to raise $40,000 to honor this significant milestone by encouraging donations throughout the year and inviting contributions in increments of $40, according to what suits each donor. With federal and state funding becoming less certain, we need to strengthen...
The Dress a Girl Around the World program is proudly entering its seventh year in Wahkiakum County, bringing joy and hope to countless girls in need. Leading this impactful mission is Rosburg resident Pearl Blackburn, who serves as the Ambassador for Oregon and Washington. In 2024, an inspiring total of 1,628 dresses, along with 117 pairs of boy shorts and an abundance of T-shirts, fabric bags, underwear, pocket toys, and stuffed animals were joyfully distributed across the globe. Through the...
Ah, smelt. Despite the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (WDFW) best intentions to provide us with smelt dipping opportunities, the first two days were not approved. Fishery managers evaluate weekly commercial test fishery landings, or catch reports, to determine if the smelt run size is large enough to support a recreational harvest. This week’s catch reports did not provide enough information to confirm whether the run is large enough to open a recreational fishery in the Cowlitz Ri...
As the groundhog predicts six more weeks of winter, gardeners eagerly await spring but can use this time wisely to plan and prepare for a pollinator-friendly landscape. Pollinators such as bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other beneficial insects play a crucial role in the health of our gardens and food systems. Thoughtful planning now ensures a vibrant, pollinator-rich garden when the weather warms. Selecting the right plants begins now to integrate into plans and sketches the dedicated gardener is inevitably scratching out on these cold...
WHITE WORLD! As I begin this column on the first Sunday in February, it is a white world in West Valley in good old Skamokawa! It was like a blizzard for a time, with huge white flakes. The biggest I’d ever seen, and then they changed into a bunch of tiny flakes; blowing all around our house like a whirlwind, wild! I must say that I did enjoy the sunshine break that came shortly after, as I was afraid we would wind up with feet of snow if the snowy sessions continued much longer. At any rate, for those of you who are snow lovers, I hope you’re...
Hello from your Sheriff! I hope everyone is having a good start to 2025. So far, I have seen a lot of participation from the community in local events, programs, and outreach, and I thank all involved for making the most of what our beautiful county has to offer each other. I encourage anyone who has thought about volunteering in service to Wahkiakum County to do so, whether that be in the Fire Departments, community projects such as the Youth Mentoring Program, or helping with the variety of great public events! Scams continue to plague the...
We’ve all heard the saying, “Change is hard!” Surely, that is why so many of us make New Year’s resolutions only to forget about them after a few short weeks into January. The self-discipline necessary to make changes in our lives to improve add and subtract from our lives to improve is much harder than simply writing resolutions on a piece of paper! Instead, we find ourselves waving a white flag of surrender, retreating to our comfort zones for another year. That is not the case for a handful...
The 2025 Washington commercial crab season is officially in full swing, with several local crabbers delivering their first offloads of the season on Thursday, Jan. 16, at local ports along the Long Beach Peninsula.”There are a lot of jumbos, nice and hard two-pounders. It’s a very good product.” reported Florian Mumford, captain of the F/V Vengeance. Fishermen reported strong currents and steep competition among the opening-day hurdles, leading to lower-than-normal catch volumes. However, the $5.75 opening record price from processors has b...
Please help! The Wahkiakum County Historical museum would like help identifying the people in this photo. Museum staff noticed that some of the women in the photograph were wearing pants which was unusual for this era of photography. Email wahkiakumhistory@gmail.com....
Did you know there is Board of Trustees which oversees and governs the Cathlamet Public Library? And as you know, the library serves all of Wahkiakum County. Anyone in our county can get a library card for free. Well, I’m one of the library trustees, and a recent one at that. And I thought, “Hey, if we are a library for the whole county, we should have voices from the whole county on the board.” I knew about the Johnson Park Library but had never stopped by to check it out, so a few weeks ago I stopped in and met Carillon Nicol who is the l...
At the Board of County Commissioners meeting this month, Wahkiakum County Health & Human Services (WCHHS) staff presented the Community Health Advocate program. This partnership between WCHHS and the Wahkiakum High School is over a decade long and has been helping students make better choices for their health. In Wahkiakum County, Community Health Advocates are students themselves - freshmen through seniors. They are employed by the County and paid for time in and out of the school to learn and educate their peers on a variety of health...
The Senior Friendship Group started as a Facebook Page to allow Wahkiakum seniors to make connections and new friends. Some seniors have mobility issues and have difficulty getting out and about, and this group gave them an online space to meet, chat, answer daily questions, and share photos. Soon, Pastor Jeff at the Lutheran Church offered the basement of the church as a place for the group members to meet in person. There is now a monthly potluck, and weekly meetings of groups with various...
I dropped in briefly at Rosburg Hall on Saturday evening to take some pictures at the American Legion’s annual Crab and Oyster Feed dinner at Rosburg Hall. The hall was packed with hungry patrons. Nick Nikkila reported to me there were 199 paid attendees. Fifty items were raffled off, including a Benjamin Marauder high pressure .22 caliber air rifle, the booze wagon, and a cord of firewood exclusively for seniors, won by Sonja Kruse for the second time. There was also an auction that featured it...
The Naselle-Grays River Valley School Board met for their monthly meeting on Jan. 21. During Public Comment, Luke Gardner expressed his desires regarding the selection of a new superintendent stating, “Please choose wisely with a new administrator lead. Please look for someone with good communication skills. Please find one who will be truthful and transparent, and can communicate.” Roman Garcia, an eighth grader, bravely addressed the school board with his request. He said, “Today I am coming before the school board to ask that myself and a...
The big news, if you haven’t already read the news release from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for February 2025, is the implementation by the agency of some brand new regulations surrounding the traditional smelt fishery on the Cowlitz River. Biologists determined that populations of Columbia River smelt, or eulachon as they’re technically known, began to decline in the mid-1990s. In 2001, the Washington-Oregon Eulachon Management Plan was drafted; nine years later in 2010, Col...
Columbia Artist Association-SW Washington, announces an open call to artists in Cowlitz, Clark, Wahkiakum, Lewis, Pacific, Clatsop, and Columbia counties for our 2025 Spring Show. Artwork in oils, acrylics, watercolor, mixed mediums along with 3-D creations will be featured at the juried showing, March 22 – April 12, 2025, held at the Cowlitz County Historical Museum in Kelso, WA. Artists need not be a CAA member to enter. Items to be entered into the show will be received on Tuesday, March 18, from 10 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. For more information a...
COLD ENOUGH? Well, as I begin this column, it is dropping in the lower twenties, and I must tell you, I’m not a fan of that kind of cold... brr! As a matter of fact, it dropped 20 degrees in only 90 minutes here in West Valley earlier. The decent temperatures we saw earlier in the day were gone in a flash as the temperatures plummeted. From the sound of it, many folks were having plumbing problems, which I’m guessing were related to the extreme cold and resulted in frozen and broken pipes. I do hope you’re all doing better in that regard by no...
Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson unveiled a budget-cutting plan to ease a projected $12 billion statewide budget deficit during a 2025 legislative preview in Olympia Jan. 9. “Washingtonians expect that we will increase revenue as a last resort. I will not contemplate additional revenue options until we have exhausted efforts to improve efficiency,” Ferguson said. Estimates of the deficit vary widely, from $7 billion to $15 billion. To make up the deficit, Ferguson proposes cutting spending by 6% budget a...
We have read your letters in the Grays River Builder, acknowledging the letters written by Mr. Meserve, and have enjoyed them immensely, so I thought I would write to you and tell you about the conditions in these vicinities. Like you folks, we are also strong and settled in two small communities (Frankfort and Sisson Creek), which are situated along the north shore of the Columbia River. Some of the settlers have made their homes here for the past fifty years; buying lots, erecting beautiful...
Charlie the Champion Naselle residents Nate and Holly Engleson have been integral in our community for a long time. Nate is a key volunteer in the Naselle Fire Department, and Holly has spent countless hours putting on events like the Halloween Bash at the Naselle Community Center and the Easter egg hunts for the kids. They are also very involved at Naselle School, where their four kids attend. I chose to write a spotlight on them after the heartwarming homecoming they received this past week fr...
“Free? Did you say free?” Yes, if you’re a Wahkiakum County resident you can check out physical books for free at the Cathlamet Public Library. But that’s not all! You can also check out eBooks, emagazines and audio books for free! It doesn’t matter if you live in Skamokawa, Cathlamet, Svendsen’s Landing, Rosburg, Upper or Lower Elochoman, Altoona, Grays River, Flandersville, Eagle Cliff, Deep River, Waterford, Oneida, Puget Island, Eden Valley, Cape Horn or any other locale in Wahkiakum County. You can come into the library or go online and...
The Wahkiakum County Commissioners met on Tuesday, Jan. 21, for their regularly scheduled meeting. The commissioners approved the request to allot $25, 201 for a 50 percent match grant with the Washington State Military Department. The grant covers the continued support of the Department of Emergency Management program and its supporting staff. Wahkiakum Emergency Management Coordinator Austin Smith presented the Commissioners with a request for approval on the State Homeland Security Program...
Recently I interviewed Duncan Cruickshank of Skamokawa for our very first installment of Reader’s Fave! Reader’s Fave! is a short interview each week with someone in our community sharing their favorite book. Nothing difficult, just short and simple, and you get to share what you want to share. As 3rd graders would say, “Easy peasy!” I asked Duncan, “What’s your favorite book?” He replied, “Catch-22.” He said he read Catch-22 when he was about 16 years old, growing up in Scotland. He remembered...
