The Final Edition of the Harbor Gazette

• Chapter 1 Front Page: The Tide Turns
• Chapter 2 Local News: The Closing of the Dockyard
• Chapter 3 Editorial: Ink in Our Veins
• Chapter 4 Obituary: Captain Arthur Vance (1942–2023)
• Chapter 5 Letters to the Editor: A Voice from the West Pier
• Chapter 6 Classifieds: Items Lost, Found, and Forgiven
• Chapter 7 Crime Blotter: The Midnight Whistle
• Chapter 8 Feature: The Lighthouse Keeper’s Last Watch
• Chapter 9 Real Estate: Salt Wind Cottage For Sale
• Chapter 10 Opinion: What the Sea Takes Back
• Chapter 11 Business: The Last Catch at Miller’s Cannery
• Chapter 12 Lifestyle: Baking Bread on Foggy Mornings
• Chapter 13 Arts & Culture: The Murals of Old Harbor
• Chapter 14 Sports: The Final Inning at Seagull Park
• Chapter 15 Obituary: Eleanor Croft and Her Wildflowers
• Chapter 16 Weather & Tides: The High Water Mark
• Chapter 17 Community Calendar: Cancelled Until Further Notice
• Chapter 18 Letters to the Editor: Memories of the Great Storm
• Chapter 19 Classifieds: Looking for the Owner of the Red Dinghy
• Chapter 20 Historical Corner: The Founding of Blackwood Bay
• Chapter 21 Feature: The Ghost Fleet of Deadman's Reef
• Chapter 22 Advice Column: Ask Aunt Martha One Last Time
• Chapter 23 Local News: The Boardwalk Auction
• Chapter 24 Police Log: A Quiet Night in the Harbor
• Chapter 25 Publisher’s Note: Stopping the Presses
• Chapter 26 Final Page: To Those Who Stayed Behind

THE HARBOR GAZETTE
The Voice of Blackwood Bay Since 1909
Vol. 114, No. 42 — Friday, October 27 — Fifty Cents

STATE DENIES HARBOR DREDGING FUNDS; COUNCIL VOTES TO CEDE DEEP-WATER STATUS

By ARTHUR PUNDT
Gazette Senior Reporter

The State Coastal Infrastructure Board delivered what many local officials are calling a decisive blow to Blackwood Bay’s commercial maritime future on Tuesday evening, voting 4–1 to deny the town’s long-standing petition for emergency channel dredging grants.

The decision, handed down after a three-hour public hearing in the capital, leaves the municipality without the $2.4 million required to clear the accumulating silt from the inner harbor channel. Without deep-water access, vessels drawing more than fourteen feet will no longer be able to clear the sandbar at low tide, effectively ending Blackwood Bay’s status as an active commercial port of entry.

Following the state’s announcement, the Town Council convened an emergency session at 8:00 p.m. in the crowded basement auditorium of Town Hall. In a tense 5–2 vote, the council approved Resolution 104-B, which formally reclassifies the harbor from a Commercial Shipping Corridor to a Municipal Recreational Waterway. The reclassification relieves the town of its statutory obligation to maintain navigational depths for industrial freight and large-scale commercial fishing operations.

Mayor Thomas Gable, who voted with the majority to accept the reclassification, addressed a vocal gallery of residents, fishermen, and local business owners.

"We have spent seven years chasing state matching funds that are consistently directed toward larger ports down the coast," Mayor Gable said, gesturing toward the framed nautical charts lining the auditorium walls. "The simple reality is that the silt deposits from the Blackwood River have outpaced our municipal budget. We cannot spend eighty percent of our annual public works funds to fight a natural sandbar when our roads need paving and our water mains are eighty years old. The tide has turned, and we have to adapt to the shoreline we actually have."

Voting against the resolution were Council Members Sarah Jenkins and Robert Vance. Jenkins argued that surrendering the commercial designation would permanently alter the economic character of the waterfront, making it virtually impossible to reclaim industrial infrastructure grants in the future.

"Once you let the silt settle, you don't get the ships back," Jenkins stated during floor debate. "This resolution doesn't just clear a debt off the ledger; it hands our working waterfront over to speculative tourism developers who have been eyeing the East Pier for a decade."

The practical effects of the decision will be immediate. The last scheduled commercial freighter, the fuel barge Mendocino Trader, cleared the mouth of the bay on Wednesday morning. Harbor Master Frank Miller confirmed that navigational buoys marking the deep-water channel will be re-anchored by the Coast Guard next month to reflect the revised, shallower margins.

According to figures presented by Town Treasurer Evelyn Ross, maintaining the harbor channel required an average annual expenditure of $310,000 over the past decade, while municipal revenues derived from port entry fees and commercial berth leases dropped by sixty-two percent over the same period. Ross noted that the revenue shortfall created an unsustainable deficit in the town's maritime enterprise fund.

Reactions from waterfront workers outside Town Hall following the vote ranged from resignation to sharp frustration. A crowd of approximately fifty people gathered on the steps of the municipal building as the session adjourned shortly after ten o'clock.

"The silt didn't just appear overnight," said David O'Connell, who has operated a marine repair shop near the north slip for thirty years. "It's been building up since the breakwater was extended in 1998. Everyone in this town knew this day was coming when the state stopped matching our harbor maintenance fund three years ago. We just kept hoping someone would find a pocket of money under the desk."

The reclassification takes effect on November 1. Under the new ordinance, the town will continue to maintain light mooring tackle for private recreational craft, small-craft harbor patrols, and the public launch ramp at West Pier. However, the municipal tugboat, The Sentinel, built in 1974 and operated by the port authority, will be decommissioned and listed for public auction by the end of the year.

SHIFTING SANDBAR RENAME REQUEST DENIED BY GEOGRAPHIC NAMES BOARD

By CLARA BENNETT
Gazette Staff Writer

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names has officially rejected a petition submitted by the Blackwood Bay Historical Society to rename the submerged sandbar at the mouth of the bay.

The feature, known informally to four generations of local mariners as "The Tooth," will retain its official designation on federal nautical charts as "Blackwood Shoal Shoal No. 2."

The Historical Society had requested that the feature be formally named "Vance’s Reef," after Captain Arthur Vance, who grounded the timber schooner Matilda on the obstruction during the November gale of 1912. Society President Helen Vance—no direct relation to the captain—expressed disappointment with the federal agency's ruling.

"The federal government prefers numbers and generic descriptions, but everyone who lives within five miles of the light station knows that bar by name," Vance said from the society’s headquarters on Main Street. "It has torn the keel off three schooners, two motor launches, and an untold number of lobster boats. Calling it 'Shoal No. 2' lacks a respect for local history."

In a written response issued from its office in Reston, Virginia, the board cited policy guidelines that discourage naming natural undersea features after specific shipwrecks unless the vessel remains permanently visible above the mean high-water line.

The decision marks the conclusion of a two-year correspondence between the town and federal hydrographic authorities. Recent bathymetric surveys conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that "The Tooth" has migrated approximately seventy yards westward over the past fifteen years due to shifting littoral drift, narrowing the primary entry channel to less than two hundred feet at mean low tide.

Local mariners are advised that updated digital charts reflecting the precise contours and updated position of the shoal will be made available through the Coast Guard Navigation Center starting Friday. Printed charts will no longer be distributed at the Harbor Master's office after this week.

TOWN HALL TO AUTOMATE STREETLIGHT SYSTEM; LAST NIGHT WATCHMAN RETIRES

By GAZETTE STAFF

The Town Council approved a contract on Tuesday to replace the remaining manual municipal lighting switches with an automated astronomical clock control system, bringing an end to the role of Municipal Lighting Overseer held by Leonard "Pip" Gable for forty-one years.

Gable, 68, was responsible for manually operating the central breaker panels located in seven transformer sheds throughout the downtown and waterfront districts. Every evening at sunset, Gable drove a modified 1982 Ford pickup truck from the South Bluff to the West Pier, pulling the heavy copper knife switches that brought the town’s high-pressure sodium street lamps to life. He repeated the circuit at dawn to turn them off.

"People ask why we didn't put sensors on those switch boxes thirty years ago," Gable said during a small ceremony in the Town Hall lobby on Wednesday morning. "The old transformers were built in the thirties and had a habit of throwing sparks if you didn't throw the lever clean and fast. You had to feel the resistance in the copper. A photo sensor doesn't know when a switch box is running hot or when a bird’s nest is jammed in the bus bar."

The modernization project, funded through a state energy efficiency block grant, will cost $42,000 and is expected to save the municipality roughly $8,000 annually in power and maintenance costs. The automated system will rely on photocells installed directly on top of individual light poles, eliminating the need for central manual distribution sheds.

Gable, whose uncle served as the town’s lamplighter in the era of coal-gas illumination, declined a retirement plaque, requesting instead that the town allow him to keep his original brass transformer keys. The council granted the request unanimously.

"The streets will light up fine without me," Gable remarked as he cleared his desk at the Department of Public Works garage. "Though I expect a few people on Elm Street will call the police the first time the automated timer turns the lights on ten minutes early during a thundercloud."

Gable’s retirement takes effect at midnight tonight. The Department of Public Works announced that the new control units will be online by Monday morning.

COASTAL HIGHWAY RESURFACING DELAYED UNTIL SPRING

State Department of Transportation officials confirmed Thursday that the long-awaited resurfacing of Highway 101 between the Blackwood River Bridge and the northern town line has been postponed until May.

The contractor, Pacific Asphalt Corporation, cited unseasonably cool ground temperatures and supply delays for maritime-grade binder asphalt. The six-mile stretch of road, which has developed extensive rutting and potholing following last winter’s heavy rainfall, will undergo temporary cold-patch repairs next week to keep the lane markers visible through the winter months.

Drivers are advised to expect single-lane traffic controls and minor delays near the salt marsh causeway between 8:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. beginning Monday.

BRIEFING: THIS ISSUE AT A GLANCE

• DOCKYARD CLOSING: Detailed coverage of the final maintenance shift at the municipal dry dock and the scheduled sale of port equipment. See Local News, Page 2.
• IN MEMORIAM: A retrospective on the life and maritime career of Captain Arthur Vance (1942–2023), former pilot for the harbor entrance. See Obituary, Page 4.
• LIGHTHOUSE WATCH: A look at the final automated sensor upgrades at Blackwood Head Light and the history of its keepers. See Feature, Page 8.
• CANNERY OPERATIONS: Miller’s Cannery processes its final commercial batch of sea bass after seventy-six years of continuous operation. See Business, Page 11.
• COMMUNITY AUCTION: High bidder details and inventory listings for the upcoming sale of surplus waterfront property. See Real Estate, Page 9, and Local News, Page 23.

WEATHER FORECAST: COLD FRONT APPROACHING

TODAY: Overcast with intermittent coastal drizzle early. Fog clearing by mid-morning with overcast skies remaining. Highs near 54°F. Winds from the southwest at 10 to 15 knots, shifting to northwest by evening.

TONIGHT: Increasing cloudiness with a seventy percent chance of rain after midnight. Wind gusts up to 25 knots along exposed bluffs. Lows near 42°F.

SATURDAY: Rain heavy at times during the morning hours, tapering to scatter showers by mid-afternoon. Strong west winds 15 to 25 knots. Highs around 50°F.

SUNDAY: Mostly clear and cool. Highs near 48°F. Nighttime lows near 36°F with inland frost expected along the Blackwood River valley.

TIDE TABLES (West Pier Station):

• Morning High: 6:14 a.m. (6.8 ft.)
• Afternoon Low: 12:42 p.m. (0.4 ft.)
• Evening High: 7:02 p.m. (5.9 ft.)
• Midnight Low: 1:15 a.m. (-0.2 ft.)

EDITORIAL NOTE: TO OUR READERS

With this issue, the Harbor Gazette concludes 114 years of continuous print publication in Blackwood Bay. Founded in 1909 by Jonathan Pundt as a four-page weekly broadsheet printed on a hand-cranked Washington press, the paper has recorded the daily life, governance, commerce, and weather of this township through 5,928 editions.

The decision to cease publication was reached by the publisher and board of directors last month following sustained declines in local print advertising revenue, increased newsprint costs, and the changing landscape of regional communication.

Our offices on Commercial Street will close permanently at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 31. Archival copies of the Harbor Gazette spanning from 1909 to 2022 have been transferred to the care of the Blackwood Bay Public Library, where they will be available on microfilm and through the state digital archives project.

We extend our deep appreciation to the readers, subscribers, local merchants, columnists, and carriers who have supported this institution across four generations.

— The Board and Staff of the Harbor Gazette

SHORELINE PROFILE: THE CHANGING SHAPE OF THE EAST SPIT

By HAROLD GREY
Special to the Gazette

To understand why the Town Council sat in tense silence on Tuesday night as they surrendered Blackwood Bay’s commercial dredging rights, one does not need to read the thick economic reports commissioned by the state. One needs only to stand on the end of the East Spit at low tide with a ten-foot measuring rod and a copy of the 1924 Coastal Survey map.

On that old linen map, hand-drawn by engineers from the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the channel between the East Spit and the rocky shelf of Blackwood Head measured four hundred and twenty yards across. The water was deep, blue, and forgiving. It carried wooden schooners laden with Douglas fir, coal barges bound for the northern mills, and deep-draft trawlers coming home heavy with halibut.

Today, if you walk out to the same spot, the space between the sand spit and the headland rock has contracted to less than two hundred yards. The water is no longer deep blue; it is a pale, milky green, swirling rapidly over a vast carpet of fine grey silt carried down by the Blackwood River and pushed back into the throat of the bay by the prevailing northwest swells.

Nature, it turns out, has a low regard for municipal zoning.

The story of Blackwood Bay has always been a story written by mud and gravel. When the first commercial wharf was constructed in 1884 by the Blackwood Lumber Company, the river was deep enough to float a three-masted ship right up to the foot of Main Street. The town grew because the harbor was the only natural shelter along forty miles of sharp rock and open ocean.

But harbors are not permanent fixtures of the landscape. They are temporary exemptions granted by the ocean, maintained only as long as human effort can outpace the relentless movement of sediment.

For nearly a century, the town maintained that balance through sheer repetition. Every four or five years, a steam-powered suction dredge would arrive from the regional district. It would drop its heavy cutterhead into the channel, pump hundreds of thousands of tons of muddy water through a floating pipe, and deposit the silt miles out to sea beyond the twenty-fathom line. The channel would be cleared, the charts would be updated, and the freighters would keep coming.

The turning point came not in a boardroom, but during the heavy winter storms of 1998. A severe freshet on the Blackwood River washed an unprecedented volume of topsoil down from the logged hillsides of the upper basin. In a matter of weeks, the river deposited nearly six feet of new silt across the floor of the inner bay. At the same time, shifting coastal currents began building up "The Tooth"—the sandbar that has grown steadily across the harbor entrance like a slowly closing gate.

By the time the state shifted its maritime infrastructure grants to focus exclusively on major deep-water ports like Humboldt and Coos Bay, the math for Blackwood Bay had become unmanageable. A single dredging campaign today costs more than the town's entire annual public safety budget.

"We spent fifty years treating the harbor floor like it was a paved street that just needed sweeping every now and then," says retired Port Engineer Walter Thorne, who sat in the front row at Tuesday’s council meeting. "But a harbor isn't a street. It's a river mouth. The ocean wants to fill it up with sand, and the river wants to fill it up with dirt. The moment you stop spending millions of dollars to throw that sand back into the sea, the bay starts returning to what it was five hundred years ago—a shallow marsh full of sandbars and mudflats."

The reclassification of the harbor to a recreational waterway does not mean the water will disappear. The tide will continue to come in twice a day, filling the bay with salt water, and the river will continue to empty its fresh water out to the Pacific. Small motorboats, shallow-draft sailboats, and kayaks will continue to navigate the channel without difficulty.

What disappears is the scale.

The sight of forty-foot commercial fishing vessels running two abreast past the light station, their decks piled high with crab pots or ice boxes, will soon belong entirely to photographs. The diesel air horns that used to echo across the water at four in the morning to announce the arrival of the salmon fleet will give way to the quiet hum of outboard motors on summer weekends.

On the East Spit yesterday afternoon, as the news of the council's vote spread through town, two retired fishermen stood near the old granite marker that shows the high-water line of 1950. The tide was running out hard, pulling a long brown plume of river mud through the narrow channel and out into the white foam of the breaker zone.

One of the men pushed a drift-log with his boot, watching a flock of gulls circle over the shallow water where the deep-water channel used to be.

"My grandfather used to say this bay was built by the sea," he observed, turning his collar up against the cold wind coming off the water. "He just forgot to mention that the sea doesn't lend anything forever. Eventually, it asks for the keys back."

MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT ISSUES ANNUAL QUALITY REPORT

The Blackwood Bay Municipal Water District has released its annual drinking water quality report for the fiscal year ending September 30. The report, mandated by state environmental health codes, indicates that all municipal drinking water standards were fully met during the previous twelve months.

Testing revealed average hardness levels of 42 parts per million, consistent with historical baselines for the Blackwood River watershed. Lead and copper monitoring across forty sampling sites returned values well below the federal action thresholds.

Water Commissioner Roy Jenkins reminded residents that seasonal flushing of fire hydrants will take place during the first two weeks of November. Residents may experience temporary water discoloration or pressure fluctuations between 8:00 a.m. and noon on scheduled flushing days. Affected households are advised to run cold water taps for two to three minutes until clarity returns before washing laundry or using appliances.

Copies of the full sixteen-page water quality audit are available for public inspection at the Water District office on 4th Street or at the municipal library reference desk.

HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNOUNCES ARCHIVE TRANSITION PLAN

Following the announcement of the Harbor Gazette's final publication, the Blackwood Bay Historical Society has initiated a coordinate effort with the State Library Commission to preserve the newspaper’s photographic negative collection.

The collection, comprising an estimated 45,000 glass plates, film negatives, and print photographs dating back to 1912, is currently stored in archival cabinets on the second floor of the Gazette building.

Under the agreement, trained archivists from the state university will catalog, re-sleeve, and digitize the entire collection over the next eighteen months. Once digitized, the high-resolution images will be indexed by date, subject, and location, and made freely accessible to the public through an online portal hosted by the State Digital Archives.

"This photo archive represents the most complete visual record of coastal community development in our county," said Society Director Helen Vance. "It captures not just major civic events, but everyday scenes—building constructions, boat launches, high school graduations, and winter storms—that would otherwise be completely lost to history."

Volunteers interested in assisting with the preliminary inventory and boxing of physical prints are invited to attend an orientation meeting at the Historical Society building on Saturday, November 4, at 10:00 a.m.

HARBOR POLICE NOTICE: WINTER MOORING PERMITS REQUIRED

The Harbor Master's office reminds all vessel owners that winter mooring permits for the inner basin must be renewed prior to November 15.

Under Municipal Code Section 8-12, all craft remaining in municipal slips or on assigned moorings between November 15 and April 15 must demonstrate proof of valid marine liability insurance and possess operational bilge pumping systems. Vessels failing to display a valid 2023–2024 winter mooring decal by the deadline will be subject to daily fines and potential impoundment at the owner's expense.

Inspection appointments may be scheduled by contacting the Harbor Master's office at the West Pier administrative building between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

PUBLIC NOTICE: MUNICIPAL ELECTION CANDIDATE FILING DEADLINE

Notice is hereby given that the deadline for filing candidate nomination papers for the upcoming municipal election is Friday, November 17, at 5:00 p.m.

Electoral positions open for election during the spring cycle include:

• Mayor (Two-year term)
• Town Council Seat A (Four-year term)
• Town Council Seat B (Four-year term)
• Municipal Treasurer (Four-year term)

Nomination petitions must contain no fewer than twenty-five valid signatures from registered voters residing within the city limits of Blackwood Bay. Nomination packets and candidate guidebooks may be obtained from the Town Clerk's office during regular business hours.

GAZETTE ARCHIVE SNAPSHOT: OCTOBER 27, 1948

75 YEARS AGO TODAY IN THE HARBOR GAZETTE:

• CANNERY SETS RECORD: Miller's Cannery reported a single-day processing record on Tuesday, handling 14,000 pounds of chinook salmon delivered by a fleet of twenty-two local boats. Plant Manager Edward Miller attributed the high yield to favorable ocean temperatures and stable sea conditions off Cape Ridge.
• NEW TELEPHONE SWITCHBOARD: The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company announced the completion of its new manual switchboard facility on 3rd Street. The upgrade increases the town's local line capacity from 400 to 750 subscriber lines and cuts long-distance connection times to regional centers in half.
• HIGH SCHOOL BAND PURCHASES UNIFORMS: The Blackwood Bay High School Marching Band has successfully raised $1,200 through bake sales, scrap metal drives, and business donations to purchase twenty-eight new wool uniforms for the upcoming fall parade season.

COAST GUARD AUXILIARY OFFERS BOATING SAFETY COURSE

Flotilla 83 of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary will offer a two-day weekend course in Coastal Navigation and Small Craft Safety on November 11–12 at the Community Center on Main Street.

The course covers basic chart reading, compass variation, tide calculation, electronic navigation systems, and cold-water survival techniques. Completion of the course satisfies state requirements for the Mandatory Boater Education Card.

Registration is $35 per person and includes all course materials and charts. Advance registration is required as seating is limited to twenty participants. Interested persons may register by calling the Auxiliary Communications Center.

LOST AND FOUND NOTICES

• LOST: Pair of black framed reading glasses in a leather case, left near the bench outside the Post Office on Wednesday afternoon. Reward offered. Call 555-0142.
• FOUND: Small brass boat key on a floating cork keychain found near the West Pier launch ramp on Monday morning. Owner may claim at the Harbor Master's office by identifying key mark.
• FOUND: Yellow Labrador retriever mix, wearing a red nylon collar with no tags, found wandering near the South Bluff trail on Tuesday evening. Healthy and friendly. Currently being cared for at the county animal shelter. Call 555-0198.

LOCAL MARKET PRICE REPORT

SEAFOOD BUYING PRICES (West Pier Dock):

• Dungeness Crab: $4.25 / lb.
• Black Rockfish: $2.10 / lb.
• Lingcod (Large): $2.85 / lb.
• Petrale Sole: $1.95 / lb.

FUEL PRICES (Harbor Fuel Dock):

• Marine Diesel: $4.15 / gal.
• Gasoline (Unleaded 87): $4.65 / gal.

LUMBER AND FUELWOOD (Local Yard Averages):

• Seasoned Alder (Cord): $280.00
• Mixed Softwood (Cord): $220.00
• Construction 2x4 (8-ft. Fir): $4.12 / unit

A FINAL NOTE FROM THE FRONT DESK

The front office of the Harbor Gazette on Commercial Street will remain open to the public through Tuesday afternoon to assist long-time subscribers with account settlements, back-issue requests, and archive inquiries.

Subscribers with active balances remaining beyond the final October issue will receive a prorated refund check by mail before November 30, administered through the accounting firm of Ross & Associates.

Back issues from the past five years (2018–2023) remain available in limited quantities at the front desk for $1.00 per copy while supplies last. Bound annual volumes are not for sale and have been transferred to the municipal library collection.

We thank our local delivery carriers—many of whom spent their early mornings riding bicycles through coastal rain and fog—for their faithful service to the homes and businesses of Blackwood Bay.

LOCAL NEWS
The Harbor Gazette — Page 2

LAST SHIFT AT THE MUNICIPAL DRY DOCK: 94 YEARS OF SHIP REPAIR COMES TO A CLOSE

By ARTHUR PUNDT
Gazette Senior Reporter

The heavy iron winch gears at the head of the municipal marine railway turned for the final time on Wednesday afternoon, bringing an end to ninety-four years of continuous vessel maintenance at the Blackwood Bay Municipal Dockyard.

At precisely 3:15 p.m., lead yard mechanic Douglas "Mac" MacIntyre engaged the clutch on the 1952 General Electric motor drive, hauling the 58-foot wooden-hulled salmon troller Blue Finch clear of the water and onto the oak cradle timber frames. The vessel, owned by long-time bay fisherman Lyle Vance, was hauled out to undergo routine hull scraping, shaft alignment, and zinc anode replacement before the facility’s operational license expires at midnight on October 31.

When the Blue Finch is launched back into the inner basin on Monday morning, the 400-ton capacity cradle will be permanently chained to the head of the slipway, the grease wells will be drained, and the yard’s five full-time staff members will turn in their keys to the Town Clerk.

The closure comes six months after a comprehensive structural assessment conducted by maritime engineering firm Kramer & Associates revealed severe rot in the underwater pilings supporting the lower track assembly. The report estimated that replacing the submerged Douglas fir piling framework and re-laying the heavy iron rails would cost the town between $1.2 million and $1.6 million—a capital expense the Town Council deemed impossible to justify following the loss of state harbor maintenance matching funds.

"The wood beneath the low-water mark has done its job since 1929," MacIntyre said, wiping grease from his hands with a rag as the cradle settled onto the locking dogs. "You can't ask a piece of salt-soaked fir to hold up a forty-ton boat forever. We've replaced the upper deck timbers three times in my career, but down where the teredo worms work, the foundation is simply worn out. It's a miracle of timber engineering that it lasted into this century."

The municipal dockyard was established in the spring of 1929 after local boat owners petitioned the town to construct a public repair facility. Prior to its construction, vessel owners were forced to haul their craft onto the mudflats at high tide and work quickly between water cycles, or make the sixty-mile transit south to the commercial shipyards in Humboldt Bay.

During its peak operational decade in the 1960s, the yard serviced up to eighty vessels annually, ranging from shallow-draft timber barges and Coast Guard utility boats to the entire local commercial fishing fleet. In recent years, however, as the commercial fleet contracted and newer fiberglass vessels required less frequent timber maintenance, annual yard haul-outs dropped to fewer than twenty-two craft per year.

The town's insurance carrier informed the administration in August that coverage for the marine railway would not be renewed past November 1 unless the submerged foundation underwent total reconstruction.

"Without municipal liability insurance, we cannot legally operate the winch system or lift private vessels out of the water," Town Manager Evelyn Ross explained during a walkthrough of the facility on Thursday. "The dockyard enterprise account has operated at a net loss of $38,000 annually over the past three fiscal years. We simply do not have the reserve funds to underwrite those liabilities."

For the five crew members who maintain the property, the final week has been spent cataloging equipment, burning scrap lumber, and prepping the shop machinery for the municipal liquidation auction scheduled for November 18.

Along with MacIntyre, who has served as lead yard mechanic for twenty-seven years, the departing crew includes assistant machinist Donald O'Shea, welder Gary Vance, yard hand Marcus Cole, and administrative clerk Martha Gable.

Under a transition agreement approved by the Town Council last month, three of the yard workers have accepted positions within the municipal Public Works department, primarily assisting with winter road maintenance and water line repairs. Two others, including MacIntyre, have elected to retire.

"I’m seventy-one years old," MacIntyre remarked, looking up at the high timber trusses of the main machine shed. "I started here in 1978 as a apprentice under Pete Swanson. Back then, you couldn't hear yourself talk in this shed for the sound of steam riveters, band saws, and heavy diesel engines warming up on the blocks. Now, the quietest thing in the harbor is going to be this shop."

INVENTORY OF DOCKYARD MACHINERY LISTED FOR NOVEMBER LIQUIDATION

By CLARA BENNETT
Gazette Staff Writer

The municipal government has published the official inventory list for the upcoming public liquidation auction of the Blackwood Bay Dockyard machinery, tools, and surplus timber stock.

The auction, to be conducted by Northwest Industrial Auctions on Saturday, November 18, will feature more than two hundred individual lots of commercial ship-repair equipment, heavy metalworking machinery, hand tools, and historical shipyard artifacts.

Among the notable items listed for bidding is the yard’s primary shop lathe—a 1944 South Bend 16-inch gap-bed engine lathe fitted with an eight-foot bed. The lathe, originally purchased as military surplus following the Second World War, was used for decades to turn custom brass propeller shafts, rudder stocks, and drive bushings for the regional fishing fleet.

"That lathe built half the hardware currently running under the water in this bay," said retired yard foreman Pete Swanson, who visited the shop on Wednesday to inspect the lots. "You can’t buy cast-iron ironwork built like that anymore. Modern machines have computerized controls, but they don't have the mass needed to turn an eight-inch brass tailshaft without vibrating."

Other major machinery lots include:

• A 1956 Rockford 24-inch hydraulic metal shaper with original vice and tooling plates.
• A Chicago Pneumatic 50-horsepower rotary screw air compressor with a 200-gallon receiver tank.
• A 10-ton overhead bridge crane and chain-hoist system spanning the main bay of the repair building.
• A Lincoln Electric heavy-duty industrial arc welder mounted on a pneumatic trailer chassis.
• Approximately 4,000 board-feet of dense, air-dried clear Douglas fir framing timber and white oak knee stock stored in the upper drying loft.

In addition to heavy industrial machinery, the catalog includes dozens of specialized shipwright tools, including hand-forged slick chisels, oakum caulking irons, timber adzes, bronze propeller pullers, and pitch kettles used in traditional wooden boat preservation.

According to Town Clerk Susan Miller, proceeds from the liquidation auction will be credited directly to the municipal debt reduction fund, which currently carries an outstanding balance from the 2012 water treatment plant expansion project.

"We expect significant interest from regional private shipyards, local metal shops, and historical preservation groups," Miller said. "Several maritime museums from down the coast have already requested preview documentation regarding the wooden boatbuilding tools and historical yard records."

Public inspection of the auction lots will be held at the dockyard machine shed on Thursday, November 16, and Friday, November 17, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Bidding will begin promptly at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 18. A ten percent buyer's premium will apply to all successful bids.

FOUR DECADES ON THE RAILWAY: MEMORIES FROM THE CRADLE PIT

By HAROLD GREY
Special to the Gazette

To stand beneath the hull of a forty-ton fishing vessel held eight feet off the ground by nothing more than aged oak beams and heavy steel dog-pins requires a certain manner of faith—faith in timber, faith in iron, and above all, faith in the man operating the steam-winch clutch.

For forty-two years, that man was Raymond "Gus" Lindqvist.

Lindqvist, 81, retired as the municipal yard's primary winch master in 2008, but he returned to the dockyard on Wednesday afternoon to watch the last boat come up the timber slipway. Sitting on an overturned grease drum near the edge of the pit, wearing his familiar grease-stained canvas coat, Lindqvist watched as the Blue Finch creaked out of the mud and settled onto its cradle blocks.

"Every boat speaks a different language when she hits the cradle," Lindqvist said, watching the water cascade off the vessel's kelp-crusted keel. "A wooden boat flexes. She lets you know if the blocks aren't sitting true under her floor timbers by making a long, low groaning sound. A steel hull doesn't groan—it rings like a bell if the weight hits unevenly. You learn to listen with your feet through the floorboards of the winch house."

Lindqvist began working at the yard in November 1966, following a four-year stint in the Navy as a machinist's mate. Over the next four decades, he personally operated the winches for more than three thousand haul-outs.

The process of hauling a ship out of the ocean on a marine railway is a delicate balancing act involving hydrodynamics, structural carpentry, and precise timing with the tide. As the incoming tide reaches its peak, the submerged heavy wooden cradle is ran down the underwater iron tracks until it sits in seven to ten feet of salt water. The vessel is then maneuvered slowly between the vertical guide posts of the frame.

Once the ship is centered over the keel blocks, scuba divers—or in earlier years, men standing on side stages with long wooden measuring poles—verify that the hull rests directly over the reinforced center line of the frame. The winch operator then engages the heavy iron drum gears, winding in three-inch diameter braided steel cable to pull the cradle up the slope, lifting boat and frame clear of the surf line.

"The hardest haul I ever did was in January 1982," Lindqvist recalled, pointing toward the outer bay. "The herring sealer North Star came in during a southeast gale with a split stem plank and her bilge pumps running flat out. The water was rising in her engine room fast enough that she was sitting four feet low in the stern. If she sank in the slipway, she’d have blocked the whole railway for months."

Lindqvist spent three hours standing in waist-deep freezing salt water in the lower pit, hand-positioning timber shims under the boat's sagging keel while wind gusts blew sleet across the basin.

"We got her out of the water just as the engine battery drowned," he said with a quiet smile. "The crew was shivering so hard they couldn't hold their coffee cups, but we saved the boat. She stayed up on the blocks for three weeks while Pete Swanson refastened her stem with oakum and copper bolts. She fished another fifteen seasons after that night."

When asked what will happen to the skills required to maintain traditional wooden commercial hulls once facilities like the Blackwood Bay yard disappear, Lindqvist shook his head slowly.

"The craft doesn't die completely, but it moves away," he said. "It goes into private yards that charge ten times what a small-boat fisherman can afford, or it becomes a hobby for wealthy people who restore old yachts. The working fisherman who builds his own pots and scrapes his own bottom boards on a Saturday afternoon is being pushed out by the cost of everything. You can't run a working waterfront if you don't have a place for a man to fix his own boat without going bankrupt."

As the afternoon sun dropped behind the spruce trees on the South Bluff, casting long shadow lines across the damp asphalt of the yard apron, Lindqvist stood up, brushed off his trousers, and took a long look at the steel cable drum he had greased every Monday morning for forty-two years.

"It was good timber," he said simply, turning to walk back toward Commercial Street. "It carried every heavy load we ever put on it."

WORKER RETRAINING PROGRAM DETAILS ANNOUNCED FOR DISPLACED YARD EMPLOYEES

Displaced workers from the closing municipal dockyard will be eligible to participate in the Coastal Economic Transition Assistance Program, according to announcement issued Thursday by the County Workforce Development Board.

The program, funded through federal economic adjustment grants, provides up to $6,500 per individual for vocational retraining, professional certification, or tuition costs at regional community colleges.

Displaced yard workers can apply those funds toward programs in marine diesel maintenance, commercial truck operation, electrical technology, or industrial safety certification.

"The goal is to ensure that skilled workers with decades of mechanical and technical experience can transition into growing local industries without having to relocate their families out of the county," said Program Coordinator Sarah Vance.

Specialized counseling sessions for affected town staff will begin next Tuesday at the County Extension Office on 3rd Street. Individual appointments may be scheduled through the local employment office.

HISTORICAL CORNER: THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE 1929 MARINE RAILWAY

By BLACKWOOD BAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Editor's Note: The following historical overview was compiled from original board minutes, construction logs, and local news reports preserved in the Gazette archives.

When the Blackwood Bay Town Council voted in September 1928 to issue $35,000 in municipal bonds for the construction of a public marine railway, the decision was hailed as the greatest economic forward step in the township’s history.

Prior to 1929, local mariners faced severe hardships when performing hull maintenance. The nearest dry docks were located in San Francisco or Portland, forcing local vessel operators to undertake risky ocean voyages aboard damaged or leaking craft to secure repairs.

Construction on the facility began in January 1929 under the direction of Pacific Engineering Works of Seattle. The project required driving one hundred and forty creosote-treated Douglas fir pilings thirty feet into the soft bay mud to support the two parallel iron rails of the slipway.

The construction crew faced immense physical challenges during the spring of 1929:

• Piling Installation: A steam-powered drop-hammer pile driver mounted on a timber barge worked continuously for ten weeks, driving heavy fir trunks through mud, clay, and dense gravel strata.
• Track Assembly: Heavy cast-iron rails weighing ninety pounds per yard were imported from the Bethlehem Steel plant in Pennsylvania, shipped by rail to the coast, and laid along a six-degree incline.
• The Winch House: A two-story frame building was constructed at the head of the slipway to house a surplus 75-horsepower electric drum winch purchased from a dismantled lumber mill in Washington.

The yard was officially dedicated on July 4, 1929. A crowd estimated at eight hundred residents gathered along Commercial Street to watch the inaugural haul-out of the 65-foot wooden lumber coaster Sea Gull.

For ninety-four years, the basic design of the system remained virtually unchanged. While the motor drives and steel cables were replaced during major overhauls in 1952 and 1978, the submerged iron rails and structural layout remained identical to the plans drawn by Pacific Engineering draftsmen nearly a century ago.

Historical records, photographs, and original blueprinted schematics of the marine railway have been transferred to the municipal library for permanent preservation.

DOCKYARD MEMORABILIA TO BE DISPLAYED AT COMMUNITY CENTER

Selected historic artifacts from the municipal dockyard will be preserved for permanent public display at the Blackwood Bay Community Center following an agreement reached between the Town Council and the Historical Society on Tuesday.

Items designated for preservation include:

• The original cast-bronze builder's plaque installed at the winch house in July 1929.
• The physical yard register books recording every haul-out conducted between 1929 and 2005.
• A collection of specialized wooden shipbuilding tools used by early yard shipwrights.
• The hand-operated brass fog horn formerly mounted on the end of the main repair pier.

The items will be incorporated into a permanent maritime history exhibit currently being assembled in the Community Center auditorium lobby. An unveiling ceremony for the exhibit is tentatively scheduled for mid-January.

PORT AUTHORITY ISSUES FINAL VESSEL REMOVAL NOTICE

The Port Authority has issued a final notice to all boat owners with equipment, timber frames, or unlaunched hulls currently situated on municipal dockyard property.

Under Port Regulation 14-B, all private property must be completely cleared from the dockyard staging area, machine sheds, and storage yards by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, November 13. Any tools, scrap metal, lumber, or watercraft remaining on the premises after that date will be declared abandoned public property and included in the November 18 municipal liquidation auction.

Vessel owners requiring temporary staging space while organizing private transport or slip arrangements are urged to contact the Harbor Master's office before noon on Friday.

COUNTY ROADS DEPARTMENT PURCHASES DOCKYARD CRANE ACCESSORIES

The County Roads Department has approved the inter-agency purchase of several specialized rigging attachments from the dockyard inventory prior to the public auction.

County Engineer Richard Vance confirmed that the department will acquire two heavy-duty spreader bars, four sets of twenty-ton chain slings, and a portable hydraulic timber puller for a total agreed price of $4,800. The funds will be transferred directly between county and municipal equipment maintenance accounts.

"These tools are in excellent mechanical condition and would cost the county more than double to purchase new on the commercial market," Vance noted in his report to the Board of Supervisors. "They will be put to immediate use by our bridge maintenance crews working on the upper Blackwood River timber structures."

PUBLIC SAFETY REMINDER: DOCKYARD SLIPWAY RESTRICTED ACCESS

Following the formal closure of the municipal dockyard on October 31, the entire slipway area, marine railway trackage, and equipment sheds will be closed to the public.

Police Chief William Vance reminded residents that trespassing on the decommissioned dockyard grounds is strictly prohibited due to structural hazards associated with the aging pilings and submerged track assembly.

"We know people are curious about the old yard and want to take photographs, but the submerged portions of the slipway are extremely hazardous, especially at low tide when the timber frames are slick with algae," Chief Vance said. "The property will be fenced off and monitored daily by patrol officers."

Warning signs and chain-link security fencing will be installed around the perimeter of the facility beginning Monday morning.

NOTICE OF WATERFRONT CONDOS DEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL TABLED

By GAZETTE STAFF

A preliminary proposal to convert the three-acre municipal dockyard parcel into a high-density residential and retail development was officially tabled by the Town Planning Commission during their monthly meeting on Wednesday night.

The proposal, submitted by Pacific Horizon Development Group of San Francisco, envisioned a forty-unit condominium complex, a private yacht club marina, and 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space along the waterfront frontage.

Commission Chairman Arthur Miller stated that the application was incomplete and could not be considered until a full environmental impact report and brownfield assessment are completed for the property.

"The site has been used for heavy maritime repairs, engine overhauls, hull painting, and timber treatment for nearly a century," Miller noted during the hearing. "Before any commercial or residential rezoning can even be discussed, the town must determine the extent of soil contamination, fuel residue, and lead paint accumulation in the ground beneath the machine sheds."

The commission voted 5–0 to defer any further consideration of waterfront rezoning applications until the town completes its comprehensive shoreline master plan update next summer.

A crowd of roughly thirty residents attended the meeting, several of whom spoke during the public comment period to voice opposition to residential development along the working waterfront.

"Once you put private condos on the water, you never get the working shoreline back," said local fisherman Thomas Jenkins. "If we can't run a dry dock there today, we should at least keep the land in public hands until the town figures out what kind of harbor it wants to be in twenty years."

The next regular meeting of the Planning Commission is scheduled for Wednesday, November 15, at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Hall assembly room.

DOCKYARD CREW RETIREMENT RECEPTION SCHEDULED

A public community reception honoring the service of the municipal dockyard crew will be held on Friday, November 3, at the American Legion Hall on Front Street.

The event, hosted by the Blackwood Bay Fishermen’s Association and the local merchants council, will run from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Light refreshments and seafood chowder will be served.

All current and former yard employees, boat owners, and local residents are invited to attend and celebrate the facility's ninety-four-year history of service to the coastal community. Admission is free, though donations to help cover hall rental costs will be accepted at the door.

MARITIME WEATHER NOTICE FOR SMALL CRAFT

The Coast Guard Station at Blackwood Head has issued a Small Craft Advisory for the coastal waters from Cape Ridge to the Blackwood River bar, effective from 6:00 a.m. Friday through 10:00 p.m. Saturday.

Swell heights are anticipated to reach 10 to 14 feet at 12-second intervals, accompanied by southwesterly winds gusting between 25 and 30 knots. Vessels with draft exceeding six feet are strongly advised against attempting to clear the outer sandbar during periods of falling tide or after nightfall.

Local mariners requiring updated bar conditions may contact the Coast Guard station via VHF Marine Radio Channel 16 or through the automated telephone reporting system.

DOCKYARD LOGBOOK EXCERPTS: A LOOK BACK AT 1935

The following entries are taken directly from the original handwritten dockyard ledger kept by First Yard Master Henry "Hank" Miller during the summer of 1935:

• JUNE 12, 1935: Hauled purse seiner Alaskan. Cleaned barnacles off keel frame. Installed two new oak ribs on starboard quarter. Replaced 14 copper rivets. Total labor time: 22 hours. Fee charged: $18.50.
• JULY 4, 1935: Yard closed for Independence Day holiday. High tide at 1:15 p.m. Heavy fog rolling in off the reef. All cables checked and locked.
• AUGUST 19, 1935: Emergency haul-out for tugboat Monarch. Hit submerged log off East Spit. Blade bent on three-blade bronze wheel. Removed propeller shaft, heated and straightened wheel on forge. Vessel launched on evening tide. Fee charged: $32.00.
• OCTOBER 3, 1935: Received shipment of 500 lbs. oakum, two barrels pine tar, and three dozen brass grease cups from San Francisco packet steamship. Stored in dry shed.

WEEKEND SHORELINE TIDE WARNING

Visitors to the coastal beaches and rocky tidepools near the South Bluff are reminded that an exceptionally high winter spring tide cycle will begin this weekend.

Morning high tides are predicted to reach +7.2 feet above mean low water on Saturday and Sunday, potentially flooding low-lying trail sections near the salt marsh causeway. Beachgoers are urged to exercise caution near ocean bluffs and avoid walking on exposed rock shelves where unexpected sleeper waves can sweep pedestrians into the surf.

Park rangers will post hazard flags at the South Bluff trailhead beginning Friday morning.

LOCAL FUEL DOCK NOTICE

The West Pier Fuel Station will adjust its operating hours beginning Monday, November 1.

The pump station, which supplies marine diesel and unleaded fuel to local vessels, will operate on a reduced winter schedule of 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and will remain closed on weekends. Emergency after-hours fueling may be requested by contacting the Harbor Master's office, subject to a $25 service surcharge.

Regular full-time operational hours will resume on April 1, 2024.