Holiday Edition 2024 Family Owned Businesses Shopping Local & Events
Fall Home Improvement • 2015 • 1
Celebrate the Holidays
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Special Event Highlights Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day Weekend Pages 4-5
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Citizen North Coast
Family Owned Businesses Holiday Edition Special Section Inside
Inside • The Spot, pg 3 • Heart of CARTM, pg 6 • The Fern, pg 7 • Holiday Shopping in Rockaway Beach, pg 8 • White Christmas at Coaster Theatre, pg 8 • Family-owned candy shops, pg 9 • Locally designed holiday cards, pg 10-11 • Communities benefit from shopping local, pg 12 • Captain’s Corner, pg 14 • Pacific Northwest Cabinets, pg15 • Four Paws on the Beach, pg 16
Friday, December 6, 2024 | Vol. 48, Issue 12
www.cannonbeachgazette.com
Elementary project advisory vote fails Project future murky as council race remains too close to call WILL CHAPPELL Gazette Editor
Cannon Beach’s Stormy Weather Arts Festival returned from November 1-3, with galleries across the city hosting classes, artist demonstrations, musical performances and other special events. Every year an artist is chosen as the Artist of the Year, and this year it was Donald Scott Masterson, an artist who works in multiple genres and mediums, ranging from ceiling murals to projects with Disney World and Universal Studios.
Cannon Beach voters soundly rejected an advisory vote seeking support for the NeCus Elementary project and its projected $7.8-million budget for completion. As of the last week in November, votes counted showed that nearly 60% of voters had come out against the proposal, leaving the project, which the city has already spent some $4 million on, with an uncertain future. The proposed $7.8-million budget to complete the project as a cultural and historical center with a focus on the native American village that was once located at the site of the disused Cannon Beach Elementary School was originally approved by council in April of this year. However, a group of citizens concerned by the project’s budget and scope filed a lawsuit challenging the decision and asking for it to be referred to voters and in August, city council agreed to put the advisory measure on the ballot to settle the suit. While the measure was
See STORMY, Page A2
See ELEMENTARY, Page A5
The Bronze Coast Gallery featured bronze sculptures by David Crawford during the festival.
Stormy Weather Arts Festival showcases standout talents STAFF REPORT
Cannon Beach, Rock ‘n Roll, and Tommy Thayer PIERCE BAUGH V for the Gazette
PIERCE BAUGH V for the Gazette
“I’m comin’ home again/ I’ve been east and west, but baby I like best the road that leads to you” “Hotels all look the same/ Just seem to drive me insane” “It’s true, I’m not sure if you knew/ I’m comin’ home to you” In their song “Comin’ Home” on the 1974 album “Hotter than Hell,” KISS sings about traveling the world, but longing to be home. The band, formed in New York in the ‘70s, has a member who’s had a lifelong connection to and sense of home in Cannon Beach. Tommy Thayer was just a teenager when KISS released their first album, “Kiss,” in 1974. Born and raised in Oregon and growing up in Beaverton, Thayer was musically inclined from a young age. According to his brother, John, Thayer played saxophone but wanted to play guitar, so his mother made a deal with him: if he stuck with the saxophone throughout high school she’d get him a guitar. He stuck to the deal. But a teenage Thayer had no idea just how far the guitar would take him. Since 2002, Thayer has been the lead guitarist for KISS. When Ace Frehley left the band, Thayer became the new Spaceman. Thayer’s connection to Cannon Beach has been lifelong. Even now, on his Instagram profile, he can be seen spending time at Cannon Beach and wearing a shirt referencing it.
Native Education: The Columbia River Maritime Museum Opens New Native Exhibits
PHOTO COURTESY TOMMY THAYER
Growing up, the Thayer family would spend two weeks in Cannon Beach each summer, forming a lifelong attachment in Tommy, who still returns each year.
His parents, James and Patricia, took him and his siblings to Cannon Beach often during Thayer’s early years, usually visiting for two weeks at a time and renting a house at the north end of town. In fact, Cannon Beach was where James and Patricia honeymooned. Bonfires on the beach, swimming—despite the cold water—playing with Tonka trucks in the sand and climbing the dunes were fixtures during his childhood visits. Their
father would film it all with a Super 8 camera. Thayer and his siblings would roam the beach, collecting sand dollars and starfish, putting the latter in a bucket filled with water. James Thayer loved Dungeness crab and would go to Warrenton to buy it. He was also a fan of I.W. Harper whiskey and would use the bottle to crack open the crab shells. The family would have crab sandwiches and crab chowder.
Cannon Beach had been the setting of some of Thayer’s most pristine memories. “It’s very special. Probably one of the most special places in the world for me, just because of our family history there,” says Thayer of Cannon Beach. “It’s a place that I can really go to unwind and get away from everything.” Cannon Beach holds a special place in Thayer’s past See THAYER, Page A3
Recently, many museums have been returning to the roots of the land they’re built upon. And by returning to their roots, they’re returning to the people who have been rooted here long before the Mayflower landing in 1620 or Viking expeditions in the 10th Century. The Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria has opened two new native Exhibits: The Cedar and Sea Exhibit and Atsayka Ilíi Ukuk–This is Our Place. Opening on November 1, the first day of National Native American Month, the Cedar and Sea Exhibit highlights the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest, from southern Oregon up to Yakutat, Alaska. It features the voices of contemporary Indigenous artisans, showcasing their work and traditions and the blend of new and old technologies. Some of what’s featured include tools made from stone, bone, shells and wood among other natural materials. Cedar and Sea is a permanent exhibit. This Is Our Place opened on September 15 and focuses on the Chinook Nation, which is composed of five tribes—Clastsop, Kathlamet, Wahkiakum, Lower Chinook and Willapa—spread out from
northwestern Oregon near Wheeler to southwestern Washington near Westport and out east toward Longview, Washington. The exhibit features photos of the Chinook taken by photographer Amiran White who has been photographing them for eight years. “It’s truly been an honor,” says White, of her experience capturing the Chinook ways of life in pictures. “Everybody has just been so friendly and open.” The Columbia River Maritime Museum also houses the Chinook’s canoes when they are not in use during the winter season as per an agreement with Chinook Nation. Located in the middle of the gallery, tribal members will even work on canoes while visitors can watch. Caroline Wuebben, the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s director of external engagement feels that the museum, which sits at the mouth of the Columbia River, has an obligation to tell the stories of the people who have called the land home since well before Europeans arrived. She said the museum realized there was a gap in how it told the story of the area and that the native people deserved more recognition. “We really can’t feel like we’re telling the complete story without sharing this IndigeSee EXHIBIT, Page A5