The following short items have been culled from the archives of The Leader and the University of Washington library. Text and style appear verbatim from the original printing, including any errors.

Feb. 12, 1910

Eighteen Will Graduate from Local Highschool - Class of 1910 is Composed of Sixteen Girls and Two Boys

This year the Port Townsend highschool will turn out a good sized graduating class. It is composed of sixteen young ladies and two young men.  The graduating exercises will take place sometime in June, the date has not yet been set.  The large number of young women composing the class seems to indicate that they are far brighter than the boys, or that they take a greater interest in securing an education than do the boys. It is claimed by some that the reason that more boys do not graduate is that as soon as they reach an age at which they can earn money they quit school and go to work, thinking that earning money is more beneficial than the securing of an education.

Feb. 7, 1979

Cow Chip Throwing Test Added To Festival Events

Attention frisbee throwers, baseball pitchers, spear checkers and retired quarterbacks! The 1979 Rhododendron Festival has a contest just for you.

Bring your muscles; the festival provides the chips - not poker chips, cow chips!

At Monday’s Rhododendron Festival Committee meeting, Robert Schlage and Carl Sparkman introduced a new event to the festivl calendar, The Cow Chip Throwing Contest, now scheduled for Memorial Field following the Grande Parade May 19.

Feb. 14, 1979

Canal Bridge Disappears In Puff of Wind

Winds gusting to over 100 miles per hour, high winds over night, and a high tide combined to sink the William Bugge Hood Canal Bridge Tuesday morning.

Bob Gunnel of the Washington State Department of Transportation Highways Division out of Sequim, was standing guard at the west end of the bridge Tuesday before dawn, warning motorists to detour from the bridge. He said the wind was so strong he didn’t hear anything until shortly before 7 a.m. when the span began breaking apart.

Earlier, as the waves swept over the span near the control towers, two bridge tenders abandoned their posts, leaving one car and taking another to escape to the east shore. They reported watching a large semi-truck-tractor back off the bridge as the structure broke apart in front of him.

And a bridge engineer for the highways division noted that the pontoon sections sank in some 300 feet of Hood Canal water.

Another eyewitness reported watching one section drift north toward Hood Head off Bywater Bay, then sink. By 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, only open, choppy water was visible between the western high rise - which had dropped into the water - and the still floating section of the eastern portion of the “bulge,” some mile and a half away to the east. The eastern high-rise also remained in place along with the portion of the bridge connecting it to the east bulge.

Gunnell had been called out to clear roadways in eastern Jefferson County at 2 a.m. Tuesday. After getting equipment in place, and snowplows to scrape away the thick carpet of tree limbs covering many sections of the highway, he wound up at the bridge. He watched as the bridge broke up. “The center sections were tilting high side to the north when it went,” he explained. “It was blowing so hard I didn’t hear much of anything until it actually started to break apart,” he said. “I heard the bridge cracking, then a loud explosion, and it went,” he said.

It’s Unreal…Hood Canal Bridge Disappears While JC Sheriff’s Deputy Watches

“Unreal,” deputy sheriff Bob Haynes said into the police radio yesterday morning as he watched three pontoons break off the Hood Canal Bridge and sink. He arrived at the bridge a little after 7 a.m.

“About 80 feet was missing off the western approach, “ he said. “It was the second pontoon out from the approach that was missing.”  The pontoons broke off and drifted about 50 feet north, he continued.

“The south sides sank down and they went down,” he said. “It took about two minutes each. Just like dominoes.”

Feb. 10, 1999

McCulloch signs off-outgoing mayor proud of accomplishments

Let the history books show Julie McCulloch as the last independently elected mayor to serve this politically volatile Victorian seaport. With certification of the Port Townsend City Council election results Feb. 12, her job is essentially eliminated and a new era of governance begins.

Had the council-mayor format remained intact, her term would have ended with the millennium. Instead, it has been cut short by a revolution that has amazed even those who advocated it.

Watchman scoops drowning boater to safety

Sonny Bennett’s willingness to listen to instinct may have kept an errant boater who was recovering from heart surgery from drowning recently at Port Townsend’s Point Hudson.

The night watchmen for the resort and marina was on duty the evening of Jan. 30 when he had an overwhelming urge to drive the company pickup to the west dock on the south end of the marina. Typically he walks the route, an endeavor that takes a longer period of time.

Once there, Bennett helped the owner of the 38-foot power boat Charann moor under darkness of night. Skipper Charles Rush was up top at the helm.  The boat was 6 to 8 feet from the dock, and Rush’s partner, Max Winter, was at the stern. When a line got away from Winter, he reached out to grab it, inadvertently plummeting into the frigid, deep waters.

“I ran over to him and he went down like a rock,” said Bennett, 67. Winter surfaced and tried to pull himself up on the dock, but he sank below the water’s surface again. Bennett reached out and pulled him to safety.

“It all happened in a matter of seconds,” said Bennett.

Only afterward did Bennett realize that had he walked his route, as opposed to driving the pickup, he would not have been on hand to help the drowning man. It’s unlikely the skipper could have reached him in time, said Bennett.

Wooden Boat poster chosen

The Wooden Boat Foundation has announced the selection of the 1999 artwork for the 23rd Wooden Boat Festival. Local photographer John Peer’s marine photograph of a boat moored in still water will be the subject of the festival poster and the design for garments sold to promote the festival.

The Water Street shuffle - At least five business owners are moving this year.

Every year there are business moves on Water Street. But this year, it’s musical storefronts, said Les Tavenner, owner of Town and County Moving Co.

In the middle of December, Video Mart moved from the corner of Quincy and Water streets to the old Seaport Fabric store on Kearney Street. On Jan. 31, Waterfront Naturals, a health supplement store, began moving from Water Street to Taylor Street across from the Rose Theater.

Feb. 1, The Green Eyeshade closed down to temporarily transfer its jewelry, dishes, and pots and pans into the old Waterfront Naturals’ store. On May 1, The Green Eyeshade will move back to its renovated building, and Tom Stammer’s Folklore will bustle across the street into the former Waterfront Naturals’ space. He plans to stay there for six years…But that’s not the end of the 1999 Water Street shuffle. Phoenix Rising’s owner Jill Spier has purchased the property once occupied by Video Mart. Store manager Elizabeth Gonzalez said Spier, now traveling in India, plans to have a two-story wooden Victorian structure built and ready for occupancy by November.

Feb. 16, 2016

Chimacumbond could return in April - Third time around, district hopes to better engage community; meeting Feb. 17

Coming off their second failed effort in as many years, Chimacum school officials are hoping to build on the momentum of a $29.1 million bond request by putting it on the April ballot. Whether the district should go for April -  as opposed to August or November this year, or February 2017 - is the subject of a special school board meeting set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 17 in the Chimacum High School library…In February 2015, the school district’s $34.8 million bond measure failed to garner the required 60 percent voter approval, bringing in 51.5 percent. This year, the district’s reduced bond proposal to expand Chimacum Creek Primary and upgrade main campus utilities and infrastructure came closer, earning 57.97 percent (2,710 “yes” and 1,965 “no”) as of the latest ballot count. It is unlikely that enough votes remain to be counted Feb. 19 to change the outcome, according to the Jefferson County Auditor’s Office. 

— Compiled by Deborah Hayes