100 years ago
A man named T.W. Lewis, of LaConner, arrived in Oak Harbor with two grips full of pint bottles of whiskey and other bottles of beer. Five bottles of whiskey and 15 bottles of beer were stolen from his room by two well-known young men of town, and there was revelry by night and cracking throats and hot copper the next morning. Some of the citizens had a sort of weavy motion to the perambulations and their equalabraham (sic) had been visibly affected. In the meantime, Lewis was doing a thriving trade at a dollar a bottle. In a separate story farther down the page, it was reported that Lewis, the LaConner man who was arrested for supplying Oak Harbor booze-fighters with whiskey and beer, had been found reading his Bible industriously. He inquired and found out that Justice Phelps was a Methodist and informed the sheriff that he belonged to the Salvation Army and produced a Bible in proof thereof. He said he had “turned over a new leaf” and believed that “a fellow feeling made them wondrous kind.” Judge Phelps couldn’t see it that way and said it would be better for Lewis to raise $100 to put in the county treasury and repent at his leisure.
75 years ago
The Oak Harbor Youth Hostel at Scenic Heights received its official AYH Charter for 1940 from the National Headquarters of American Youth Hostels. Mr. and Mrs. Courtland H. Muzzall, houseparents of the hostel, were preparing for a busy season. The hostel was one of seven in the Northwest region.
Whidby sportsmen and game protectors were aroused by the wanton and unlawful slaughter of two doe deer, each heavy with twin fawn.
50 years ago
A new plan to place total underground facilities systems within the reach of virtually all builders and developers of new residential developments was introduced by Puget Sound Power and Light.
Girl Scouts from grades four through six of the Oak Harbor Elementary School visited the Whidbey Press after school and were shown the “workings” of the newspaper by publisher Wallie Funk. They were shown how the copy was set, how it was made up for printing and the operation of various machines used in printing a newspaper.
25 years ago
Oak Harbor Mayor Al Koetje delivered his annual State of the City speech to the Greater Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce luncheon. His speech was peppered with references to growth in the city.
Oak Harbor citizens, business representatives and city officials agreed at the town planning meeting that a scenic downtown waterfront loop should be established from State Highway 20 along Pioneer Way and Midway Boulevard and that Flintstone Freeway should be given a new name that reflects its waterfront location.
Looking Back is compiled from the Whidbey News-Times’ archives as the newspaper celebrates 125 years in business and the City of Oak Harbor its 100th anniversary of incorporation.
