Winter in Ocean Shores: Moments from the Early 1970s

There is nothing quite like winter here in Ocean Shores. Here are some of the more newsworthy winter moments of the first half of the 1970s, as reported by the Ocean Observer.

Fog Festival = Professional Athletic Competition?

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Participants in the final championship heat of the 1970 North American Mid-Winter Wading Championship. Winner Bill Baugh, Jr. pictured in the middle of the group.[/caption]

When exactly a student/amateur athlete becomes a professional athlete and what qualifies as a professional sporting event are issues that continue to be debated to this day, but the events at the 1970 Fog Festival may have helped determine some boundaries for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA).

Bill Baugh, Jr., then basketball and baseball player for Meadowdale Senior High School in Edmonds, WA, placed first at the 1970 North American Mid-Winter Wading Championships—an event created for the Fog Festival alongside the Kick-the-Can Superbowl and the Crab Relays. As the first place winner, he was awarded a prize of $250 (almost $2000 today). This caused Baugh’s eligibility to compete in organized amateur sports to be called into question.

Baugh’s case was reviewed by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. As part of the review, Ocean Shores promotional staff spoke with Hank Rybus at the WIAA to explain that Fog Festival events were merely publicity stunts and there was no such thing as a professional surf wader. However, it turns out this was not the first time this sort of thing had occurred. During the conversation, Rybus revealed that, elsewhere in Washington, similar questions were raised over a student athlete’s participation in a cow-milking competition.

While the Observer did not follow up with the results of Baugh’s case, surf wading continues to remain unrecognized as a sport or activity by the WIAA.

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Bill Baugh, Jr. (right) and his father William Baugh, Sr. (left).

It’s Raining Anchovies

As a newly incorporated city, 1971 saw a lot of growing pains for Ocean Shores. This didn’t stop the Dune Grass Widows, authors of the Observer column Dune Doin’s, from finding some levity to report. For instance, on one winter Sunday in 1971, Tom Jones, “former Ocean Shores cop and now a sort of local historian-raconteur, which we [the Widows] mean in a laudable way,” was standing on his property near the Pole Line Road when he was rained on by anchovies.

The incident was investigated by a member of the Department of Game. He determined the shower was likely the result of a recent storm causing a nearby waterspout to pick the anchovies out of the ocean and onto Jones. The incident is reported to have left Jones’ chickens well fed and Widows stumped as to how to record it in the City’s annual precipitation report.

Blizzard Booze News

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Boats from Ocean Shores’ commercial fishing fleet stuck in the frozen-over Ocean Shores Marina boat basin.

A number of small blizzards hit the coast of Washington on December 5, 1972. With night temperatures as low as 5 degrees, it resulted in all the canals, lakes, and the Marina boat basin freezing over and many ducks left stumbling about. While the storms are reported to have caused only brief disruptions to town happenings, there was one “crisis” [quotes in original]: the weather trapping liquor store owner Warren Cady in Aberdeen. Fortunately for anyone in need of a “frost fighter,” the bar at the Ocean Shores Inn had them covered, reporting a “land office business in hot buttered rum and similar chill-preventative potions.”

References

Dune Doin’s (1971, December 31). The Ocean Observer. Vol. 8 No. 10

Missing Mist Nearly Nixed Midwinter Miasma Milieu. (1970, February 28).The Ocean Observer. Vol. 7 No. 2

Poor Pineapple Harvest Seen – Grog Sales Soar, Snow – Cold Slam Shores (1972, December 28). The Ocean Observer. Vol. 9 No. 7

Professional Surf Wader? (1970, February 28)The Ocean Observer. Vol. 7 No. 2

Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. WIAA. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2023, from https://www.wiaa.com/

© Laura Caldwell, February 2023