The ole Forks Forum is another year older

Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 17, 2025

Well the old timer, the Forks Forum, has made it another year, turning 94 on July 16! According to the AP website more than 3,200 newspapers have closed since 2005, leaving roughly 5,600 remaining. Nearly 2,000 newsroom jobs were lost in the last year alone. But ….the Forks Forum keeps plugging along.

An FYI …The Hartford Courant is the oldest US Newspaper in continuous publication. The first edition was in 1764.

Anyway, this week in 1931 there was a lot happening. The Olympic Loop (the highway south) was opening in a month, there had been a forest fire near Bear Creek that burned about five hundred acres, and another small fire in the Bogachiel area. An oil derrick for the Leslie Oil Company was going in near the mouth of the Hoh River. Contractor S.S. Mullen was busy adding on to the high school and also working on the road near Fairholme, creating an arch that would go over the Port Angeles Western railroad tracks. The Wahlgren Bros. were hauling gravel for the new school addition.

Hoh area residents were asking for a road and a cable bridge over the Hoh. The superintendent of the Lacy Timber Company had been struck by a Bloedel Donovan logging train breaking his leg in 4 places, he was recovering. Jeff Hudson of La Push had passed, he was just 33 and was well known for wrestling skills and being an all-around athlete. Rango and Pardon my gun were playing at the Olympic Theater, and Forks Co-operative Creamery was advertising Prairie Queen Butter. You could get two heads of lettuce for 8¢. The limit was four at the Shores P.S.Q. Store.

The first Editor, Benjamin Arndt had a letter welcoming readers and mentioned the “so called depression” saying the outlook for Forks was a bright one! Most of the ads had no phone number or address on the ad!

There has been a lot of news on these pages since 1931, how many pages I don’t know, but a bunch, and a lot has changed.

Here’s hoping we can make it to 100! or until next year …

Christi Baron

Editor