20 years ago

A 19-foot high tide dropped a rare bit of flotsam Friday morning onto the beach behind Carl Heifort’s camping spot on the Homer Spit. Heifort, who works at the Auction Block, woke up to find a 20-foot long dead minke whale about a hundred yards from his tent in the city camping area near the old Thompson’s Boardwalk. Friday, Heifort notified Jim Wisher, an enforcement officer with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Homer, and Wisher contacted Lee Post, the museum’s bone and whale expert, to identify the whale and to see if the museum wanted to flense and clean the skeleton for its collection. Souvenir hunters sawed off some parts of the whale by Monday afternoon, including the skull.

— From the issue of Aug. 7, 2003

30 years ago

Homer has been selected by Pacific Northwest magazine in its latest issue as one of the 10 best small towns of the U.S. Northwest in which to live. But that wasn’t any surprise here. “When told their city was chosen … many responded, ‘Of course,’” says the opening paragraph of the section about Homer. The issue was to begin appearing on newsstands this week.

— From the issue of Aug. 5, 1993