USA > Oregon > The Oregon native son, 1900-1901 > Part 30
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To offset this, a friend at Astoria told me of meeting, about 1890, a well-known and sedate citizen of the Willamette, who looked shabby, soiled and tired-and dis- gusted beside-whom he wondered to see thus, and so far from home. The weary man told a tale of how. two years before, a wayfarer went to work for him on his farm and as soon as he was suffi- ciently rested told him that he knew of treasure to be had for the mere digging and packing it away. But the farmer was prudent, and it took two years for the treasure-seeker to get a move on
him. His varnished tale was that a ship- mate had showed him plats of a moun- tain shelf that faced the western sea; be- fore he died this shipmate learned this from a Boston man. He said he had been to bold Necarney and was prepar- ing to dig there-as his chart told him to-when the natives of that region told him his business was at home, if he had one-and not to stand in the order of his going, but go at once. So this sober- minded man of French prairie took his satchel, put on his summer overcoat, went two hundred miles by river and rail, and then afoot along that mountain shore to where Necarney fronts the sea.
But his companion had never been there before for he did not know the place. Our farmer friend had heard this story so often and read it time and again in the newspapers, so he digged and delved awhile, and was now on his way home, a sadder and wiser man, never- more to be enticed by tales of sounding sea or mountain shore.
So this illusive legend of treasure lost goes on from age to age, but never turns to treasure trove. No doubt the times to come will give rise to tales and leg- ends yet unborn, and so cause other prospectors to dig and delve so long as Necarney's front shall face the sea.
Mr. W. E. Warren, of Astoria, has planks found in the sand, so deeply bur- ried as to be perfectly preserved, that must have come from some wreck. One is 18 feet long, 2 feet wide and 5 inches through, bolted with dowell pins, clamp- ed with six inch iron clamps-clamps 6 inches long, 13 inch wide, and 3 inch thick. He found very old-fashioned iron nails, flat, and heads turned down, Io inches long and 13 inch wide.
Col. John Adair, who came to As- toria when very young, says that on a mountain terrace. on the southwest of Necarney, not far from the bay, there is an arrow carved on the rock, with the letters "I. H. S." And on the south slope, at 200 or 300 feet altitude, on a terrace, with steep palisades from which rocks have fallen, these same marks are on the fallen blocks of stone, or boulders.
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Mr. Linnville said that Lovell used to melt his wax so it could be easier hand- led to ship to Astoria. Not all had the square form or had the letters and marks upon them. Lovell found three long wax tapers three feet long, and two or three inches in diameter, and many small pieces.
Capt. Kohner, uncle to Mr. W. E. Warren, got the block he now has in 1870, and brought it to Warren's father.
Before the discovery of the Columbia the Indians used to meet trading vessels that came outside and fired guns to notify them to bring their furs and skins to them to trade. These traders were white men and wore beards, but used Chinese cash to trade with; copper money that had square holes in them.
About 1825, soon after removing to Vancouver, word came that a Japanese junk was wrecked south of Cape Flat- tery. When he heard it Dr. McLough- lin sent there for the wrecked mariners and sent them to London to be forward- ed to Japan. This was probably the ves- sel that had porcelain ware on board, that was scattered along the beach after the wreck. Some of this was saved in good order and brought over to Van- couver. I had this story from Dr. Wil- liam McKay, who was brought up in Dr. McLoughlin's family.
SAMUEL A. CLARKE.
Hon. J. Q. A. Bowlby, of Astoria, writing on this subject, says:
I have read the article of S. A. Clarke in the September number of the Oregon Native Son, on Nehalem bees-wax. I have also seen the "Warren" and "Lind- ville" pieces of wax referred to by Mr. S. A. Clarke and agree with him that the characters on the Warren block are a capital letter "\" with a diamond over it.
I am not able to make out a letter "H" on the Lindville block, and the "S" is doubtful. The latter block was on exhi- bition at the Exposition at Chicago, after which it was returned to the rooms of Messrs. Harris & Wright. in Astoria, where I saw it before the characters were
removed. A portion of the block is still here, but all the characters have been cut off. When I saw it first, I drew as accurately as I could without measure- ments the characters on its face.
The first on the top line may be an "I" and the next an "N," but the third and last has very little resemblance to an "S." The two characters in the lower line do not seem to resemble any letter, although the second might be thought to resemble an inverted L. Recently I showed my draft of these characters to Mr. Lindville and he says they are cor- rect, according to his memory, and rep- resent all the characters he ever saw on the block.
There is another block of wax in As- toria. It is about nine by thirteen inch- es, and four inches thick. It is now in the possession of the family of Mr. N. Clinton, and was received from the fami- ly of Capt. Crosby, deceased. The char- acters are in the shape of a monogram, and are called by some a "dollar-mark"
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Photo. by Tuttle, NEHALEM BEESWAX IN THE POSSESSION OF N. CLINTON.
and by others "I H S." The "I" is placed upon the center of the "S" and the "H" is placed horizontally across the top of them.
The photograph of it shows the "H" quite plainly, but the wax does not dis- close the upper line of the "H" so well.
It creates some doubt in my mind as to having been made by any person. The face of the wax has been shaved and worn off considerably, while there are cracks and niches in the wax that seem
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to have been made by shrinking or by wear during the long exposure .*
I enclose photographs of the Warren and Clinton wax taken by Dr. Tuttle of this city. The doctor once saw a block with three numerals upon it; he thinks "I" and "7" were two of them, but does not remember what the third one was.
Much of the Nehalem wax was melt- ed, molded and delivered to Foard & Stokes of this city as merchandise.
In the Oregonian a year or two ago were printed several characters found on Nehalem wax.
Photo. by Tuttle, NEHALEM BEESWAX IN THE POSSESSION OF W. E. WARREN.
W. E. Warren and Mark Warren found large pieces of wreckage near Cannon Beach, north of Nehalem, a few years since, but cut most of it into fire- wood. Capt. Edwards, of Portland, may have a portion.
The timbers seem to have been fasten- ed together differently from the manner of the present day. The nails were hand made and every iron fastening was trun- neled with wood. Some of the timber resembled the wood in tea boxes.
Some portions of the Peacock, wreck- ed at the mouth of the Columbia river, went ashore at this place, however, and the wreckage found by the Warrens may have been a portion of that vessel.
The Peacock wreckage carried two guns to the shore, hence the name of Cannon Beach, and one of the guns is there in charge of Mrs. Austin.
I hope soon to secure data concerning the marks on the rocks said to be located in the vicinity where the wax is obtained. I am told that the location is in a twenty acre plat of ground laid off with a stone at each corner. It is said that these cor- ner stones were also marked, but with what characters I am not irformed. It seems singular to me that learned searchers of history and the curious, have not investigated these matters much better than they have, gathering the best specimens of the wax, the can- dles with wicks, and the rocks said to exist with markings thereon, for place- ment in some place of safety.
Yours truly, J. Q. A. BOWLBY. * Blocks and candles of this wax are in the Portland City Museum.
To this communication we append a letter written several years since by Mr. John Hobson, a pioneer of 1843, who, in writing to the Oregonian, says:
As I was coming to the Pioneer Re- union at Portland I bought a large piece of beeswax, not mineral wax, as some would like to have it, with the letters "I. H. S." on its face, which I know was on it when taken from the sand, at the mouth of the Nehalem river in 1868, by a man named Baker, from whom I pur- chased it the same year I brought it to Astoria, where it has remained ever since. I sold it to Captain Alfred Cros- by, and after his death, and the removal of the family one of his sons presented it to Mr. Nicolas Clinton, who is the pres- ent owner. Any one wishing to see it, may do so by calling at his residence at Astoria. I have seen many articles, writ- ten about this wax, and many theories advanced in regard to how it got there. From nearly all I differ.
When I first came here. 51 years ago, there was beeswax among the Indians, from Salmon river on the south to the Columbia on the north. They did not know what it was, using it for lights and leaky canvas. They said it came from a wreck, near the mouth of Nehalem river. The peninsula between the ocean and Nehalem, is about one and a half miles
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north and south, and half a mile east and west, and about two or three feet above ordinary high tides, and is an uneven flat of small sand dunes. This is where the wax has been found.
In talking with the Indians from that place often, they would tell us of the wreck, and of the vessel that brought the gold and silver coin, and carried it up Necarney mountain, and would refer us to some very old Indians, who never came to Clatsop. After the wreck of the Hudson's Bay Company's bark "Vancouver," in 1848, a large case of drugs came on shore, near that place. Solomon H. Smith, and myself, conclud- ed we would go down and buy the drugs and find out what we could from the old Indians about the wax and money ves- sels.
All they could tell us was that long be- fore they were born, the wax vessel was lost on the spit, and another anchored near the shore, and some people brought a chest upon Necarney mountain and carried sacks of money and put them in the chest and killed a man, and put him also in the chest. Afterwards they mark- ed a stone, or very large rock. rolled it on the chest, and went back to the ship and sailed away. We took an Indian, went to the mountain to look for the coin, but found no signs of a marked" rock, so concluded it was only an Indian tradition and not reliable. We thought the wax vessel must have been a Chinese junk as we had seen several pieces of a junk between Clatsop and Nehalem.
After the Nehalem country became settled by the whites, and coal was dis- covered, a corps of government engi- neers was sent from the surveying schooner, lying at Astoria. to survey the Nehalem river, and bar. I. being ac- quainted with the country and routes, was hired, with horses, to take them down, and bring them back when they liad finished the work. This was in 1868. This peninsula lies on the line of travel of all the coast, and the wax was scattered all over it, and the constant winds blowing the sands from the northi- west in summer and the southwest in
winter, has covered and uncovered it for ages, and the sun has softened it into dif- ferent shapes and sizes. Some pieces were bleached nearly white. There was much dirt and sand in it, which stuck to it when softened by the sun. Here is
INX
FAC SIMILE OF CHARACTERS ON BEES- WAX IN POSSESSION OF MR. LINNVILLE.
where the Indians used to pick it up, when crossing this waste. When the whites came here to settle they collected wax, and one, Baker, made a business of it, and found that the most of it, when exposed to view, was lying on a thin stratum of earth, like the sediment of a river freshet (which I believe it was), and scattered all over the peninsula. Baker took his spade and would prospect the sand dunes. If the clay stratum was found, he would follow it up, and find large quantities of wax in all conceivable shapes and sizes, including many candles from one and a half inches to two inches in diameter, and where the sun had closed the end the wicks were perfect. Judge McGuire, of Seaside, has some of the candles. I believe that some time after the wreck there was a very high freshet in the river, which spread the wax, logs and timbers all over the penin- sula.
On these dunes, many of them, logs rotted and grass grew in places, and the drifting sands would sweep over them. thus protecting the wax, and the strat- um, for there were remnants of rotten wood in most of them. The one in which this large piece was found, was near the center of the spit. There was also found the renmant of a ship timber.
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with some rusty, wrought iron nails, four square, thin at head, even taper from head to point, about six or eight inches long, and about five-eighths of an inch thick at the head. There was also a copper chain, about 50 inches long, with a swivel in the middle of it; links four or five inches long, and five-eighth-wire. It was brought from that place by J. Larsen, and changed ownership several times, being finally placed in the mining bureau in San Francisco by Mr. Charles Hughes.
I do not pretend to know where these remnants came from, but believe the ves- sel to have been English, or Spanish, from China, freighted with wax for some
cording to legendary lore, is supposed to have been taken from the much-talk- ed-about beeswax ship and secreted on the mountain side some time in 1700. Others believe this treasure to be the spoils of a pirate craft, which, after loot- ing one of the Spanish king's galleons on the Manila and Acapulco route, put into the coast for safety, and, after se- creting their ill-gotten gain and marking the spot, sailed away again, never to be heard of more.
My attention was first called to these stones while on a pleasure jaunt to the Nehalem country in September, 1897. Our first day out from Garibaldi took us to the residence of Mr. Lovell, who re-
UP L
From the Novel, "Nehalem." NECARNEY FROM FALSE TILLAMOOK HEAD.
South American port, for church pur- poses, as the large wax candles would indicate. The monogram was cut on this piece for pastime, I have no doubt. by one of the sailors. The wreck must have occurred in the fifteenth or six- teenth century.
JOHN HOBSON.
Mr. Thos. H. Rogers, author of the well known novel "Nehalem," writes the Native Son in the premises as follows:
I have been asked to tell what I know about the inscription-bearing rocks found on the side of Necarney mountain. Many people believe they pertain to an immense Spanish treasure, which, ac-
sides one and one-half miles south of Necarney, where we remained over night the guests of this old pioneer and his most worthy wife, now deceased. Our host was in a remniscent frame of mind that night, and as we sat before the cheerful fire, he told story after story of the beeswax ship, whose strange cargo lies under the shifting sands of the Ne- halem spit. Many of these wax cakes, so he said, bore inscriptions identical to those told about in Mr. Clarke's charm- ing beeswax articles in the columns of the Native Son. This wax, Mr. Lovell informed us, is found as far north as False Tillamook Head, and as far south
NORTH PACIFIC PRE HISTORIC WRECKS.
225
as Cape Meares. The main bulk, how- ever, being unearthed from the sands near the former locality.
This conversation brought up the sub- ject of the buried treasure, our host tell- ing of several chisel-marked stones being unearthed in a neighboring pasture many years before, which the one lucky enough, in his estimation, to decipher the hidden meaning traced thereon, would ultimately find the great Spanish treasure. This led to several pointed questions in which the old gentleman said he was not up to date in rock ology, but if we would hunt up Mr. P. H. M. Smith, who resided near by, and who
ed stones were lying. These were im- mediately photographed by the writer, the cut of the "Glyphic Rock of Ne- carney" embellishing this article here- with. Many people have expressed sur- prise at this stone resembling a female head and wonder how it came about. This is easy, the plate being first vennet- ted of its background of fern and bushes and then half-toned as the reader sees it, leaving the stone as it really is. When found, these time and weather-beaten stones, four in number, were lying three or four feet deep in the ground in the shape of a huge cross, thirty feet in length by twenty feet in width. Since
From the Novel. "Nehalem." THE GLYPHIC ROCK OF NECARNEY.
had spent the past seven years in hunting for the treasure, as well as his father be- fore him, we could obtain all the neces- sary data required. This we did, visiting Mr. Smith next morning, who, contrary to expectations, was willing to talk upon the subject, besides showing us several "genuine" marked stones found by him- self in divers places, from the mouth of the Nehalem river to the little wind- locked cove north of Necarney, where the remains of an ancient vessel now lies.
Having ascertained all that Mr. Smith was willing to communicate, we visited the pasture lot in which the chisel-mark-
the first was found, some twenty years ago, they have been rolled around and sadly disfigured by some imagined smart fellow, for fun's sake, at the expense of big-hearted Mr. Smith, thinking to lead him astray in his prolonged search. The cut of the one shown herewith had evi- dently not been tampered with, as it still resembles the cut of the one published which was from a sketch and not a pho- tograph. Be these rocks tampered with or not, they were found and dug up directly west of a small stream which meanders down the mountain side to the sea, where, in the long ago, as the legends tell, a box of gold was buried.
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and a negro killed over it, and whose spirit is supposed to ever guard it from the curious.
These stones, however, Mr. Smith said, did not, in his way of thinking, relate to the treasure-the keystone liav- ing been found by him a quarter of a
on Mr. Smith, as many would like to make it, especially some would-be funny people, who take great delight, so I am told, in "pestering" the treasure-hunter, the ground having never been molested during the past century at least. From the top of this hill Mr. Smith pointed
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songs .
From the Novel, "Nehalem." "An ancient galleon poked its nose into the rock-bound coast."
mile distant, buried to the depth of ten feet in the ground on top of a hill south- east. This keystone was also photo- graphed, but for obvious reasons, Mr. Smith requesting it, it was not given publicity. This stone is not a put-up job
northwest, to where a dead spruce, old and time-eaten, rose above the under- brush, saying: "Over there, this key- stone tells me. I will find another clue, When I find that one I will also find an- other: and so the quest will go on, from
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day to day, until I have unraveled the skein."
This keystone found by Mr. Smith, has an intricate map traced upon its face, delicate almost as a spider's web. To photograph it, it was necessary to first pencil it, bringing out all lines as plainly as on the day the designer, be he Span- iard, pirate, or civil engineer, who exe- cuted it. From the top of this hill we went farther back in the mountain where the treasure-hunter pointed out a great hole made by a divining-rod enthusiast, who had delved for days and weeks and months in a place where the swinging plumb-bob had ceased its vibrations, and had come to a stop like the pendulum of a clock; and after weary, weary work, 'midst storms and blinding sunshine, he gave up the quest and went back from whence he came. Then we went to the top of the mountain overlooking the sea, and saw more work of other treasure- hunters, where they had blasted out great holes in the solid stone for this re- puted wealth, which, no doubt, if legen- dary lore tells aright, came from Monte- zuma's land.
These are the true facts of the case, on the base of which "Nehalem" was
written and given to the world. In the meantime, or since the ancient high- pooped galleon first poked its nose into the frowning rock-bound coast, centuries have come and gone; the sea still sings its monotonous song and lashes itself to foam against old Necarney's side; the spook of the murdered negro, so the In- dians say, still dances on the mountain side to the accompaniment of the rattling iron chain, and the wierd ha! ha! of the phantom spirit is heard afar.
Who is it that can fathom this mys- tery? Whose hands were they that placed the marked stones from base to summit on the hoary old mountain? Whence came those beeswax cakes and tapers? These are simply questions of conjecture. In the meanwhile this old world will roll on as before, and the tide will ebb and flow and seasons come and go; but there will come a time when the sea will give up its secret in the shape o a true key to the tracing on the stones and somber-faced wall at the river's mouth, and the great Spanish treasure, if any, will be found.
THOS. H. ROGERS.
The first almanac published on the Pacific coast was printed by Henry H. Evarts, in 1847, at Oregon City, at the Spectator office. Mr. Charles W. Shane was the binder. The latter gentleman was a pioneer of 1846, and, being a prac- tical bookbinder, has the honor of bind- ing the first books printed west of the Rocky mountains which were printed in the English language.
1845 .- The first marriage among the settlers on Puget Sound occurred in this year, on July 6th. Daniel D.Kinsey and Ruth Brock were the bride and bride- groom. The knot was tied by Col. M. T. Simmons, justice of the peace for Van- couver (Clarke) county, which at that time embraced nearly all of Washington west of the Cascades.
The first "dude" to come to the Pa- cific Northwest was J. Lee Lewis, who arrived as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1824. It is said that. though a fop, he was a man of fine ap- pearance, well educated, and possessed of good qualities. He retired from the service of the company in 1846, after having charge of many of their impor- tant trading posts, and went to Australia. Not liking that country, he returned and settled in the Red river section. A son if his. A. Lee Lewis, was the first repre- sentative to the territorial legislature of Oregon from Vancouver (Clarke) coun- ty.
ENCOURAGE INFANT INDUSTRIES.
The caption of this article is a motto of this magazine. For undoubtedly the greatest good to the community can be best subserved by developing every man- ufacturing industry possible within our midst; thus furnishing employment to wage earners and making labor a de- mand. For when labor fares well, the rest of the community thrives.
One of the industries that is sure to have a marvellous growth in this city, within the next few years, is bottling, selling and exporting of the output of
E. E. GOODING Manager Oregon Mineral Water Co.
the mineral springs that abound in every portion of the Northwest, especially in the vicinity of Portland. It is hard to estimate the good that will accrue to the city, and the Northwest, from the en- couragement of this industry. When it is known abroad that the Northwest possesses mineral springs that for me- dicinal as well as pleasant drinkable qualities, equal to any in the world, and that but a moiety of the output is now utilized, people will give the encourage-
ment necessary to secure the building of large bottling establishments. Acting upon this theory, the Oregon Mineral Water Company has been organized and incorporated in this city, with Mr. E. E. Gooding as president and manager, and Mr. Willis Fisher as secretary, with the object of utilizing the waters of the Cascade Mineral Springs and the Wol- fer Sulphur Spring, at Hubbard. For this purpose they have purchased the latter and the output of the former for a period of twenty years. The company
Photo by Aune. WILLIS FISHER, Secretary Oregon Mineral Water Co.
has established bottling works at No. 325 First street, between Clay and Market streets, and are now prepared to furnish the Cascade Mineral water, or the Wol- fer Sulphur water, either in bottles or syphons, delivered in any part of the Northwest or on the coast. It is the in- tention of this company to enlarge their works as fast as the business will justify, and instead of foreign waters holding precedence here, as they do at the pres- ent time, the company proposes to push
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the sales wherever mineral water is drunk, either as a beverage or for its medicinal qualities.
THE CASCADE SPRINGS.
The Cascade Mineral Springs were discovered in the year 1880, by Mr. R. J. Snow, an old miner who was engaged at the time in hauling wood to the Cascade steamboat landing. Hecrossed a little rill which he approached for the purpose of obtaining a drink. He found the water quite warm, and on tracing it to the source, he found several bubbling springs of sparkling water of nearly a hundred degrees of temperature. The attention
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