A FIVE-YEAR CAMPAIGN FOR A CHARTER SCHOOL IN CANNON BEACH WEEKEND BREAK • INSIDE
WEEKEND EDITION //
145TH YEAR, NO. 55
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Shipwreck searchers scan
Oswald West for Beeswax
ONE DOLLAR
Gearhart
denies
Dollar
General
Planning Commission
found issues with parking
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The crew aboard Sovereign look for a good spot to drop anchor, deploy underwater robots and search for the wreck of
a Spanish galleon among the rocks off Cape Falcon.
GEARHART — Plans for another Dol-
lar General on the North Coast are in limbo
after the Gearhart Planning Commission on
Thursday denied a parking variance request
from the developers.
Cross Development hopes to build the
9,100- square- foot store in a vacant lot off
U.S. Highway 101 and Pacific Way, across
from Fultano’s Pizza and Bowling. Mike
Stults of Cross Development sought a park-
ing variance to reduce the number parking
spots required by the city code from 46 to
27, arguing the business would not generate
enough traffic to warrant that many.
The Planning Commission took issue
with many aspects of Cross Development’s
application, including what city staff deter-
mined to be inadequate or incomplete plans
for stormwater drainage, signage, septic sys-
tems, traffic congestion and other factors.
See GEARHART, Page 7A
The legend
stretches back
to the early
19th century
Forestry
‘militia’
steps up to
fight fires
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
O
SWALD WEST STATE PARK
— The side-scan sonar on the
hull of Bob Magie’s chartered
catamaran Sovereign painted an image
of a rocky seabed beneath the hulk-
ing mass of Neahkahnie Mountain, just
south of Short Sands beach.
He and Chris Dewey, president of the
Maritime Archaeological Society, looked
for pieces of hull, a mast — any sign of
a shipwreck they believe rests off the
coast.
Sonar scans, magnetometer spikes
and brief glimpses during dives have
led researchers repeatedly to the rocky
shores off Oswald West. Based on arti-
facts, historical ship records and beach-
comber discoveries, the archaeological
society believes the so-called “Bees-
wax” wreck is the Santo Cristo de Bur-
gos, a 17th-century Spanish galleon sail-
ing from the Philippines to Mexico.
The society was funded for a week
of field operations in the ocean on
Magie’s boat by a $6,600 Preserving
Oregon Grant from the State Historic
Preservation Office. But uncooperative
sea conditions and broken magnetome-
ters limited the researchers to two days
on the sea.
See BEESWAX, Page 6A
Researchers with the Maritime Archaeological Society used sonar aboard the
chartered vessel Sovereign to create underwater 3D topographic models in the
search for pieces of shipwreck off Smugglers Cove.
Maritime Archaeological Society members Chris Dewey, left, and Tim Stentz
load the Clatsop Community College underwater robot Lazarus before a search
last week for the Beeswax shipwreck.
State model draws
staff from many jobs
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Over the course of 38 years
at the Oregon Department of Forestry,
Roger Welty has watched the department go
from spotting fires from atop lookout tow-
ers to detecting fire with
drones.
These days, Welty, a for-
mer forester, can be found
manning the front desk at
the department’s Salem
headquarters and doing
“other duties as assigned.”
Roger
He’s used to the variety.
Welty
Although most of his
work as a forester in the
Astoria district concerned the ins and outs of
forest management, Welty also responded to
wildfires come summer, when dry conditions
and high temperatures can set Oregon’s for-
ests ablaze.
See FORESTRY ‘MILITIA’, Page 7A
Author of state song gets new headstone in Warrenton
‘Oregon, My
Oregon’ was
written in 1920
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Carol Lambert
John A. Buchanan, a former
Astoria judge and author of
the state’s song, ‘Oregon,
My Oregon,’ was also an
artillery commander and
judge advocate in the Ore-
gon National Guard during
World War I.
WARRENTON — John
A. Buchanan, author of the
state song “Oregon, My Ore-
gon,” is buried in Ocean View
Cemetery.
Until recently, his resting
place was marked by a fairly
nondescript headstone with his
name and years of birth and
death.
To make sure people do not
forget her grandfather’s contri-
bution to state history, Carol
Lambert and the Daughters
of the American Revolution
raised around $8,600 for a new
headstone, installed Thursday,
complete with Buchanan’s
famous lyrics.
“We’ve been looking to do
this for more than a year,” Lam-
bert said, adding that funding
for the headstone came from
the DAR, Clatsop County Cul-
tural Trust and donations from
about 50 people.
Born in Iowa, the sixth of
13 children, Buchanan lived
in Missouri and Idaho before
moving to Monmouth in 1875.
He attended Oregon State
See BUCHANAN, Page 7A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Andrew Gallaway with OM Stone of Hillsboro makes a mi-
nor adjustment to the placement of a new headstone for
John A. Buchanan, the author of the state song, on Thurs-
day at Ocean View Cemetery.