Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2018)
20 // COASTWEEKEND.COM History comes to life at Knappton Cove KNAPPTON COVE — Knappton Cove Heritage Center and the Pacific Northwest Living Histo- rians will offer a living history program Saturday, July 7, and Sunday, July 8. Costumed members of the Historians group will demonstrate the tools and skills employed by the ex- plorers of the epic Lewis and Clark Expedition. Program times are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. The museum inside the historic U.S. Quarantine Station building will be open noon to 4 p.m. both days during the event. Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to ex- plore the newly acquired Louisiana Territory, and to seek the best route to the Pacific Ocean through what we now call the Pacific Northwest. During their voyage of 1804 to 1806, they led the Corps of Northwestern Discovery overland from St. Louis to the mouth COURTESY KNAPPTON COVE HERITAGE CENTER of the Columbia River and back again. With no means for resupply, the Corps — a U.S. Army unit of 31 men, accompanied by Sacagawea and her infant child, Jean Baptiste — needed to use a diverse combination of skills, along with the right tools, in order to survive. Dressed in clothing of the style and materials worn by the voyagers of the Corps, interpreters will demonstrate and discuss many of those tools and skills, including handling flintlock firearms, fire starting with flint and steel, camp cooking, making clothing from leather and making canoe paddles. Visitors will also learn the history and stories of the expedition: the native peoples they met, the unfamiliar territory they traveled and mapped, and the strange new animals and plants they discovered. The Heritage Center is located on Washington State Route 401, along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, about three miles east of the north end of the Astoria bridge, and about eight miles south of Naselle, Wash. The mission of the Her- itage Center is to preserve, interpret and promote the history of the U.S. Columbia River Quaran- tine Station, listed on the National Register Historic Places. For more information, visit knapptoncoveheri- tagecenter.org or con- tact Nancy Anderson at knapptoncove@gmail. com. The search for the Beeswax Shipwreck SEASIDE — Join us at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 14, as The Friends of the Seaside Library host anthropologist Scott Williams, who will speak on “Searching for the Beeswax Shipwreck.” The event will take place in the Community Room. One of the most popular mysteries of the Oregon Coast has been the identi- fication of the “Beeswax Wreck” at Nehalem Beach, in Tillamook County. Identified over time by various researchers as either a Chinese or Japanese junk, a Spanish galleon, a Portuguese trader, or a lost English or Dutch pirate vessel, we have been able to determine that the ship was in fact a Spanish Galleon of the Manila Trade. Nehalem Indian oral histories and the journals of the earliest traders in the area indicate that the galleon wrecked prior to European settlement — indeed, before most European exploration of the Pacific Northwest. The site has been buried for the last 100 years. However, blocks of bees- EDWARD STRATTON PHOTO Scott Williams has been searching for a shipwreck off Manza- nita for the past decade through the Beeswax Wreck Project, adopted recently by the Maritime Archaeological Society. wax are occasionally found by beachcombers in the sand dunes adjacent to the site. Archaeologists have recovered assemblages of Chinese porcelain sherds from nearby archaeological sites, including some that were modified into projectile points by local Nehalem Native Americans. These sherds display design motifs indicating they were man- ufactured in China in the late 17th century and were intended for export to the European market. Analysis of the motifs indicates the majority of the porcelain was manufactured sometime between 1680 and 1700 AD. Radiocarbon samples from wood known to be associated with the wrecked vessel and beeswax blocks that were part of her cargo have also been dated, and, while not as precise as the ceramic dates, they also in- dicate the vessel is from the period of the Spanish Manila Trade. The Seaside Public Library is located at 1131 Broadway St.. For more information, call 503-738- 6742 or visit seasidelibrary. org. Do you trivia? Come to the night of all knowledge SEASIDE — The Seaside Public Library will host its monthly Team Triv- ia Tournament at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 11. Teams can consist of one person or have as many as six people. Trivia nights are fun, informal competitions where teams battle to see who has the greatest knowledge of all matters trivial. Our trivia host asks general questions, and the winner is the team that, at the end of the night, has correctly answered the most questions. Prizes will be awarded, but the main prize is knowing you have the smartest trivia team in Clatsop County. Seaside Public Library is located at 1131 Broadway St. For more information on this or other library activi- ties, call 503-738-6742 or visit seasidelibrary.org and facebook.com/seasidepubli- clibrary.
