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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.