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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (June 29, 2018)
T he C olumbia P ress 1 50 ¢ C latsop C ounty ’ s I ndependent W eekly n eWspaper www.thecolumbiapress.com June 29, 2018 A Coastal Red White and Blue Celebration The Columbia Press A celebration of patriotism with a salute to heroes of all types kicks off this year’s Fourth of July activities. Pre-parade fly-overs from both a fighter jet and a Coast Guard helicopter will add drama. Residents and visitors will have a car show, motorcycle show, community barbecue and a 100-entry parade to keep them occupied. Later, there are fireworks over the Columbia River in Astoria or on the beach in Seaside and Long Beach, Wash. J uly 3 North Coast Symphonic Band presents a free concert celebrating America’s birth- day at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Liberty Theatre, 1203 Com- mercial St., Astoria. Conductor and musical di- Vol. 2, Issue 26 City’s main entries get extra scrutiny A task force addresses blight, aesthetics and tiny homes B y C indy y ingst The Columbia Press Above: Miss Clatsop Alexis Mather waves to the crowd in the 2015 parade. She was named Miss Oregon the follow- ing year. Top left: Motorcycles line up for a tailgate party in 2017. Left: North Coast Sym- phonic Band prepares for a prior July 3 perfor- mance. See ‘Fourth’ on Page 4 Inside • City passes $35 mil- lion budget. Page 7 Updates on problem properties. Page 3 Low-cost dump day? City picked up the tab. Page 3 Code enforcement should • be the top priority if the city ever wants to be more • attractive, a task force told city commissioners Tuesday night. “It’s beautification of the community we’re talking about,” said Paul Mitchell, who also serves on both the city’s Planning Commis- sion and Finance Committee. He and other members of the Downtown & Thor- oughfare Aesthetic Task Force gave their final report after six months of studying ways to make the city better. “None of this can happen without code enforce- ment,” Mitchell said. Warrenton should adopt a theme for future devel- opment that could encompass recreation, fishing or logging. “We are the perfect type of city for that to happen,” he said. Piecemeal development is the enemy. See ‘Aesthetics’ on Page 6 Wrecked Spanish galleon likely source of unusual items washing ashore Oregon Historical Society Beeswax and Chinese porcelain have washed ashore for centuries on Nehalem Spit, just south of Clatsop County. Now, archival and archaeological evidence point to the Santo Cristo de Burgos, a 17th-century galleon owned by the kingdom of Spain, as the mysterious vessel historians refer to as the “Beeswax Wreck.” Stories of a very large shipwreck began circulating during the earliest days of Euro-American presence in the Pacific Northwest, as fur traders and explorers learned from local In- dians that a large ship had long ago wrecked on Nehalem Spit. Among the cargo: beeswax. The stories, shrouded by specula- tion and often contradictory local folklore, captivated treasure hunters, who searched for decades on nearby Neahkahnie Mountain and adjacent beaches. But which ship was responsible? An archaeologist-led team known as the “Beeswax Wreck Project” used ge- ology, archaeology and porce- for Acapulco carrying Asian lain analysis -- combined with goods during its 250-year documentation from Spanish span. archives -- to determine the The project determined that ship’s likely identity. the beeswax wreck was one Beeswax stamped with of two galleons that vanished Spanish shippers’ marks con- without a trace: the San- firmed the wreck’s origin, and to Cristo de Burgos, which patterns on Chinese porcelain La Follette sailed in 1693, or the San Fran- shards allowed researchers to cisco Xavier, which left Manila narrow the date range. in 1705. The Spain to Manila galleon trade Mapping the location of beeswax was the first global network, and close deposits allowed project members to to 300 galleons left the Philippines See ‘Galleon’ on Page 6