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