Does anyone have anything on Coos Bay, OR?

[Jeffro]

I have a couple leads, but no names, registries, etc. to go with them. Gold coins have been found on the coast just North of Coos Bay, and supposedly 2 spanish ships sank just off the mouth. Thats about all I got.

Can anyone put some names to ships lost off this shore? Or share a story/ lead you got?

Thanks all- this is a great forum for info!

 

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[Gypsy Heart]

http://home.earthlink.net/~pkolm/CoosPostals/czarina.html

http://gesswhoto.com/postcards-ships.html

http://www.cooshistory.org/micro.html
http://users.wi.net/~census/lesson36.html

 

[Jeffro]

Thanks Gypsy! I knew you'd come up with something good... I have a hard time with internet searches about my own state for some reason, get overloaded with tons of trash. I'm headed down there next week and wanted to get some good spots for beachcombing. The storms we are getting here are making for some ripe pickings....

 

[Mackaydon]

Jeffro:

Three wrecks just north of Coos Bay:
Sea Otter 1808
Tacoma 1883
Fealess 1889

Four at Coos Bay:
Capt. Lincoln 1852
C.W. Wetmore 1892
Czarina 1910
Santa Clara 1915

Most tragic may have been the Czarina. Surf too rough to send assistance. Crew climbed the rigging and, one by one, fell off and died, in plain view of those standing, helplessly, ashore. One survivor out of 25.

You may wish to check out the Historical Society in Coos Bay:
The Coos County Historical Society was founded in November of 1891 and is one of the oldest continuously operating local historical societies in the state of Oregon. A steam donkey used in Coos County logging operations greets visitors to the Museum, located in Simpson Park on Highway 101.
It is there that you might ask about the wrecks noted above.
All the best,
Don....

 

[mariner]

Don,

I wonder if you can tell me where you got information that gold coins have been found north of Coos Bay?

Thanks,

Mariner

 

[Mackaydon]

Mariner:
I only reported wrecks in the Coos Bay area; 'Jeffro' mentioned the gold coins.
Don......

 

[Jeffro]

Mariner, I got the info on the gold coins from a book by Robert Marx- "Buried Treasure you can find" very dubious source, I was not impressed. But all stories have their roots, so........ I was going that way anyways, and we're doing some beachcombing- ya never know!

Ruby El Hult also mentions a couple wrecks off the coast near there, and I credit her research a lot more than I do most others, with the possible exception of Gypsyheart...... ?

 

[daydreamer]

I have been to the historical museum in Coos Bay. They have some pieces of the wrecks there along with some very intersting chunks of history including the remains of a japanese aerial incendiary device launched against North America from Japan during the war, only a few of those actually strated forest fires- something else to look for!
If you go to Horsefall beach in the dunes North of town you should be able to find one of the wrecks you look for; it is buried during the summer and emerges during storms at low tide in the winter. I stood on the wreck in 1991, but I cannot remember the name of it, I believe the loss was total and one ship of many. I never heard or read of any spanish gold in the area - but I guess treasure is like gold, its where you find it.
Have fun, the beach is all yours on a weekday in the winter!

 

[mariner]

Sorry Don. My mistake.

Mariner

 

[Cablava]

http://www.theworldlink.com/photopages/shipwreck.html

 

[Cablava]

Spanish and Asian ships may have contacted the Siuslawans in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is ample evidence of Chinese coins and pottery from the northern part of the Oregon coast. Coos tradition recalls a visit from a Japanese junk, which returned across the Pacific with some local people as passengers. One important geological event took place on Jan. 26, 1700. A monster earthquake calculated at 9.0 on the Richter scale tore apart the Pacific Northwest coastline from Washington state southwards. The effect on the Siuslaw is unknown, but probably many villages were wrecked or inundated by tsunamis.

In the late 18th century, British, Russian and American traders appeared along the coast in increasing numbers, introducing iron and textiles, but also a wave of disastrous epidemics. The first smallpox appeared on the Oregon Coast in 1775, probably introduced by Spanish sailors. Another smallpox epidemic broke out in 1801, and from then on measles, whooping cough, influenza, syphilis and dysentery visited the coast in a deadly series. In 1830 a sickness now believed to be malaria carried off thousands of Western Oregon people, and the Siuslaw population may have been halved again by smallpox in 1836, although at this point a small immunity was beginning to develop. Overall, population plunged from about 3,000 to a few hundred in 30 or 40 years.

In 1828, the Kuitsh attacked and wiped out the Jedediah Smith exploring party at the mouth of the Umpqua, leaving only 3 survivors. Around the same time the Siuslaw destroyed a Chinookan slaving expedition. In the 1830s, huge forest fires devastated the Coast Range landscape, disrupting the local economy and resource base. By the time the settlers arrived in this area in the 1850s, the two peoples had been drastically reduced in number. Open warfare with settlers never afflicted this region of the Coast, but the local tribes were shattered by the combined effects of epidemics, environmental devastation, and cultural extinction.

The Kuitsh were deported north to a desolate reservation at Yachats in the 1850s, where they hung on in desperate conditions until 1875. The surviving Siuslaw mainly stayed in their home area, and gradually their Kuitsh cousins filtered back to the Central Coast. However, language, culture, population, and native lifeways had been terribly damaged. Most of the survivors intermarried or were otherwise submerged in the new settler culture. Tribal identity nevertheless remained strong. Periodically the Siuslaw and Kuitsh, in alliance with their Coos neighbors to the south, sued the federal government for compensation and recognition, but without success. At one point, their case even reached the United Nations, and relations with the federal government remained strained and litigious.

In the 1950s, the tribes were "terminated", along with most of the other tribes of Western Oregon. This meant that they were no longer recognized as Indians by the government. However, this policy is now viewed as a disaster, and a trend towards recognition began in the 1970s. The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw were recognized by statute in 1984, with an enrolled population of around 500. This means that the Tribes have entered into a new relationship with the United States as a domestic sovereign nation, with tribal headquarters in Coos Bay. Since restoration, the tribal confederation has been rapidly passing new economic, political and cultural milestones, and the future for the descendants of the Siuslaw and Kuitsh looks exceptionally bright.

? Don Macnaughtan
LCC Library
4000 East 30th Ave.
Eugene OR 97405

 

[Jeffro]

Nice! I have the Indians routes mapped out along with forts and military roads, and trade routes too. Lots of history in this neck of the woods, I'm beginning to see. There have been a few reports of finds on the beach on the radio today, and Paul Harvey even retold the story of John Evans who (supposedly) discovered the Port Orford Meteorite, a little south of here. Too bad I can't hit 'em all this trip! But the beachcombing will be nice. We're supposed to get another storm this weekend- maybe more stuff will wash up, I'm hoping!

Thanks, all- I appreciate it!