Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-01-19
BEESWAX IN
OREGON SANDS
Frequently Appears in Cubes OF
Blocks, Four or Five Inches
Square.
FIRST VISIT By WHITE MEN
SIcop Of War Santiago Voyages Nor
Inward From Mexico in the
Year VITA.

There are all kinds of queer things
up here in Oregon. One never knows
what he is going to see until he gets
here, and it is well to be prepared for
surprises, says William f. Curtis,
writing from Portland to the Chicago
Record-Herald. Down on the beach of
the Pacific ocean. near the mouth of
the Nehalef river, is beeswax mine.
and every now and then somebody
digs up chunk and starts a story
which puzzles the antiquarians and
mneralogists and sets the old resi-
cents scrapping. Some contend that
ii is mineral wax, but if that is truo
miracle must have been perform
ed, because it frequently appears in
blocks or cubes four or five inches
square, branded with the letters 81.
II. S.. Jesus HOminum Salvador
Jesus, Savior of Mem and a Roman
cross. One chunk contained a mass
OF cotton waste and in another the
well preserved carcass of honey bee
was found, all of which seems to up-
sci the mineral wax proposition and
suggests that the beeswax was orig
inally intended to be used for can
dies and tapers for the Roman Cath
Ollie church. Hence the theory that
it was part of a cargo of vessel
which found her fate in the sands
at the mouth of the Nehalem river
There is another theory that the wax
was thrown overheard from some YES
sci in distress, and. having floated to
the shore, was carried far upon the
beach by the tides and afterward
buried by the drifting sands.
Lieutenant Perez.
The first authentic record of Wis
it by white men to the Oregonian
coast is that of Lieutenant Juan Perez,
VINO sailed from San Bias, Mexico.
January 25. 1774, in the sloop of war
Santiago He coasted northward as
far as the northernmost point of
Queen Charlotte island and then re.
turned to Monterey, Cal. Juan de Flu.
ca, Maldonasle and Admiral de Fonte
claim to have made similar voyages
up the northwest coast previous to
that date. and the Indians have ira.
ditions that the shore was visited by
al least three other vessels. two of
which went to wreck, one at the mouth
of the Columbian and the other at
the mouth of Nehalem. The latter is
supposed to have jettisoned the bees
wax either purpOsely or accidentally
and has gone into song and story
1t has furnished the plot of a novel
and no end Of controversies. and some
authorities have identified it as the
Spanish galleon San Jose, which left
lie Paz. lower California, June 1
1863. while supplies for the missions
at San Diego and other points along
the coast INCLUDED in her cargo was
a quantity OF beeswaX for making
candles and she was never heard. Of
after leaving port. This furnishes a
pretty good case on substantial evi
dence.
The third shep behaved very queer
! ly. according to Indian tradition. She
dropped anchor and sent a boat
ashore, containing large chest
which was carried up the slopes Of
Echanie mountain. The Indians sent
scouts to watch the party. and they
saw the chest buried in the ground
Some of them contend that a mar
was killed and buried with the chest
and that large bowlder upon which
an inscription was carved, was rolled
down the hill and placed to locate the
place of burial. But. strange to say
the Indians did not dig up the chest
or interfere with the cache in any
manner. which seems to throw dis
credit upon the entire story; nor has
anyone ever been able to discover
the einscribed bowlder or find ches
Or skeleton although every inch O.
the soil on that mountain side ha:
been turned over again and again.
Another result of the exposition
has been to stimulate historical inves
tigation and controversy, and jus
now public attention is being attract
ed to the early explorations and set
Element of Oregon and other parts
of the northwest. The first citizens
of Portland were A. l.. Lovejoy ant
F. w. Pettigrove, who located ant
built log cabin on the original town
site of GAO acres in the winter O
1S44-5 Lovejoy native of Mass
achusetts, wanted to call the embryo
town Boston Pettigrove, native
of Maine. wanted to call it Portland
and as they could not agree they flip
ped coin. Pettigrove won, and Port
land was adopted as the name of the
settlement
Word Oregon.
The origin of the word Oregon il
clouded in mystery. 1t was first lAet
by Captain Jonathan Carver in a bool
called "Three Years Travels Through
the Interior Parts of North America
for More Than Five Thousand Miles
in the Years 1766-176S," which wa!
published in London in 1878. 1t doe:
not appear from the book that Carver
came any farther west than Mime
sofa. where, he says, the Indians TOLD
him of great river called Oregon
or the River of the West" which rost
near the sources of the Mississippi
and flowed westward through thu
mountains to the Pacific ocean. This
is the only reference to the river il
the book. Carver was a Connection
Yankee, who served as soldie
through the French and Indian war
and afterward. on his own hook. eX
plored northern Michigan, Wisconsin
and Minnesota. He returned to hi
home, wrote his book and endeavoret
to persuade the colonial authorities
in New York and New England to pa!
the cost of its publication, or at leas
reimburse him for his expenses. Hav