shipwrecks Oregon's M~ster~ S hipwreck- Uncovering Coos 5a~'s H istoric Past b~ Robert V. Schwemmer h e US Bureau of Land Managem ent (BLM) manages more than 259 million surface acres in the United States, most of which are located in the twelve Wes tern States, includimg Alaska. Steve Samuels is an archaeologist based out of the BLM office in N orth Bend, Oregon, who on a typical day manages and documents terrestrial reso urces for che region that include Native American pre-occupation sites, historic structures, and a lightho use at C ape Blanco. Las t D ecember, this was all about to change. Earlier in rhe year a number of beaches along the O regon coast, stretchi ng between Cannon Beach and Bandon, experienced a large degree of sand erosion brought on by winter storms. This phenomenon, although not an unusual occurrence, exposed several of Oregon's maritime heritage resources tha t included skeletal remains of a sailing ship a t Bandon, two cannons at Cannon Beach , and the complete bow section of an unknown shipwreck on the north spit of Coos Bay. O ver the course of 2-1 /2 m onths, the sand continued to move offshore, exposing more of the C oos Bay shipwreck, once concealed below thir ty feet of sand. The wreck is located along rhe remote north spit trail system m anaged by BLM, alo ng with its stare partner, rhe Oregon Parks and Rec-
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reation D epartment, bur this did no r deter an overwhelming response by the public to visit rhe site. W hile the BLM is experienced in managing outdoor recreation and irs multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoym ent of p resent and future generations, the mys tery shipwreck created some new challenges fo r this federal agency. Ri ght away, they set our to m aintain a balance between encouraging the public to visit the site while fi guring our what measures needed to be implemented to mitigate human impact on the historic resource. This was partially acco mplished through the agency's requirem ent that allrerrain vehicl e drivers must have a permit before rraveling to the site. Ir was estimated that over 10,000 people visited the remote location, with the regional hotels benefiting from the outporing of interest. O ld shipwrecks evoke the public's imagination: is it an old sailing ship, maybe an old forgotten pirate ship, what's its nati onali ty, where was it headed when it wrecked ? Shipwrecks also offer a window into our nation's seafaring pas t, and this particular wreck provided historians and archaeologists with the rare o ppo rtuni ty to study ship construction techniques fro m a b
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go ne era. The second challen ge the state rangers stationed there faced was how to best interpret what they had. W ith the high level of preservatio n, there was little do ubt the vessel was a steam schooner used to haul lumber from the local mills to distant ports in California and South Am erica, bur what was rhe history associated with this particular vessel? Calum Stevenson , an archaeologist with rhe Oregon Parks and Recreation D epartment, recorded detailed measurements of rhe stea m schooner's bow section, while Samuels sho t dozens of photographs. W ith site documentation in progress, they turned to Annie D onnelly, executive directo r of the Coos Historical and M aritime Museum. Donnelly was already wo rking w ith the local com muni ty, po uring over muse um files, hi storic photographs, and newspaper accounts, and had determined that there were at least four steam schooners reported wrecked in rhe Coos Bay area. Samuels was co ntacted by a company locate~ regon, who offered to perform a L" ¡ ,' (Light D etection and Ranging) / s f the sire, a method that uses laser r's surface creating a high-resolution ntour image of the structural rem ains. ' was completed and BLM is