Legend of Treasure on Neahkahnie Mountain

Legend of Treasure on Neahkahnie Mountain

In my stash of papers dating from High School, I found this neat little legend about a shipwreck and buried Treasure near Neahkahnie Mountain on the Oregon Coast. I have no recollection of where or when I picked up this document. Based on the age of the papers it’s in, I’d guess sometime in late 80′s to early 90′s time frame. There are no identifying marks anywhere to say who wrote it originally. Interesting to note is that the web page about the mountain mentions this, but has a slightly different telling.

A GHOST GUARDS THE TREASURE ON NEAHKAHNIE MOUNTAIN

One summer afternoon, many years ago, Indians near Neahkahnie

mountain were astonished to see two sailing ships approaching the coast.

These were the first sailing ships ever seen along the Oregon coast, and

to the Indians, they looked like “great birds” as they raced in full sail

toward the shore. Suddenly, the ships drew close together, and just

beyond the breakers, they began to ”thunder” and puffs of smoke issued

from their sides. After much noise and smoke, one of the ships began to

list, and was cast up on the beach near the foot of the mountain. The

other sailed off over the horizon and was never seen again.

As the great ship lurched onto the sand, men tumbled over its sides

and staggered ashore through the surf. All of the men were white, except

one, who was much larger than the others–a giant, some say. He was

black. To the Indians, who assumed until then that there was only one

race, these men of different colors were a frightening sight, and they

regarded them much as we might regard visitors from another planet.

At low tide the strangers straggled out to their ship and began to

bring their belongings ashore. Among the items brought from the ship was

a huge chest, so heavy and cumbersome that it took eight men to carry it.

With great effort, they carried the chest a short way up the mountain,

where they dug a deep hole. Carefully, they lowered the ohrst into the

hole. The black giant, whom the Indians believed was an evil demon, was

told to step forward. When he did, he was struck down, and his body was

thrown into the hole on top of the chest. The men then filled the hole

with sand and returned to the beach.

The Indians, as usual in their initial dealings with white people,

were friendly, generous, and peaceful. They welcomed the strangers to

their village, offered food and helped the men to obtain shelter for the

coming winer. The white men, as usual in their dealings with people of

another race, were quick to capitalize on the generosity of their hosts.

They took food, land and other belongings from the Indians and offered

Venereal disease, measles and violence in return.

The sailors quarreled with each other and with the Indians.

Eventually, an Indian was killed. The Indians retaliated, killing a white

man. A balance, of sorts, was maintained in this way through two winters,

but during the third year the tolerable of the Indians for their irascible

visitors was finally exceeded.

When the sailors began, at will, to violate the Indian women, a

council was held among the Clatsops, the Tillamook, and the Nehalems.

Before dawn, one autumn morning, 1,500 warriors crept into the camp of tbe

white men and set fire to their dwellings. As the sailors ran from the

blazing camp, the Indians killed them all. The white men were buried in a

huge mound near the place where the box and the black man were buried. It

is said that after this massacre, the river ran red With blood for 3 days.

The Indians, because of their reverence for the dead, never disturbed

the burial place of the sailors, and because of their fear of reprisal as

the white prescence grew in Oregon, refrained from talking about the

massacre.

Because of their fear of the ”black demon”, they never dug up the

huge chest that the sailors buried on their beach. To this day. no one is

sure what was in the chest, but many believe that the ship was a Spanish

pirate ship and that the chest contained a fortune in gold.

Considerable evidence supports the assumption of buried treasure near

Neahkahnle. In addition to the Indian legend, there are records of

Spanish ships, loaded with treasure gained in raids on South American

cities, sailing northward from Peru, never to be heard of again.

Mysterious markings carved into the rocks on Neahkahnie Mountain could

hold the key to the location of the treasure. At Three Rocks Beach, in

North Lincoln County, skeletons and remnants of an old sailing vessel were

found- one of the skeletons belonged to a man thought to be a Negro,

nearly eight feet tall. Stone wallas, masonry and giant mounds of rocks

placed in the shape of an inverted “W” with a base nearly a mile long have

been discovered by treasure hunters near Neahkahnie.

If the treasure is there, it hae elluded an army of treasure hunters,

most of whom come to Neahkahnie with a hunch, a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

A few have come with bulldozers and backhoes. Many have come with metal

detectors. Five people, including Charles and Lyn Wood, a father and son

who were killed when their 30 foot deep hole caved in on them in 1931 have

died during the search for Neahkahnie’s elusive treasure.

Some say that the treasure is there, but it will never be found.

They believe that the ghosts of the black giant and his evil companions

still guard the treasure of Neahkahnie and that they will keep tbe

treasure hidden forever.

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If you want to go digging for the Legend of Treasure on Neahkahnie Mountain, it is located on the Oregon coast just north of Manzanita, Oregon.

Legend of Treasure on Neahkahnie Mountain