The Neahkahnie treasure and the beeswax wreck

A Spanish galleon, almost certainly the Santo Cristo de Burgos out of Manila, wrecked near Nehalem around 1693. Blocks of its beeswax cargo, some carved with shipping marks, have been plowed up and beachcombed here for two centuries, which makes the wreck documented fact. The legend rides on top: survivors said to have hauled a chest up Neahkahnie Mountain and buried it, killing a man to seal the spot. Diggers have died hunting it; the beeswax keeps washing up.