Bryan Scott Edwards arrested on charges related to illegal heroin distribution

An investigation conducted by the Clatsop County Interagency Narcotic Team, conducted over the course of several weeks has resulted in the arrest of five subjects on multiple charges including Possession and Delivery of Narcotics.

Michael Anthony Umphres attempted to purchase heroin from detectives

The initial investigation led to the execution of a search warrant on the person of Bryan Scott Edwards and his vehicle on Thursday, May 10th. The search revealed packaging materials, digital scales, drug records and a substance which field tested positive as Heroin. Edwards was arrested and transported to the Clatsop County Jail, where he was lodged on the charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance Heroin and Delivery of a Controlled Substance Heroin.

During the execution of the search warrant on Edwards’ vehicle, Michael Anthony Umphres attempted to purchase heroin from detectives. Umphres was arrested and taken to the Clatsop County Jail, where he was lodged on the charge of Attempted Possession of a Controlled Substance Heroin.

Continuing investigation led to the execution of a search warrant on the person of Cory Quinten Bisbee

On Monday, May 14th, the continuing investigation led to the execution of a search warrant on the person of Cory Quinten Bisbee. The search revealed heroin separated into multiple packages. Bisbee was arrested and taken to the Clatsop County Jail, where he was lodged on the charge of Unlawful Delivery of a Controlled Substance Heroin.

Alexander Robert Charlton booked on the charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance Heroin, Forgery II, Possession of a Forged Instrument II and Attempted Theft II.

Detectives also contacted Alexander Robert Charlton who was with Bisbee. During the contact, Charlton attempted to conceal drug paraphernalia. Field testing of a substance located on Charlton’s person tested positive for heroin. Charlton was also found to be in possession of a forged check. Charlton was arrested and taken to the Clatsop County Jail where he was lodged on the charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance Heroin, Forgery II, Possession of a Forged Instrument II and Attempted Theft II.

Charlton’s arrest took place outside of the residence at the address of 35419 Highway 105, Astoria, Oregon. The incident was initially reported to have taken place at a nearby restaurant, La Caban De Raya. This initial report was incorrect and the incident did not take place at, nor was it connected to, the La Caban De Raya.

Shawn Westley Bourrioux arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance Heroin, Delivery of a Controlled Substance Oxycontin and Unlawful Possession of a Firearm.

On Tuesday, May 15th, detectives also executed a search warrant on the residence at 3222 Highway 101, Gearhart, Oregon. During the execution of the search warrant detectives contacted Shawn Westley Bourrioux. A subsequent investigation resulted in Bourrioux’s arrest on the charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance Heroin, Delivery of a Controlled Substance Oxycontin and Unlawful Possession of a Firearm.

Pictured nearby is a single family house for sale. Although squeezed into a narrow, level lot, nevertheless, its “sustainable design and construction will save thousands in utility costs every year.” It better, because the going market price of this beauty–while it lasts–is over $1,500,000. And it’s only ten short miles from where you work. (that’s miles not minutes however)

Who are you? You are a well-paid employee, among hundreds of thousands who live all around you, who are included in the newly designated HUD category called Bloodsucker.  You live and work in Washington D.C., the only area of this nation where the Great Recession has somehow not been heard from. 

The United States experienced a real estate bubble burst in 2008, and it hasn’t recovered nor are there signs of recovery in any major metropolitan area of the nation EXCEPT ONE: Washington D.C and surrounding counties. See for yourself what goes for $1,549,000. (update:  this link may be removed at any time)

The house pictured here has a single garage, perhaps to house your latest hybrid or electric Government Motors or equivalent car, although it doesn’t say it’s been prewired to charge such a vehicle, so you may have to spend an additional $4,500 for that desirable option. You might wonder why only a single-car garage, but that’s easily explained: the local bureaucratic land use regulators (who are related in spirit to the federal Bloodsucker regulators) are following the federal Agenda 21 guidelines that call for citizens to opt for public transportation rather than the old-school, carbon-based concept of multiple automobiles for dwelling occupants that is now so pre-Obama. This design is smart, it’s chic, it’s sustainable. And all of those qualities are affordable because this is Washington D.C. where “Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year [2010] averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data in this October 2011 article.

So, houses that cost $1.5 million are not uncommon because with 10-20% down (no problem) and your fellow bureaucrats at Fannie Mae/Federal Reserve creating unlimited money with interest rates at 3%, your monthly payment is just $5000/mo. When you average $122,000 per year, guess what? You qualify because your monthly income is roughly twice the house payment! Life is good. And, the source of all this income is an entity that can’t go out of business! You are set for life, with a wonderful pension  guaranteed as well. Plus, remember, you’ll save thousands each year on energy with this house.  There’s just no end to the good news.  You can afford a trip to the Bahamas but you’ll opt for a freebie when you attend the latest seminar on affordable housing in Nassau, where you can rub shoulders with the little people who re-fill your Margaritas.

Now, just to be clear: I am not exhibiting class envy here. I like our citizens to make all the money they can. Everyone should be able to succeed, to strive for that “pursuit of happiness” enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and guaranteed with a later one called the Constitution. But these historic  goals have become foreign to the DC bureaucratic masses who live in and can afford to buy houses like the example above, because their livelihoods are based upon subverting everything that was enshrined in those old dead white man concepts. No, I’m not envious of their good fortune, I’m livid. These Bloodsuckers are living the life of Riley while the nation is drifting into financial oblivion. Oh, there are some regular citizens like those in Silicon Valley doing well, and God bless them. I love it. But they aren’t spending my money, so they can, and some do, make billions. Don’t care. Would that we all could do that. But Bloodsuckers, no, they need to be made to pound sand.

This is what November is all about. Taking the power, money and smirk away from Bloodsuckers of any and all government stripes, starting with the Chicago community organizer in chief, the one who just recently came out of the closet (it is rumored), and who we now know personally shot Osama bin Laden while inking the health care law for everyone in order to balance the federal budget as promised only three years ago (but instead added $5 Trillion to the deficit). Yes, that Bloodsucker, along with all his czars, appointees, fellow liberals, communists, socialists and mainstream media enablers.

It’s quite likely the above house may be in foreclosure next summer.  Perhaps a future owner, unlike the bureaucrat before him, can garage his Mustang convertible while building an addition to house his SUVs, while working at a bench in the corner of that garage on the successor to the iPad, a small device that will project by hologram a virtual computer.  One that will give him news of $1.35 gasoline wars.

Challenger Jim Pierce received 2,072  for 25.96%  and incumbent Tom Bergin received 3,460  for 43.34% of the ballots cast.

Unopposed incumbents, Cindee Matyas for Circuit Court Judge, District 18 and Dirk Rohne for County Commission seat for District 4 won their seats in the primary both receiving the required majority vote with 64% and 68% respectively.

County Commission seat for District 2 had no incumbent in the running. Sarah Nebeker and John Dunzer ran with Nebeker garnering the required majority vote 914-374 with 1,765 ballots cast in that race.

All the local ballot measures were voted down. The ballot measure (4-155) to ban displaying elephants and exotic animals in Clatsop County was defeated 4,474 to 2,976.  The ballot measure (4-156) for a 14 million dollar bond to pay for improvements to the local jail was defeated by a closer margin, 3,734 to 2,894. The ballot measure (4-157) for general obligation bonds not exceeding $695,000 for the Knappa-Svensen-Burnside Rural Fire Department went down 418-348.

First Unofficial Summary Results
7063 Total Ballots Cast for a total of 34.75% voter turnout

Sheriff Race
Jim Pierce – 1,827 25.87%
Tom Bergin – 3,057 43.28%

Ballot Measure 4-155
Yes 2,663
No 3,931

Ballot Measure 4-156
Yes 2,894
No 3,734

4-157 Knappa-Svensen-Burnside RFD
Yes 298
No 362

Second Unofficial Summary of Results

7,983 total ballots cast for a total of 39.28% voter turnout

Jim Pierce 2,072  25.96%
Tom Bergin 3,460  43.34%

4-155 PROHIBITS DISPLAY OF ELEPHANTS, EXOTIC ANIMALS IN UNINCORPORATED CLATSOP COUNTY
Yes 2,976
No 4,474

4-156  $14,000,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND FOR JAIL FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS
Yes 3,308
No 4,195

4-157 Knappa-Svensen-Burnside RFD
Yes 348
No 418

Jim Coffee, chief executive of Coastal Family Health Center in Astoria, is one of 12 honorees of The Oregon Primary Care Association

Jim Coffee, chief executive of Coastal Family Health Center in Astoria, is being honored by the Oregon Primary Care Association (OPCA) as one of 12 Oregonians contributing to the success of the state’s network of community health centers. Health centers provide comprehensive, culturally competent primary care to 312,000 Oregonians in medically underserved communities.

Coffee received an “OPCA Health Center Leadership – Professional Engagement” award for demonstrating excellent results in recruiting and retaining health care providers. According to OPCA Coffee “faced the challenge of bringing new doctors to the coastal community of Astoria and helping them stay engaged in their work.”

“What sets Jim apart is his commitment to the personal side of our business,” says Dr. Samuel Suk, medical director at Coastal Family Health Center. “He has brought in providers who are beloved by patients and who stay with us for the long term.”

Coffee left Boston in 2004 to join Coastal Family Health Center as chief executive officer in 2004. Since then, Coastal has grown from a staff of 12 serving 2,000 patients to a staff of 25 serving nearly 5,000 patients. Dr. Suk glowingly praises Coffees work as making “Coastal an employer and health care provider of choice in Astoria.”

OPCA gives annual Health Center Leadership awards in six categories. Following is the complete list of 2012 honorees:

* Community Health Center Value Award: Simon Parker-Shames, Angelica Ruppe, Ida Saito and Maria Underwood, data work group, La Clinica (Medford).

* Growth Award: Luke Barsalou, dental director, La Clinica (Medford).

* Health Equities Awards: Gil Munoz, CEO, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center (Washington & Yamhill Counties); Kelly Volkmann, health navigation program manager, Benton Health Services (Benton & Linn Counties).

* Primary Care Home Award: Susan Marie, medical director of behavioral health, Old Town Clinic, Central City Concern (Portland).

* Professional Engagement Award: Jim Coffee, CEO, Coastal Family Health Center (Astoria).

* Sustainability Award: Carla Stout, Eric Van Houten and Jeri Weeks, executive and clinical team, Community Health Centers of Lane County.

Honorees received their awards at OPCA’s annual members meeting on April 27.

About OPCA:
The Oregon Primary Care Association is a nonprofit membership organization of 29 community health centers across the state. OPCA provides advocacy on public policy and technical assistance and training to members to enhance health equities and increase access to comprehensive health care for low-income and vulnerable Oregonians. Oregon’s health centers serve more than 312,000 patients through 150 clinic sites across the state. For more information, see http://www.orpca.org.

Ballots due by 8 pm Tuesday, May 15th.

Low voter turnout appears to continue in Clatsop County for the May primaries with only 32.31% ballots turned in as of May 11^th. For many counties in Oregon, voting apathy at the primaries is attested to historically.  In 2010, the last year the Oregon Election Division has voting statistics posted, Oregon had 2,033,951 registered voters with only 846,515 casting ballots for a disappointing  41.62% turnout in the May primaries. Many voters have become disheartened with the outcome of elections while for others apathy has developed with the process itself.  Disengaging from the process appears, to many, to be their only recourse to voice their frustration. “I don’t even know any of these judges,” one person commented on Facebook regarding the recent May primaries in Oregon, “how do I know if they are capable of doing a good job? Why bother voting at all if no one is running against a candidate?”  Why, indeed? “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote,” said the American writer George Jean Nathan.

The Secretary of State elections division explains the importance of voting, even in primaries, stating that those running unopposed must obtain 50%+1 (called a majority) of the vote in order to be declared a winner. If they do not obtain a majority of the votes cast they must run again in the November primaries providing the opportunity for someone to run a write-in campaign. If a voter isn’t pleased with, or doesn’t know, a candidate running unopposed they are under no obligation to vote for anyone in that position. According to the state election division the voter can leave that race blank on their ballot.

A voter should still turn in a blank ballot because it shows that the person is a concerned voter, conscientious enough to vote but not willing to throw their vote away haphazardly. Not turning in a ballot, according to Democracy in Action, an advocacy group promoting participation in the election process, denotes an apathetic voter or someone who is content with the statuts quo.

Blank ballots make candidates and political parties work harder. In the primaries it shows a candidate, and their political party, that they have not done their job in convincing knowledgeable voters that they are the best ones for the job they are running for. According to a study conducted by Election Data Services voters undervote because they uniformly do not like any of the candidates. In short, an undervote is worrisome to political parties .

Even if the unopposed candidate goes on to win in the November general election the fact that they were unable to win their seat in the primary could be telling them that the voting public is not confident of the job they are doing, in essence, that they are being watched.

The blank ballot can completely change the dynamics of an election. In North Carolina 1,000 blank ballots meant the difference in an encumbant judge’s bid for re-election in the primaries. Without the majority vote of 50%+1 the judge had to go on and face a write in challenge that beat him in the general election in November. If those 1,000 voters had chosen, instead, to just not turn in their ballots, the judge would have won, collecting the desired majority “of the ballots cast.”  However, this would not happen in Oregon as the majority is NOT determined by ballots cast but by votes cast. The difference being that in majority vote that is determined by votes cast the undervote and overvotes are discarded and the majority is only determined based on votes for the candidates and write-ins.

Clatsop County has one of the highest voter participation rates in the state, usually weighing in at about the 60% mark while statewide voter participation is at less than 45% of the registered voters. Over one third of the adult population in Clatsop County are not even registered voters.

Along with being considered a conscientious voter another benefit of voting is to stem the tide of the advertising that clogs the mailboxes this time of year as well as avoiding the constant election phone surveys and reminders to vote.

How does anyone even know you haven’t walked that ballot out to the mailbox, yet? Or whether or not you have voted in the past three or four elections? In Oregon, anyone willing to pay a fee can obtain a voting list containing the names of the Clatsop County citizens who are registered to vote. The list not only gives the names and addresses of the registered voters it also contains their voting record. No, not who or what they actually voted for, that’s a secret guaranteed by law, but it does tell what elections they have voted in and depending on how much you pay for the information anyone can get the full voting record of anyone else in Clatsop County.

Do you want less campaign flyers clogging your mailbox?  When a campaign is low on funds, or a race is tight, eligible voters who do not vote become the target of intensified campaigns. People who haven’t voted in the last election or two are more likely to get their doorbell rang, and their mailbox stuffed, then the voter who has conscientiously cast their ballot. The unknown, the ones not voting, are the votes that are being sought. If you like the opportunity to debate on your doorstep,  don’t turn that ballot in until the last minute. However, if you are tired of being besieged during election time turn in your ballot, the sooner the better so you aren’t on the last minute voters lists that are snatched up as the election day nears.

In Clatsop County two candidates are running unopposed. The Honorable Cyndee Matyas is running for re-election in her position as circuit court judge for the 18^th district, position number 3 and Commissioner Dirk Rohne for his position on the Clatsop County Board of County Commissioners for district number 4. Each of these candidates must garner 50%+1 votes in order to retain their seat in the primaries. Otherwise, they will be placed on the November general election ballot even though they are running unchallenged. Clatsop County elections clerk, Maeve Kennedy Grimes, said that it is rare for an unchallenged incumbent to not win their seat in the primary election.

None of the ballot measures need a majority vote in order to pass. The most votes will determine the outcome, according to Grimes. While that may be confusing to some voters the definition of a majority vote in Oregon is 50%+1 of the votes cast, whereas “the most votes” means the most votes cast will determine the outcome of that race.

Ballots are due Tuesday, May 15th, by 8 pm at a drop box or the Clatsop County Clerk’s office.

Ballot Drop Sites:

Related Links & Articles:

Undervoting and a big campaign roundup

Half Empty: How to Cast a Vote

Campaigns and Voting Behavior

Rock River Times

For unknown reasons a 74 year old Vernonia woman swerved off the road, hitting a tree, resulting in a fatal head-on collision.

Oregon State Police (OSP) troopers are continuing the investigation into the cause of Thursday afternoon’s single vehicle crash along Highway 66 south of Vernonia.

On May 10, 2012, at approximately 2:38 p.m. a 1995 Honda Accord driven by Rhoda Laura Buckner, age 74, from Vernonia, was northbound on Highway 47 near milepost 66 when, for an unknown reason, it traveled off the right shoulder and crashed head-on into a tree.

Buckner was pronounced deceased at the scene. She was using safety restraints and the car’s airbags deployed.

OSP was assisted at the scene by Vernonia Police Department, Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, Vernonia Fire Department, and ODOT. Highway 47 was closed about three hours while traffic was routed around the scene.

Jeff Edwards, Astoria, indicted by the on 15 felony counts that included eight counts of Forgery in the First Degree and seven counts of Identity Theft.

On Thursday, May 10, 2012, Jeffrey Allen Edwards was indicted by the Clatsop County Grand Jury on 15 felony counts that included eight counts of Forgery in the First Degree and seven counts of Identity Theft.

According to Deputy Chief of Police, Brad Johnston, the indictments are a result of a lengthy investigation into numerous complaints that the Astoria Police Department received about Mr. Edwards’ Astoria area business dealings over the past several years.

The information that was presented to the Grand Jury involved Mr. Edwards’ practice of soliciting local Astoria residents to pressure wash and/or paint their houses.  As part of his practices, Mr. Edwards would claim to be connected to and/or representing a legitimate local business to gain the trust of the victims.  To further the deception, Mr. Edwards would use the legitimate Oregon CCB license numbers of other businesses, or Mr. Edwards would create false CCB license numbers so that it would appear that he was appropriately licensed and bonded with the State of Oregon.

During the investigation, Mr. Edwards was warned that his activity was unlawful, that his illegal activity was being investigated, and that it needed to stop; but the Astoria Police Department continued to receive complaints about Mr. Edwards’ business practices.

Mr. Edwards has never been licensed with the Oregon Construction Contractors Board and does not have a business license from the City of Astoria.

The Astoria Police Department asks if you believe that you have been a victim of Mr. Edwards, and you live in the City of Astoria to contact the department at 503-325-4411 to speak to an officer.

The Astoria Police Department advises residents to be cautious when hiring people to do work on their homes or property.  Take the time to check with the Oregon Construction Contractors Board before asking for bids or entering into any agreements with a contractor.  By doing this, you will be able to verify if the contractor is actively licensed, is legal to do contracting work in Oregon, has a surety bond, has provided proof of liability insurance at the time of application, and also allows you to check on the history of the contractor.  See the Oregon Construction Contractors Board website for more information on the best practices for hiring contractors.

The Help America Vote Act has provided funding to assist states and counties with this goal. Any voter who needs assistance in voting in the May 15 Primary Election because they have trouble filling out traditional paper ballots is invited to contact the Clatsop County Elections Office at (503) 325-8511 for assistance.

Accessible ballot marking can be completed by using special computer equipment which is available at the Clatsop County Clerk and Elections Office or by appointment at local facilities.

·   Using the iPad, disabled voters can call up the right ballot and tap the screen to pick a candidate and ballot measures.

·   Voters with poor vision can adjust the font size and screen color, or have the computer read the ballot out loud.

·   The voters then print the completed ballot and place it in their return ballot envelope, sign it and return it to the Elections Office.

Ballots for the May 15 election will begin arriving in voters’ mailboxes Friday and Saturday, April 27-28. Accessible ballot marking will be available between April 30 and May 15 at the Clatsop County Elections Office on the 2^nd floor of 820 Exchange St. in Astoria. In addition, the Elections Office can schedule time to come to facilities and offer voters access to this equipment.

Any voter wishing to utilize this new program for accessible ballot marking is asked to please bring their RETURN ballot envelope with them when they come to mark their ballot. The voter must be an active registered voter. If the voter is unsure of their registration status, our Elections Official can verify their status through the Oregon Secretary of State’s website.

Any residential facility or senior center wishing to set up a time for Clerk and Elections staff to come out and set up at their facility to provide access to this new voting system is encouraged to call the Clerk and Elections Office at (503) 325-8511 to schedule an appointment. Please make an appointment early in the election cycle because the last few days before an election are typically busy and there may be a longer wait.

Three Rocks Beach, Camp Westwind, the mouth of the Salmon River and Cascade Head as they appear today, photographed from an aircraft in the golden light of an early summer evening. Photo is from the Camp Westwind web site.

On February 20, 1931, a former Lincoln County commissioner named Elmer Calkins looked behind his tractor at the plow he was pulling and saw human bones strewn out along the furrow behind it.

Calkins was working up a patch of land near the mouth of the Salmon River so that it could be flattened out into a smooth, park-like landscape for the summer camping resort he was building there. The new Roosevelt Highway — Highway 101 — was mostly built, and car-tripping tourists from the Willamette Valley were starting to make beach trips part of their summer plans. Calkins hoped a few of them would come camp at his place so they could play on the nearby beach, a long sandy strand beneath Cascade Head in north Lincoln County known as Three Rocks Beach.

The field he was smoothing out was uneven for a reason: It was peppered with shellfish middens, basically miniature landfills used by Native Americans for disposal of clam and mussel shells, fish bones, and the odd worn-out whalebone club or stone knife. It was in one of these that, unexpectedly, human bones had turned up.

Calkins got off his tractor, got a shovel, and dug up the rest of the body. It was, he immediately noticed, enormous. Most accounts say it was around eight feet tall, and that the skull was over two-thirds of an inch thick in its beefiest spot, with unusually big cheekbones and forehead.

A bit more digging turned up a second, more normal-sized skeleton, the skull of which had been pierced by an arrow and bashed in with something like a stone ax.

Evidence of the truth of a legend?

Calkins and his neighbors at first thought they’d simply stumbled across a Native American burial. But the more they talked about it, the less sense that made. The Native Americans would no sooner have buried a body in a shellfish midden than we would toss one in a landfill today — unless it were the body of a deadly enemy.

Also — there was an old story still being told along the Salmon River estuary, an old Indian tale. According to the story, a “winged canoe” had foundered just inside the mouth of the Salmon, possibly having mistaken it for the Siletz or the Nehalem in the fog. This would have been a fatal error, since it’s sometimes possible to walk across the mouth of the Salmon without getting one’s shirt wet.

The crew, more than 20 men, had rowed ashore with a heavy chest of the type one would fill with pirate loot. This they buried, and then, leaving two of their number behind, set out east over land, never to be heard from again.

The two they left behind, according to the legend, were a gigantic black man and a regular-sized white guy. These two didn’t last long before they made the natives angry enough to kill them.

Now, most of the neighbors thought this story was entirely made up, or perhaps had been “borrowed” from the legend of the buried treasure on Neahkahnie Mountain, just a couple dozen miles up the coast. But Calkins thought there might be something in it, because he’d frequently snagged his fishing nets on a wreck a little way inside the mouth of the river. Knowing the legend, he’d been curious enough to investigate it one day, and confirmed it; it was in about 12 feet of water, the ribs sticking up and rotting away.

Calling in professional help

Calkins contacted Oregon historian Dr. John Horner of Oregon State University (then named Oregon Agricultural College) and Dr. F.M. Carter, a physician with an established practice among the remaining coastal Native American tribes in the area. Carter confirmed that the pedigree of the legend as having come from the tribes and being very old, and after reassembling the skeletons gave his professional opinion that the large one was of African descent — although how he was able to be sure of this, given the body’s unique and freakish size and shape, is not clear. It’s certainly possible that, mindful of the legend, he was expecting to see Africa in it from the outset.

The presence of gold or buried treasure in any story has an immediate corruptive influence on its truthfulness, and this effect seems to have kicked in on this story very early in the process. According to accounts from the 1950s, Horner took the bones back to OSU and actually wrote a paper on the find. However, the bones later mysteriously disappeared from the university, and there’s no sign of the paper having been published. Moreover, Horner died in 1933, so by the time these accounts were published, he couldn’t exactly be asked about it. The newspapers of the 1930s don’t mention Horner at all — or Carter either, for that matter.

Treasure hunters move in

In any case, the story touched off a wave of trouble for Elmer Calkins, who found himself having to deal with tourists of the wrong sort — tourists who, rather than coming with money and expecting to leave a week later with less, come with no money and hoped to leave a week later as millionaires. Squatters became a problem. One nervy fellow asked permission to set up a fishing camp, and then pitched an enormous tent and started digging for the treasure underneath it; Calkins figured it out when he saw dirt spilling out from beneath one of the walls.

In the 1970s, Calkins’s son, Edward, mounted an expedition to try and retrieve the old “pirate ship” from the bottom of the Salmon, where it had been more or less covered with sand and silt. The younger Calkins claimed he had a special underwater metal detector that only picked up gold and silver and that it had told him, as the Oregonian put it, that there was “booty in the bilge” of the sunken wreck. If anything came of this, the newspapers were silent on it.

The pirate treasure of Camp Westwind

Today, the site Elmer Calkins was plowing up for his tourist camp is known as Camp Westwind. Westwind is a YWCA camp that holds a special place in the hearts of tens of thousands of former campers — few if any of whom know that it is entirely possible, if not particularly likely, that somewhere on its rustic, oceanside grounds there lies a giant box of pirate loot.

Granted, it’s only slightly less likely that the Tooth Fairy lives in a tree house nearby. Still, it’s a fabulous bit of Oregon Coast folklore.

(Sources: Portland Oregonian, “Large skeleton found,” 2-21-1931, “Finding of old skeleton hints at early tragedy,”  4-05-1931, and “Buried treasure sought,” 5-19-1974; Hult, Ruby. Lost Mines and Treasures. Portland: Binford, 1957)

Finn J.D. John, an instructor at Oregon State University, writes about unusual and little-known aspects of Oregon history. His book about 1800s Portland, “Wicked Portland,” is scheduled for release this summer from The History Press. To contact him or suggest a topic: finn@offbeatoregon.com, @OffbeatOregon (on Twitter), or 541-357-2222.

The work will be performed by a consulting firm that will cone off areas prior to the work and will remove cones from impacted areas as the work progresses. The proposed work plan consists of working in the western parking lot on Tuesday, working in the Duane Street and Exchange Street right-of-way on Wednesday and working in the east parking lot on Thursday and Friday.

All schedules are subject to change in the event of unfavorable weather conditions. No parking at these locations will be allowed. Citizens should be prepared for short traffic delays and street closures. If you have questions please call Astoria Public Works at 503-338-5173.