The Beeswax Wreck
Researchers tie the beeswax washing up on the Oregon coast to the Santo Cristo de Burgos, a Manila galleon that sailed on July 1, 1693, and was never seen again. The identification is probable, not proven, and the hull has not been found.
Search Area
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- Start point
- Nehalem Bay State Park
- Visitor access
- Nehalem Bay State Park, Manzanita, OR 97131
- Museum
- Tillamook County Pioneer Museum
- Nearest town
- Manzanita, OR
No search zone is drawn. Oregon Parks has not published the sea caves' location, and the main wreck has not been found.
The Legend
The wax
Alexander Henry wrote in his journal at Astoria on December 8, 1813, that "great quantities of beeswax continue to be dug out of the sand near this spot." Wax blocks, many carrying Spanish shipping marks, and Chinese porcelain dated to 1680 through 1700 have since been found on and near Nehalem Spit.
The ship
Scott Williams of the Maritime Archaeological Society, a research affiliate at the University of Oregon, and his team identify the ship as the Santo Cristo de Burgos, which left Manila on July 1, 1693, bound for Acapulco. Their reasoning is that Spanish records list only two Manila galleons missing on that route, the Santo Cristo in 1693 and the San Francisco Xavier in 1705, and that the porcelain is no later than 1700. A 2025 paper in the Journal of Geography and Geology by Williams and three colleagues argues the ship broke up within about 7 years before the January 1700 Cascadia earthquake and tsunami, and that the main wreck probably lies offshore of the spit.
The hull has not been found, and the stated certainty has moved. Williams put it at 95 percent in 2018. In 2022, he said he was 99 percent sure which ship it was, though not where it lies.
The timbers
In mid-June 2022, a team that included the firm SEARCH Inc., Oregon Parks, and county sheriffs recovered more than 20 timbers, some up to 7.5 feet long, from sea caves north of Manzanita. A fisherman had first noticed wood there in 2013. Radiocarbon dating puts the tree's felling at about 1650, which fits the galleon without dating the wreck, and a 2020 survey called the timbers a secondary deposit washed in from elsewhere. The sources disagree on the wood: National Geographic names the cashew family, while Travel Oregon says molave, a Philippine hardwood. Oregon Parks has not published the caves' location.
The chest
Neahkahnie Mountain, a few miles south, is known as the Mountain of a Thousand Holes, after a story of a chest buried there with a man killed on top of it. No record of the chest has been found. A 2018 Oregon Historical Quarterly article by Cameron La Follette, Jeff Griffin, and Douglas Deur says Euro-American writers blended Native accounts of a shipwreck with adventure tales that increasingly centered on buried treasure. In 1899, Silas B. Smith, a Clatsop descendant, published "Tales of Early Wrecks on the Oregon Coast, and How the Beeswax Got There."
What May Be Out There
The wax, the porcelain, and the timbers are out of the ground and the water. The hull and most of the cargo are not.
- The main hull, which researchers think lies offshore of Nehalem Spit.
- Silk, art, and gold jewelry, which Williams has said were probably aboard.
- A chest on Neahkahnie Mountain, for which no record exists.
- Recovered so far: beeswax blocks, Chinese porcelain, a rigging block, and more than 20 timbers.
The Evidence
Documented record
- Alexander Henry's journal entries of December 8, 1813, and February 28, 1814.
- Wax blocks and porcelain in Oregon museums.
- Radiocarbon dates on the timbers and on a rigging-block shaving, both mid-17th century.
- Spanish records of a galleon that sailed from Manila on July 1, 1693.
- The 2018 Oregon Historical Quarterly article on Neahkahnie's treasure stories.
Legend and hearsay
- The chest buried on Neahkahnie with a man on top of it.
- Accounts of survivors living among the coast's people for months before being killed, which no document supports.
- Any gold cargo.
Known Clues
The shipping marks. Many wax blocks carry Spanish shipping marks.
The porcelain. It dates from 1680 to 1700 and nothing later, which Williams reads as a loss before the 1700 earthquake.
The caves. The timbers lie in sea caves as a secondary deposit, and the team believes the 1700 tsunami played a key role in scattering the debris.
Visiting Information
The Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, at 2106 Second Street in Tillamook, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Adults pay $7, seniors 62 and older $5, and students 10 to 17 $4; children under 10 are free. ArtsWatch reported in September 2025 that the museum holds one of the largest collections of objects from the shipwreck, including very large pieces of wax. Call 503-842-4553 to confirm the wax is on view.
The Nehalem Valley Historical Society, at 225 Laneda Avenue in Manzanita, is open Saturdays from 1pm to 4pm. Travel Oregon reported in 2022 that the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria has a beeswax alcove with a wax block, a rigging block, and porcelain. Adult admission there was $18, and the museum's number is 503-325-2323.
The Neahkahnie Mountain trail in Oswald West State Park starts from trailheads on Highway 101 between mileposts 41 and 42. The park's trails are closed from 10pm to 6am.
Reality Check
Wax, porcelain, and 17th-century timbers have come out of the ground and the water, and they fit a Manila galleon. What is unsettled is which galleon. The identification rests on the dates of the wax, the porcelain, and the timbers, and the hull that would settle it has not been found.
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