Notes of Interest These vignettes related by Evenoff, Drew, and Scott in Harrington’s Field Notes, may be of interest to those who know the Yachats area: Frank Drew, a Siuslaw and informant for Harrington, lived at the Alsea Sub Agency. According to Whereat, Drew may have received much of his information from Jim Buchanan, who was older than Drew and also lived at the Sub-Agency. Drew spoke of a great fire that swept the coastal area prior to his birth in the 1840’s, From Frachtenberg’s Alsea Text and Myths, one story tells of a family traveling north from Siuslaw and being forced to camp at the beach in Yahach to escape a fire. It appears from this story that Yahach was not engulfed by the fire. This was also implied in the Alsea Sub-Agency Annual Report of 1862. Evenoff and Drew further substantiated how plentiful and large the fir and spruce trees were in the Yachats area during their incarceration at the Alsea Sub-Agency.67 Drew reported the mountains between the Civilian Conservation Corps’ camp and Cummins Creek were the location of a trail that the Indians who used to live in this area used for their hunting grounds. The trail began at ‘Sweathouse Rock, just north of Al Gwynn’s place,óS Drew is describing the Gwynn Creek area where its west end is located at the north parking area of Neptune Beach. Again from Drew, at the mouth of the Cook’s Chasm was a large deposit of what the local Indians called bluing. They used bluing for paint. Drew stated he had this examined at Corvallis. He was told it was potassium of cyanide69 Both Evenoff and Drew reported that camus used to grow east of Cape Perpetua. Drew said, “There is an open place, a grassy spot, on a hillside where they go to dig camus [behind] Perpetua Mountain.”70 (Phyllis Steeves, Archaeologist, states camus is still found there.) Big Creek, north of Yachats, was known by Alsea Indians as “ndzaqulda” which means “steelhead.”71
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS? Last Modified : 12/28/04
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