Hoping not to appear as some crazed old man, I’d like to make a few final comments about, let’s call it what it will be perceived by the public as the Pt. Reyes staff and the newspapers have already been calling it, the Drake designation.
Archaeological sites aside, if the NPS designates those sites of Cermeno’s shipwreck, Francis Drake’s name will be identified on infinitum with the area by a bogus namesake, first designated by the surveyor George Davidson’s political bias/mandate to disallow the Hudson Bay Company’s claim on the Oregon Territory down to the 42° N. latitude finally settled in 1848 with the U.S claiming to the current 48° N. latitude. Francis Drake was never anywhere near his namesake bay.
More research, as you contend, would only be more looking for Drake abound Drakes Bay which you will never find. As they all have previously agreed, archaeologists, Dr. Robert Heizer, Dr. Clement Meighan, Dr. Aubrey Neasham and Dr. Adan F. Treganza only found Cermeno artifacts and that’s all that will ever be found.
You say as with any important topic in American history, we expect there to be scholarly debate. Drake left a survey on Neahkahnie Mountain, verified not once, but three separate times by professional anthropologist and civil engineers. Where are the NPS researchers in Nehalem Bay?
The NPS wants to protect 16 sites along Pt. Reyes that provide material evidence of early culture contact. A few nails and sherds of porcelain would not be considered substantial archaeological contact to designate a National Park in Oregon. Oregon has 40,000 documented prehistory sites, none of which are National Parks. You must be aware that we in Oregon have a 17th century Spanish galleon shipwreck and have collected over 2,200 sherds.
Of all of the theorized Francis Drake landing sites for the five weeks he spent on the Pacific coast in the summer of 1579, California or not, only Nehalem Bay, Oregon has received an endorsed by any professional organization; the Oregon Archaeological Society, Oregon’s oldest archaeological organization as well as the endorsement of Thomas Vaughan C.B.E., Oregon Historian Laureate and Executive Director of the Oregon Historical Society 1955-1989. It was reported in the December 2008 of Oregon Archaeological Society Screenings that, “HE (Garry Gitzen) HAS PRODUCED A MAGNIFICENT COMPILATION WHICH SHOULD BE IN EVERY IMPORTANT HISTORICAL LIBRARY and available to every serious student on this subject. Amateur or professional, he will have critics, but they will have a Herculean task to overcome the lucid arguments of this book (Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, Setting the Historical Record Straight)… IT HAS NO PARALLEL.” Thomas Vaughan, C.B.E. has said; “Due to Garry Gitzen’s Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, Setting the Historical Record Straight, I am now convinced that Francis Drake was in Nehalem Bay.”
Whereas today, the primary California groups imply (with all due respect) so-called scholars have clearly decided that Drakes Bay was the landing site; while these same California groups failed on three separate occasions to gain an endorsement when they plead their cases before the California Historical Resources Commission during the 1970’s.
I would like to know who the peer reviewer scholars are both inside and outside the National Park Service and why wasn’t I consulted without my having to appear graveling by writing such letters as this to save Oregon’s history forever being stolen by having Francis Drake’s name connected with Pt. Reyes National Seashore.
The historically correct way to recognize Cermeno’s shipwreck is to rename the Pt. Reyes National Seashore to the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Cermeno Park and remove Francis Drake’s name altogether from all references with the area.
I write about history; neither do I make history nor should the NPS be in the business of increasing park attendance by designating falsified history.
Former NPS archaeologist Dr. Aubrey Neasham said; “To solve the questions surrounding the first English landfall in what Drake named “Nova Albion” – New England – Dr. Neasham suggested that Oregon also form a state commission and that possibly a national Drake commission be created.” (The World Newspaper, “Plaque records Drake’s Arago visit, by Charles Kocher, Coos Bay, August 6, 1977) I agree it is about time to have a truly national commission created to finally recognize Nehalem Bay as Francis Drake’s Pacific coast landfall.
Best regards,
Garry Gitzen
Archaeological sites aside, if the NPS designates those sites of Cermeno’s shipwreck, Francis Drake’s name will be identified on infinitum with the area by a bogus namesake, first designated by the surveyor George Davidson’s political bias/mandate to disallow the Hudson Bay Company’s claim on the Oregon Territory down to the 42° N. latitude finally settled in 1848 with the U.S claiming to the current 48° N. latitude. Francis Drake was never anywhere near his namesake bay.
More research, as you contend, would only be more looking for Drake abound Drakes Bay which you will never find. As they all have previously agreed, archaeologists, Dr. Robert Heizer, Dr. Clement Meighan, Dr. Aubrey Neasham and Dr. Adan F. Treganza only found Cermeno artifacts and that’s all that will ever be found.
You say as with any important topic in American history, we expect there to be scholarly debate. Drake left a survey on Neahkahnie Mountain, verified not once, but three separate times by professional anthropologist and civil engineers. Where are the NPS researchers in Nehalem Bay?
The NPS wants to protect 16 sites along Pt. Reyes that provide material evidence of early culture contact. A few nails and sherds of porcelain would not be considered substantial archaeological contact to designate a National Park in Oregon. Oregon has 40,000 documented prehistory sites, none of which are National Parks. You must be aware that we in Oregon have a 17th century Spanish galleon shipwreck and have collected over 2,200 sherds.
Of all of the theorized Francis Drake landing sites for the five weeks he spent on the Pacific coast in the summer of 1579, California or not, only Nehalem Bay, Oregon has received an endorsed by any professional organization; the Oregon Archaeological Society, Oregon’s oldest archaeological organization as well as the endorsement of Thomas Vaughan C.B.E., Oregon Historian Laureate and Executive Director of the Oregon Historical Society 1955-1989. It was reported in the December 2008 of Oregon Archaeological Society Screenings that, “HE (Garry Gitzen) HAS PRODUCED A MAGNIFICENT COMPILATION WHICH SHOULD BE IN EVERY IMPORTANT HISTORICAL LIBRARY and available to every serious student on this subject. Amateur or professional, he will have critics, but they will have a Herculean task to overcome the lucid arguments of this book (Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, Setting the Historical Record Straight)… IT HAS NO PARALLEL.” Thomas Vaughan, C.B.E. has said; “Due to Garry Gitzen’s Francis Drake in Nehalem Bay 1579, Setting the Historical Record Straight, I am now convinced that Francis Drake was in Nehalem Bay.”
Whereas today, the primary California groups imply (with all due respect) so-called scholars have clearly decided that Drakes Bay was the landing site; while these same California groups failed on three separate occasions to gain an endorsement when they plead their cases before the California Historical Resources Commission during the 1970’s.
I would like to know who the peer reviewer scholars are both inside and outside the National Park Service and why wasn’t I consulted without my having to appear graveling by writing such letters as this to save Oregon’s history forever being stolen by having Francis Drake’s name connected with Pt. Reyes National Seashore.
The historically correct way to recognize Cermeno’s shipwreck is to rename the Pt. Reyes National Seashore to the Pt. Reyes National Seashore Cermeno Park and remove Francis Drake’s name altogether from all references with the area.
I write about history; neither do I make history nor should the NPS be in the business of increasing park attendance by designating falsified history.
Former NPS archaeologist Dr. Aubrey Neasham said; “To solve the questions surrounding the first English landfall in what Drake named “Nova Albion” – New England – Dr. Neasham suggested that Oregon also form a state commission and that possibly a national Drake commission be created.” (The World Newspaper, “Plaque records Drake’s Arago visit, by Charles Kocher, Coos Bay, August 6, 1977) I agree it is about time to have a truly national commission created to finally recognize Nehalem Bay as Francis Drake’s Pacific coast landfall.
Best regards,
Garry Gitzen
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