As a particularly tempestuous New Year began to unfold, the dark wooden bow of an old shipwreck began to emerge from the sand on Bureau of Land Management land on the southern Oregon Coast. At first only a couple of feet of the shipwreck and the first corners of three portholes jutted through the dune.

But winter storms pounded the seawall, eroding almost 30 feet of dune over a period of two and a half months. As the sand washed away, it eventually exposed more and more of the shipwreck. Now, almost 30 feet of the bow has broken through, revealing two anchor holes; three portholes on each side; a large mast; beds or “racks”; and wiring.

For several months, questions about the ship swirled through the minds of employees and community members: “What’s the name of this ship?” “Were they pirates?” “How did it end up in the sand on Coos Bay’s North Spit?” And of course, “Was there any treasure?”

Although some of the answers were pretty obvious, solving this mystery would involve serious detective work. Undaunted, Archaeologists from the BLM’s Coos Bay District, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department, and the Coos County Maritime Museum teamed up for the task. They spent several weeks combing through historical photographs and newspaper articles, determined to discover the story of what the locals had dubbed “… the mystery shipwreck.”

After many hours in the museum archives and some help from the local community, the archaeologists found a name. The “mystery shipwreck” was in fact the George L. Olson, a 1917 steam schooner. “Once we put a current picture of the shipwreck next to a historical photograph of the Olson, we were able to say ‘Yup, that’s it,’” said Steve Samuels, an archeologist with BLM’s Coos Bay District. “The position of the portholes, the unique bolt pattern on the bow … they are all an exact match.”

With that, the ship’s story began to unfold. W.F. Stone Shipyards of Oakland, Calif., originally built the Olson for J.R. Hanify and Co. of San Francisco. The ship’s original name was the Ryder Hanify. At 223 feet long and nearly 44 feet wide, it was one of the largest wooden ships the Stone shipyard had built to date. The Olson worked as a lumber carrier in the Pacific Northwest for more than 20 years, hauling 1.4 million board-feet of timber at a time.

The schooner sealed its fate on a seemingly benign day in June 1944 when it struck Coos Bay’s North Jetty and drifted aground on a nearby rock. Although the ship sustained no casualties, it was a total loss. Salvagers made use of the lumber cargo for the next several months, including using it to build a Baptist church in Charleston, Ore. Then in December 1944, the hulk of the Olson was towed to sea and cut it adrift with the intention she beach on the North Spit.

Buildup of the dune over the next several years buried the wreck. Historical records indicate the ship surfaced for a short time in 1946 and 1960.

“Obviously, the pattern has been for the ship to appear, become buried, and then re-appear for a short time,” Samuels said.

Since December 2007, visitors from across the country have flocked to BLM lands in record numbers to see the ship, peering through portholes and taking pictures. More than 9,000 people have visited the shipwreck since it (re)appeared during this year’s winter storms.

“There is a strong connection to the shipping and lumbering industry in this area,” Samuels explained. “This shipwreck is a historical representation of a significant portion of the area’s heritage, and people are excited to see it.”  Now BLM, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, NOAA, and the Coos County Maritime Museum are working to document the ship and its unique story before it disappears once again in the sands of time.