Songs From The Wood
"Buzzy"
This is part of a series of caches on the beautiful Clatsop Loop and Tillamook Head Trails. For complete details and a list of the caches, please see Woody.
"Buzzy" is at the top of the Clatsop Loop. It is near a hikers' camp. From here, you have a few options:
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Turn left for the short walk to the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse viewpoint and Terrible Tilly.
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Continue straight on the Tillamook Head Trail toward Seaside and find some more caches, starting with Rainy.
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Turn right and head back down the east side of the loop toward Stoney.
"Buzzy" commemorates a little-known piece of local history. Read on for the fascinating account.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a series of events occurred on the North Oregon Coast that are seldom chronicled in history books, and may even be considered topics to avoid given that they don't exactly paint a rosy historical picture. From time to time, attempts have been made to commercialize the events, but since they are difficult to believe, these haven't been very successful. Nonetheless, my own research has shown that this history actually did occur.
It began in the town of Tillamook, Oregon, 33 miles south of the site of this geocache. In 1894, as today, this was dairy farming country. Anyone who has visited the dairy section of almost any western supermarket can see the evidence of this. In those early days, though, most of the land was still forested and cleared land, suitable for cows, was scarce and in great demand.
In the late 1800s, two dairy farmers, both local families, owned most of what land was available, and pretty much controlled the local dairy industry. They are in no way related to any of the businesses now active in the area. Unfortunately, the two companies, Tillamook Dairy Enterprises, and Green Valley Creamery, did not get along at all and feuded constantly, particularly over the acquisition of more suitable grazing land. The Chisom family, headed by Robert Chisom, owned TDE, while GVC was owned by the Thomas Smythe family. Total enmity existed between the two family groups.
In 1894, this hostility came to a boil. A 300-acre parcel of prime dairy land had just come up for sale, and both families were determined to own and control it. Achieving such was mostly a financial matter - who had the most money to offer. Bob Chisom, realizing this, knew that he was unable to match the funds that the Smythes had at their disposal, and he had little hope of increasing his own family's worth at short notice. Therefore, he began to consider the alternate approach - how to cause great financial harm to his rivals.
Martha Chisom, Bob's wife, was an amateur entomologist and had a fascination of anything related to insects. At that time, for a woman to be interested in anything other than supporting her family was near scandalous, and the Chisoms did not make any efforts to make her interests known in the community. She was particularly interested in entomological genetics and by 1894 had already spent many years breeding and refining various insect species, attempting to enhance particular characteristics.
Her work with common ants led to an amazing discovery. The ants that she had been inducing mutations in for over five years proved to have an incredible characteristic: They were relentlessly vicious, and although no larger than average ants, were determined to bite any living thing they came in contact with. Mrs. Chisom's arms and legs attested to this fact. While the bites were merely bothersome for humans and other animals, an amazing thing was discovered when the ants bit some of the Chisom's dairy cows. The cows were rendered reproductively sterile and ceased to produce milk. As an interesting side note, Martha's name for such cows, "milk duds", caught on, and is still used in the dairy industry today.
While Bob Chisom normally had almost no interest in his wife's pursuits, when he learned of the abilities of the mutant ants, he became instantly fascinated and saw an immediate economic angle. He was about to become the world's first entomological terrorist.
Without Martha's knowledge (he knew she would never agree to such a use of her work), he collected several hundred of the mutant ants from her ant tanks and crept out in the middle of the night of August 8, 1894, to the fields of his opponent, Thomas Smythe, and his hundreds of prime milking cows. Had anyone witnessed the event, he would have been seen strolling through the herd, throwing out handfuls of ants onto the cows in the field, managing to infect a few dozen before running out of ants.
Within days, the Smythe family cows ceased producing milk and by October, the Smythes were financially devastated. The greatly-prized 300-acre parcel of dairy land was sold to Bob and Martha Chisom in November, 1894.
Thomas Smythe immediately suspected the Chisoms were responsible for the catastrophe, since their own cows (initially) were completely unaffected by the affliction. Infuriated, he sought revenge, and when he learned the ants were responsible, had an idea.
Mr. Smythe had recently received a letter from his son, Eldon, who was living in the deepest jungles of Bolivia where he worked as a teacher. The letter contained news that the area was under siege by a species of giant South American bees (Apis sudamericanas), whose sting was instantly fatal to any living creature. Of particular interest was the fact that the insects had decimated the local cattle herds. Thomas Smythe wanted some of those bees, and he wanted them badly.
Using some of his few remaining funds, he contacted and negotiated with a local guide working in the village and arranged to have several hundred bees transported to Tillamook as soon as possible, planning to set them loose on his rival's cow herd. Roger Humphrey, the guide employed for the transport, was only too happy to agree, as he had heard of Oregon and was very interested in living there. Three weeks later, he arrived with his extremely lethal cargo carefully transported in wooden crates.
Roger Humphrey, however, made an enormous error of vast historical importance. Knowing nothing of Oregon, he located Tillamook Head on the map, and mistakenly assumed that was the location he was to release the bees, rather than the town of Tillamook many miles to the south. Thus, upon his arrival in Portland, he traveled directly to Tillamook Head, and never actually even made it to Tillamook.
Mr. Humphrey followed the same trail you will be hiking on as he moved the crates of lethal bees to what looked like a good release point. The trail was more primitive at that time, but still led to the site of this geocache, and that was where the enormously dangerous insects were released from their crates. As you stand at the cache site, you will be at the precise location recorded in Roger Humphrey's journal as "the moste likly place to open the boxs of bees and re-lease them from captevitie". Which is exactly what he did.
The South American bees, which reached the size of small dogs at maturity, could have flourished on Tillamook Head, potentially posing massive danger to the local towns and cities. Fortunately, one factor prevented such a catastrophe: The bees were used to the high altitudes of their Bolivian jungle home and could not adapt to living at sea level. Within weeks, they had all perished and the threat was removed. Thomas Smythe's revenge was thwarted.
As for Bob Chisom, back in Tillamook, the mutant ants eventually made their way to his own herd, and by the early 1900s, he too was financially ruined. By 1904, both the Chisom and Smythe families were bankrupt and out of the dairy business. A particularly cold winter in 1903 destroyed the entire line of mutant ants, thus leaving the area free from threat from them as well as the bees. Ironically, Martha Chisom went on to become somewhat of a celebrity in the world of entomology and her further genetic pursuits led to several lucrative projects, leaving the Chisoms very well-off financially. They eventually retired to the West Hills of Portland.
As you visit this geocache, ponder these amazing events of local history and consider how fortunate the area was to escape the twin threats posed by the mutant ants and giant bees. Please note your thoughts in your online log if you are so inclined.
Although it has been assumed that the entire colony of giant bees perished long ago, this fact has never been proven, and until the 1970s, small notes in local hiking guides and brochures warned visitors to be observant and to report any sightings of bees of great size to the authorities. No reports were ever taken seriously. Nonetheless, it never hurts to be cautious, so keep this in mind during your hike on Tillamook Head.
Thanks for keeping this bit of history alive and enjoy the hike!