Has anyone seen Mr. and Mrs. Jens Frederiksen??
On March 30, 1890, four men were booked into the Pacific County Jail at Oysterville, held on charges of murder. The four were accused of murdering Danish immigrants Jens and his wife Neilsine Frederiksen, who had worked for a short time as gillnetters in Astoria before being bitten by the "oyster bug". The couple relocated to a land claim near today's settlement of Bay Center where they planned to harvest oysters, farm and raise a family. Early in 1890, the young couple left in a skiff to travel across the bay to South Bend to stock up on provisions but never arrived, and it was thought they had perished in rough weather when their boat was found aground. A few months later, their crudely buried bodies were found on a property adjoining their own, resulting in the arrest of the four men. One of the four escaped, one became mentally unstable and was taken to an insane asylum, and the other two were ambushed in the Oysterville jail by an angry mob and shot with a rifle taken from the jailer who was asleep nearby.
The Frederiksens were laid to rest on April 3, 1890 in the Bay Center Cemetery, where this cache is located. Please visit this cache only during daylight hours, and treat the area with respect. The cache is not located near any graves.
This cache was placed as part of a series of locations, events and characters that shaped the early days of frontier justice in Pacific County.
The names referenced in the cache titles and the outlaw photos are fictional and bear no relation to actual people, but the descriptive text for each cache relates factual information.
Reference Material on cache page from Jailhouse Stories from Early Pacific County by Sydney Stevens.
In memory of Laurie Freeman aka geocache reviewer "Wizard of Ooze", aka geocacher Half-Canadian and Scooter the Wonder Dog. This geocache was originally placed by her for the enjoyment of the geocaching community.