History Pub

Enjoy Old St. Francis History Pub at McMenamins on Feb. 25th.  Subject is:  Thunder Go North:  The Hunt for Sir Francis Drake’s Fair and Good Bay.  This presentation unravels the mysteries surrounding Sir Francis Drake’s famous voyage and summer sojourn in an unknown bay on the West Coast.  Comparing Drake’s observations of the Natives’ houses, dress, foods, language, and lifeways with ethnographic material collected by early anthropologists, Melissa Darby makes a compelling case that Drake and his crew landed not in California but on the Oregon coast.  She also uncovers the details of how an early twentieth-century hoax succeeded in maintaining the California landing theory and silencing contrary evidence.  Doors open at 6pm and most History Pubs fill to capacity fast.  Program will start at 7pm but you can enjoy food and beverages in Father Luke’s Room prior.

About the Speaker:  Melissa Darby is a visiting research scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Portland State University and a private consultant in cultural resource management. She has worked for over thirty years as an archaeologist and historian in the Northwest and is a noted authority on the ethnohistory of the Native people of western Oregon.