The mystery ship along the Oregon Coast is drawing thousands of visitors and causing some traffic tie-ups.

Wind, heavy rain and high surf continue to uncover the 35-foot-long bow of a wooden-hulled vessel near Coos Bay.

Storms first revealed the historic treasure last month.

Background: Mystery ship revealed on Oregon Coast

Now Bureau of Land Management officials are trying to keep traffic flowing on and around the beach.

The BLM said there would be no more two-way traffic on the foredune road, and off-road vehicles and street legal vehicles are allowed on the BLM sand roads, but only street-legal vehicles can drive on the beach in the area, according to the Coos Bay World.

Officials said last weekend there were more than 1,400 people checking out the ship.

Historical and Maritime Museum officials told the World they think the vessel was a lumber schooner but its identity has not been positively made yet.

The bow's sides protrude up from the sand below a towering foredune. They're more than a foot thick. Vertical timbers that run through the walls are lined on both sides by planking. All are tied together with iron bars and pins. There appear to be square portholes cut through the sides every six feet or so.

Curved chair-sized ribs rise out of the sand on the insides anchored by more iron bars, but the top deck is gone. It was a two-deck vessel. A schooner at least for a time. But its use is unclear.

Some have speculated the bow is part of the Czarina that foundered on the Coos Bay Bar and drifted north toward Horsfall 98 years ago. But that ship was metal-hulled. Others have suggested it's the lumber-carrying C.A. Smith, which ran aground and broke up at the North Jetty in 1923.

But there may not be much time for on-the-sand research.

Come March 15, the end of the spit, the dry sand portion and upland will be closed for the six-month snowy plover breeding season. There won't be special permits for archaeologists. Come September, they will have the short window before winter to learn all they can about the ship.

"We would appreciate any marine architects with historical knowledge to contact us. It might have been something that was built here, but we don't know," Samuels said.

BLM and Oregon State Parks beach rangers encouraged drivers to check signs for directions and to understand where certain kinds of vehicles are allowed. All-terrain vehicle permits and flagging are required on all vehicles.