We checked into Fort Stevens State Park RV park. It's the largest of the Oregon State Parks and is full of interesting things to see and do. We took a walk on the beach to scout the clamming possibilities - but more about that later. The beach is wide and peaceful - and boasts the Peter Iredale shipwreck. It's the rusted remains of an English saliling ship that ran aground during a storm in 1906. It just screams to have it's picture taken...
up close...
...and personal...
...in all its barnacled glory. I think the beauty is in the isolation on the beach.
We had to photograph this young girl and her dog digging together. What is it about children and beaches...add a dog and it's magical.
This has been our first foray into Oregon's State Park system - and we've been
quite impressed.
Everything here, except good phone service and wi-fi. :-( Even the beach is part of the park.
Fort Clatsop Lewis and Clark National Historical Park is in the area.
Ed's girlfriend is Sacagawea. She was the indian woman who traveled with
Lewis and Clark.
This entire area is a rainforest. The lushness still amazes us.
The Corps of Discovery wintered here in 1805. The original replica lasted 50 years, burned down in 2005 and was rebuilt as it was from Clark's plans. It was named after the local Indians.
It's surprisingly small, but it kept them warm and alive with help from the indians.
The film in the Visitor's Center was excellent and provided all the background on the expedition.
Seaside is a little town on the ocean about 10 miles from the campground and slightly more from Fort Clatsop. It's where the Lewis and Clark party set up the Saltworks. Salt was lifeline to preserving meat and fish.
Seaside's Historical Society has preserved the site. Very simple: Hot rocks boiling sea water in pots 24 hours a day. What surprised us was how far it is from Fort Clatsop.
We took Finn and walked a long distance on the boardwalk to the center of town where this statue faces the ocean.
It's a statue of William Clark and Meriweather Lewis. Ed has a special fascination with this historic event. He sees it as an amazing expedition with incredible perservance and discipline. These were hand picked mostly military men. There were no mutinys, no reported issues, and ALL made it safely home! It was the first of many truely scientific expeditions to explore America. Little known fact - Lewis was secretary to Thomas Jefferson and Clark was Lewis' friend and commanding officer in the military.
Art Deco is still alive in Seaside...and we knew exactly when it was going strong.
We drove into Astoria to check it out. We stopped at the Rusty Cup for some java. We noticed an interesting old vaudeville theater in the downtown area. While partaking of our coffee a woman came in to get some lunch. She turned around, asked us if we had noticed the theater next door and said, "Want to see the inside?" Turns out she is the general director. We picked up our cups and walked next door. She unlocked the door, turned on the lights, and gave us a tour from stage center.
The Liberty Theater is still in the throes of restoration. It had a few incarnations in the 70's and 80's, but is almost back to its former glory and it's beautiful. Rosemary described it as an "atmospheric" house - being Venetian in design. (Remember all the Egyptian and Romanesque theaters of the era?)
Here we are Center Stage. There are just over 600 seats. Since we arrived the first weekend of the annual month long classical musical festival in Astoria, we're going to try out a couple of those seats on Sunday afternoon. This was really a special treat!
We were told not to miss the Astoria Column.
Ed climbed the 164 stairs to the top. Finn was not allowed to go up, so I stayed on the ground to take this stunning photo of Ed.
The column was dedicated in 1926, underwritten by Great Northern and Vincent Astor. It sits at the top of Coxcomb Hill on 30 acres with a commanding view of all around it.
The carvings are a summary of the major events in the opening of the west. Ed reminded me that we saw the Emperor Tragen Column in Rome. The Astoria Column mirrors the Roman one.
The view from the site is wonderful. It overlooks the town of Astoria and bridge to Washington and Cape Disappointment. The confluence of the Pacific and the Columbia River is 10 miles out. The National Transportion and Safety Agency declared this bar a hazardous area in 1977. It's the only area with this designation in the U.S. All ships going in and out must have a Bar Pilot on board.
Next stop in Astoria - the Columbia River Maritime Museum.
It's an outstanding museum covering the local maritime history.
This is a model of the Battleship Oregon, used in the 1898 War with Spain.
This museum has a beautiful collection of scale model ships.
We were able to walk into this captains bridge from a Fletcher WWII destroyer.
A mid-19th century whaling ship.
A 16th century ship, the Hind, that explored America.
There's a beautiful scrimshaw display, Yarn winders haven't changed at all, but they aren't made of whalebone anymore.
The Lightship Columbia is part of the Maritime Museum. We were able to go all through her. The museum volunteer on duty, Bob, was a wealth of information having spent more than 30 years as a volunteer. He sensed Ed's interest and spent quite a bit of time talking with us.
This ship was a lighthouse. She was anchored 5 miles out and the crew came to her. She was taken out of service and replaced by the floating lights like the one in the front of her. She served almost 50 yrs.
While we were there, Bob pointed out 2 grainships - one from Japan. They go up the Columbia River picking up grain. They were very high in the water indicating they were empty.
Fort Stevens was a military fort to protect the Columbia River basin from attacks. The concern was that during the Civil War, Canada or Great Britain would take advantage of the conflict back
East or attempt to settle old scores in the Pacific Northwest. It was established in 1862 and kept in operation until 1947. It's heydays were during WWII when the Oregon coast was attacked by a Japanese light bomber which took off from a submarine. There were other attempts to bomb the West coast by the Japanese using helium balloons. But, we knew all about helium bombers being from the balloon captial of the world. ;-)
East or attempt to settle old scores in the Pacific Northwest. It was established in 1862 and kept in operation until 1947. It's heydays were during WWII when the Oregon coast was attacked by a Japanese light bomber which took off from a submarine. There were other attempts to bomb the West coast by the Japanese using helium balloons. But, we knew all about helium bombers being from the balloon captial of the world. ;-)
When we arrived at the museum, there were Civil War reenactors preparing to fire cannons. The first was a brass Napaleon light cannon. I made friends with one of the officers and was rewarded with a front row seat.
The large cannon was fired later in the day, but we weren't there. All the reenactors looked at this photo and were impressed that it captured the smoke from the priming port as well on the front.
I went off to work on this blog (!) and Ed returned to visit the rest of the site and small museum.
The fort is about 1/4 mile long. The section houses a retracting cannon that is visible on the right. It was designed in the late 19th century to fire over the parapets of the fort and retract for reloading. It completely protected the occupants.
Here's a close-up of it in the retracted position.
The gun was called the Battery Pratt.
There's a working model in the museum showing the firing sequence and sweeping motion of the gun.
This photo was taken from the top of the parapets of the fort and in front of Battery Pratt facing the Columbia River. This is the area they covered.
Tomorrow: Washington state!
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