Lily Pad Travels: Fort Stevens

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Fort Stevens

July 1st, 2016

Fort Stevens is very close to our campground so we went exploring. There is a nice campground at Fort Stevens as well but we could only get in for a couple of days and so decided to stay at Camp Rilea instead.

Our first stop was Battery Russell. We always get instantly swept back in time when we explore these old forts. This one was a little the worse for wear and you had to watch your step.

I'm about to go down a circular staircase to the tunnels below.

I'm peeking in at Bryan and telling him he looked like a dog begging.

See what I mean!!!!!!

The way the walls have weathered over the years and the different colors that have formed is quite interesting.

This Battery was smaller than some we have seen but we understand there's a bigger one on the other side of the Fort.

The next place we stopped at was the beach. We wanted to see the Wreck of the Peter Iredale. The ship was forced ashore by high seas and winds and got stuck in the sand on October 25th, 1906. The crew were all rescued and before she could be towed back out to sea she became firmly embedded in the sand. She was sold for scrap and all that remains are the bow, a few ribs and a couple of masts. She has been here over 100 years.

Supposedly Captain Lawrence's final toast to his ship was "May God bless you, and may your bones bleach in the sands"

I was amazed that this shipwreck is still here after all these years.

Next we went to the Jetty Observation Tower at Clatsop Spit. These birds were nesting under the tower.

We walked to a wildlife viewing center.

I was the only wildlife Bryan got a picture of.

Trestle Bay - The remains of the trestles that were built to allow trains to transport building materials to build the jetty.

Is this a sign of wildlife???

A tree on the beach!!!!

We eventually reached the military museum

There are newspaper clippings of the Japanese Submarine Attack that took place in 1942

and an original letter written the next day recalling the attack.

I always spend more time reading the original items that anything else in museums. It is fascinating to me reading how people were reacting back then. I love old letters and find it a little sad that these have now been replaced by electronic means, even though electronic means is far more efficient. I still have the letters Bryan & I wrote to each other while he was deployed during the Gulf War.

Battery Pratt Command Center

Battery Pratt

Kilroy!!

Rails for cradles to transport ammo to the guns

There were several young children running around the battery and although I can imagine how much fun it is for them running through the tunnels I can not understand their parents letting them run so far away from them that they are out of sight and hearing. It is also dark in a lot of the areas and the floor is uneven so not particularly safe. Anyway, a little boy came running through here and stopped when he saw us. I asked him if he knew what the tracks on the roof were for and he said No, so Bryan explained them to him. He looked amazed and I'm not sure if he believed him or not but you could tell his mind was working imagining the ammo being moved. He ran back out and we saw him catch up with his father and tell him about the tracks. I thought afterwards that I probably shouldn't have spoken to him as I could have scared him. It's such a shame the times we live in that we have to be so wary of everything and everyone.