Fort Columbia

We visited Fort Columbia in Chinook WA.  When this fort was built between 1896 and 1906 it was in such a remote location they had to build quite an infrastructure to house the military members. They built houses, a hospital, firehouse and power generator.  The men stationed here were not just soldiers but bakers, barbers and gardeners. The fort was the largest community in the area.

This is a picture of the houses and administration buildings. They are available for summer rentals. 

This is the view looking back at Cape Disappointment  on the north side of the river.

They also had batteries here to protect the mouth of the Columbia.  This is the battery Crenshaw, it was built in 1900 and have three rapid fire 3 inch guns mounted. The guns were taken out after World War II because they became obsolete due the increase in aircraft during the war effort.

The guns that were supposed to be placed here never were,  They guns were already obsolete before they put them in. These guns are actually from the US Navel facility in Argenta, Newfoundland. They were installed in 1993 as they were identical of the guns that were supposed to be installed. This is one of only 6 remaining guns of this kind in the world.  Of course they are unusable.

We did find a little patch down to the ocean and managed to find a few rocks. I tried to convince Len that we need to take home this tree root for garden art but it wouldn't fit in the truck.