Shipwreck & Mushrooms at Fort Stevens

Well I'm back online and the trip is complete but now I'll have a blog or two to catch up. I'll start at Fort Stevens on the northern Oregon Coast.

The first stop was at "The Shipwreck"

"The "Peter Iredale" was an oceangoing ship that was wrecked near the mouth of the Columbia River in the early part of the century. The wreck can still be seen at low tide. "

Unfortunately the tide was not very low but I managed to get some good pictures. These are a few of them.


A little later we came across the wildlife viewing bunker.


To my surprise it wasn't the wildlife but the mushrooms along the way to the bunker.

They were all over along the walkway to the bunker.

The bunker was pretty cool...


and the view was great.


So we headed back to the parking lot.


At the other end of the walkway I started off into the woods looking for mushrooms to shoot. The first one was a drab brown variety.

Then there were the more numerous orange and white variety.

This was the most unusual color combination.


I liked these inverted mushrooms that caught the moisture.


They were all over...

Bright and colorful.

This was the only mushroom of this variety a beautifully understated lavender on grey.

I thought this was the cutest.

Until I saw another with a wig of pine needles

Then we actually arrived at the Fort at Fort Stevens State Park. This is a lower bunker.

This is my John Ford -through the window- picture of Scrabble queen reading the information sign.

"Fort Stevens was the primary military defense installation in the three fort Harbor Defense System at the mouth of the Columbia River (Forts Canby and Columbia in Washington were the other two). The fort served for 84 years, beginning with the Civil War and closing at the end of World War II. Today, Fort Stevens has grown into a 3,700 acre park offering exploration of history, nature and recreational opportunities."

Inside the bunker you could see the ageing and that there has been nothing done beyond clearing it out and some over painting of graffiti. Still it was fascinating to see the stark age of the concrete.

The walls were very thick as can be seen here in the upper main fort area.

I'm not sure but I think the two pits like this one were where the huge guns were mounted.

Then it was back downstairs.

...and into another concrete cavern.

Fort Stevens is very picturesque but has another distinction.

"The fort was shelled during World War II by a passing Japanese submarine, which makes it, incredibly, the only military installation on the mainland US to have been fired on by a foreign power since 1812."

Scrabble Score ~

Scrabble Queen 336 - The Contender 362 I get lucky when I blog *wink* or only blog when I'm lucky

Quote of the Day ~

"Serve the classes, live with the masses. Serve the masses, live with the classes. " ~ John Jacob Astor

(born Johann Jakob or Johann Jacob Astor) (July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first millionaire in the United States. He was the creator of the first trust in America, from which he made his fortune in fur trading, real estate, and opium.

The town of Astoria (Originally Fort Astoria) was named after Astor and The Columbia River trading post at Fort Astoria (established in April 1811) was the first United States community on the Pacific coast. He financed the overland Astor Expedition in 1810-12 to reach the outpost. Members of the expedition were to discover South Pass through which hundreds of thousands settlers on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails passed through the Rocky Mountains.

Tomorrow - The other fort - Fort Clatsop and The Maritime Museum in Astoria.