Thursday, August 09, 2007
We spent the day at Fort Stevens State Park, what a great day. Fort Stevens was originally commissioned as a Civil War fortification in 1863 and has a fascinating military history. During the Civil War the Union soldiers used it as a fort the only one on the West Coast. From the Civil War to the end of WWII the fort stood guard over the mouth of the Columbia River. During WWII on June 21, 1942 an offshore Japanese submarine fired 17 shells at the fort, no damages or injuries occurred.
We first stopped to check out the Peter Iredale shipwreck, a 278 foot British vessel that ran aground in 1906. All that is left is a few rusty and barnacled ribs.
We spent a few hours at the south jetty looking for sea and shore birds. Saw a two new life birds, the Red-throated Loon and Marbled Murrelette. Laying on the Beach below us was a dead seal, at first it looked like a rock, I hiked over to the beach to verify if it was just sleeping or if it had died.
We went to Kim’s here in Warrenton for dinner tonight, Jim had calamari and I had halibut, both servered with chips and asparagus, the food was excellent.