the Graveyard of the Pacific
I really wanted to tell a ghost story in honor of the season but was...gravely disappointed in what little I came across so instead, a very Reader's Digest history on the naval disasters at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Bermuda Triangle's got nothing on this tumultuous stretch of sea, but there is nothing supernatural about it. The river is the terminus of 60 large tributaries including the Snake, Kootenay, Spokane, Cowlitz rivers to name a few and the sediment is carried into the pacific at a rate of 265,000 cu ft/s, it looks like a flat waterfall at that point. Some 2,000 ships have wrecked in these treacherous waters and so in 1856 the oldest lighthouse in Washington was erected and yet it wasn't enough as those approaching from the north could not see it so North Head, seen here, was built some two miles North. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains a large base there as many vessels to this day encounter grave difficulties.
I have a more pedestrian pic of North Head and I'll give y'all the particulars on this beauty then.
the Graveyard of the Pacific
I really wanted to tell a ghost story in honor of the season but was...gravely disappointed in what little I came across so instead, a very Reader's Digest history on the naval disasters at the mouth of the Columbia River. The Bermuda Triangle's got nothing on this tumultuous stretch of sea, but there is nothing supernatural about it. The river is the terminus of 60 large tributaries including the Snake, Kootenay, Spokane, Cowlitz rivers to name a few and the sediment is carried into the pacific at a rate of 265,000 cu ft/s, it looks like a flat waterfall at that point. Some 2,000 ships have wrecked in these treacherous waters and so in 1856 the oldest lighthouse in Washington was erected and yet it wasn't enough as those approaching from the north could not see it so North Head, seen here, was built some two miles North. The U.S. Coast Guard maintains a large base there as many vessels to this day encounter grave difficulties.
I have a more pedestrian pic of North Head and I'll give y'all the particulars on this beauty then.