Cape Disappointment State Park

	Cape Disappointment State Park
	Cape disappointment
location	Pacific County in Washington (USA)
surface	794 ha
Geographical location	46 ° 10 ' N , 124 ° 2' W Coordinates: 46 ° 9 '57 " N , 124 ° 1' 58" W
administration	Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission

Cape Disappointment State Park is a State Park in Pacific County in the US state of Washington . The 794-acre park was originally called Fort Canby State Park .

geography

The park is located on the southern tip of the Long Beach Peninsula called Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River . In addition to a large campground, the park has three kilometers of sandy beach, 10 kilometers of additional coastline, the freshwater lakes McKenzie Lagoon and Lake O'Neil , pristine coastal forest, two lighthouses, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and the former coastal fortification Fort Canby .

From 1914 to 1917, a pier was built at Cape Disappointment to fortify the bank into the mouth of the Columbia River. Over the next few decades, land was washed up north of the breakwater, but since the 1950s over 100 hectares of land have been lost to erosion. If the erosion continues, many of the campsite's pitches are threatened.

nature

South side of the Cape Disappointment

The park is covered in dunes, wetlands, and a coastal forest of Sitka spruce , Douglas fir, and Western hemlocks .

The area is especially habitat for numerous species of birds including songbirds such as marsh wrens , Schwarzkopf Kernknacker , dwarf chokes , Sängervireos , Mourning Warbler and Orange spot Warbler , Rotrückenmeisen and Schwarzkopf tits before, also Wilson's snipe , brown pelicans , shelduck , cormorants , Rauchseeschwalben , bald eagles , Bering gulls and western gulls . The park is a resting place for migratory birds such as Gray Plover , Semipalmated Plover and Meadow beach runners . The coasts and lakes are the habitat of the wedge-tailed plover , the yellow thigh , the yellow thigh and the sandpiper .

history

The Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta named Cape San Rogue in 1775 . The English captain John Meares named it Cape Disappointment in 1788 in an unsuccessful search for the Northwest Passage . The cape was the westernmost point the Lewis and Clark expedition reached on November 18, 1805. In 1852 the area was declared a military area, in 1856 the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was built, which is the oldest functioning lighthouse on the US west coast today. During the Civil War in 1862, a coastal battery was built to protect the mouth of the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment. In 1875 this fortification was renamed Fort Canby. The coastal fortifications were used for military purposes until the end of the Second World War. In the 1950s, Fort Canby State Park was opened on the former military site. In 2003 the park was renamed.

Attractions

The park has a large campsite with over 200 parking spaces, a boat ramp and jetty and over 11 km of hiking trails.

Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is showing an exhibit about the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803 to 1806, which ran from Missouri to Cape Disappointment. The center also provides information on the history of the state park, the two lighthouses, Fort Canby and natural history. The building stands on a 60-meter-high cliff above the mouth of the Columbia River in the Pacific Ocean.

Fort Canby

To protect the mouth of the Columbia River from attacks by enemy privateers, guns were set up at the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in 1862. The post strengthened the Fort at Point Adams, later Fort Stevens , on the other side of the Columbia.

In 1864 the wooden barracks were completed and on April 15, 1864 Fort Cape Disappointment was put into service. The fort consisted of three gun batteries, the tower, the left and the center battery, which were protected by earthworks. Some of these fortifications from the civil war are still preserved. In 1875 the fort was renamed Fort Canby after Edward Canby , a US general killed in the war against the Modoc Indians.
Between 1896 and 1908 Fort Canby was expanded as part of the construction program named after the then Secretary of War Endicott and equipped with two batteries with a total of five 15.2 cm guns. Together with Fort Stevens and Fort Columbia , it formed the three forts coastal fortification of the mouth of the Columbia River. The fort was expanded even after the First World War, and in 1921 it received a battery with four 30.5 mortars from Fort Stevens. After the Japanese attack on Fort Stevens in 1942, more guns were deployed and it served as a coastal fort until the end of World War II. In 1947 it was abandoned and the guns were scrapped. Today some bunkers and gun beds still bear witness to the coastal fortification.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Before the lighthouses showed sailors the way, the entry into the Columbia River was very dangerous due to the sandbars in front of the mouth and feared as a ship graveyard of the Pacific . The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse (English Cape Disappointment Lighthouse) was completed in 1856 as an orientation for the entry into the Columbia River. It is 16 meters high and stands on a 67-meter cliff above the Columbia River. It was automated in 1973 and is still used as a navigation signal.

North Head lighthouse

The North Head Lighthouse (English North Head Lighthouse) was completed in 1898. It was built because ships calling the Columbia from the north could not see the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. The 20 meter high tower was built by engineer CW Leick and stands on a basalt rock 58 meters above sea level. The North Head lighthouse is considered to be the second windiest lighthouse in the USA. On January 29, 1921, a wind speed of over 200 km / h was measured before the instruments were blown away. The lighthouse still serves as a navigation signal today, but can be visited.