Fort Columbia Historical State Park
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Fort Columbia Historical State Park
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 Battery Ord |
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| location | Pacific County in Washington (USA) | |
| surface | 240 ha | |
| Geographical location | 46 ° 16 ' N , 123 ° 55' W | |
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| administration | Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission | |
Fort Columbia Historical State Park is a 240 hectare State Park in Chinook in the US state of Washington . The state park includes the grounds of the historic Fort Columbia coastal fortification .
history
The Fort Columbia property belonged to the Chinook Indians and was home to Chief Comcomly . Fort Columbia was built as a coastal fortification as part of the construction program named after then Secretary of War Endicott . As a complement to Fort Stevens and Fort Canby , it was built on the north bank of the Columbia River from 1896 to 1904 . Together with the other two forts, it formed the coastal fortification of the mouth of the Columbia River. The fort served as a military facility until 1947, when it was abandoned and served as a state park since 1950.
investment
The small but strategically important fort was built on a hill at Chinook Point , which offers an unobstructed view and field of fire over the Columbia Estuary. The main battery, called Battery Ord, was built in 1898 and consisted of three 8 inch guns. In 1917 the guns were sent to the Western Front in France and were not reinstalled after the end of the war. Other batteries were Battery Murphy with two 15.2 cm guns and Battery Crenshaw with three 7.6 cm guns, which should cover, among other things, the mine barriers to be created in Columbia in the event of a defense. Fort Columbia took over the task of mining the mouth of the Columbia in a defense case from Fort Stevens in 1937. For this purpose, a mine bunker was built on the banks of the Columbia. After the attack on Fort Stevens in 1942, a new gun emplacement, Battery 246, was built with two 6 inch guns.
Current condition
Fort Columbia is one of the few largely preserved coastal fortifications in the United States. Twelve historic wooden buildings of the fort still stand on the site today. Then there are the gun emplacements and the associated bunkers. Battery 246 was again provided with two guns in 1994, which come from another coastal fortification, but are identical to the guns previously set up in Fort Columbia. The Highway 101 passes through a tunnel under the State Park along.
literature
- Marge Mueller, Ted Mueller: Washington State Parks: a Complete Recreation Guide. Mountaineers Books, Seattle, 2004, ISBN 978-0-89886-642-1
- Hanft, Marshall, The Cape Forts: Guardians of the Columbia, Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland OR, 1973, 2nd reprint, 2003, ISBN 0-87595-044-2