Astoria, OR

Today, we drove on to Astoria, OR, which is up at the tip of the state before you cross over to WA.  We visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum to see all the exhibits of boats and other historical nautical pieces.  It is located on the Columbia Bar where there were lots of shipwrecks because of the extremely rough water there.  This is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean and dangerous currents emerge.  It is a notorious location for many shipwrecks.

We didn't get many pictures taken here as we both were tired of taking pictures and wanted to take in the museum and big boats out on the water.

 
This ship was formerly moored near the mouth of the Columbia River.  Built in 1951, it was the fourth and final lightship stationed at the mouth.  It guided vessels across the Columbia River Bar in an area known as the Graveyard of the Pacific.  This was the final lightship to be decommissioned on the U.S. West coast.  She was replaced by an automated navigational buoy soon after, which has also been retired.  The Columbia was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

 

 

It was hard to imagine what the Coast Guard had to go through, and still go through, to save sailors who fall overboard because of the rough water on the bar.