Guest
I offer this for your viewing amusement...and a bit of history.
Below is a civil war, 7-8" solid shot 50lb+ ball that came from Ft. Stevens, on the mouth of the Columbia river, it now resides in my wifes flower bed.
The original earthwork fort was constucted during the early part of the C.W. to protect the mouth of the Columbia river from attack and invasion from the Conferderate navy. It was later rebuilt with modern guns for WWI and then again in WWII it was fitted with even larger artillery for coastal defense. It also has the distinction of being the only military installation to be fired upon in the continental U.S. during that war, when a Japanese submarine surfaced and lobbed a few deck gun shells towards them. All missed and there are some markers indicating where they landed in the forest, some are 1/2 mile away. Nice shooting guys :shocking:
Anyway.... they used to have stacked pyramids of these at several locations around the fort and one day in the 1950's some kids managed to dislodge one of the stacks and down came some of the balls, one narrowly missing the post comanders wife. He issued orders that day to dismantle all the stacks and dump them into the Columbia off one of the nearby piers. Some of the soldiers managed to stash a few as keepsakes and the rest, several dozen, were dumped.
A few years ago this story resurfaced and someone hired a local diver to try to locate some of the lost relics for the now Ft. Stevens state park museum. I belive only a couple were located, the rest probably sank too deep in the shifting sands or rolled away with the strong river currents.
The soldier that rescued my particular souvenier was a little old man my wife had taken care of in his last years and the family had no interest in any of his possesions after he had passed away. They hadn't spoken to him in 20 yrs. and were only wanting the money from the sale of his house and land in Astoria.
Now taking a hit from one of these would really ruin anybodys day :winking:
Below is a civil war, 7-8" solid shot 50lb+ ball that came from Ft. Stevens, on the mouth of the Columbia river, it now resides in my wifes flower bed.
The original earthwork fort was constucted during the early part of the C.W. to protect the mouth of the Columbia river from attack and invasion from the Conferderate navy. It was later rebuilt with modern guns for WWI and then again in WWII it was fitted with even larger artillery for coastal defense. It also has the distinction of being the only military installation to be fired upon in the continental U.S. during that war, when a Japanese submarine surfaced and lobbed a few deck gun shells towards them. All missed and there are some markers indicating where they landed in the forest, some are 1/2 mile away. Nice shooting guys :shocking:
Anyway.... they used to have stacked pyramids of these at several locations around the fort and one day in the 1950's some kids managed to dislodge one of the stacks and down came some of the balls, one narrowly missing the post comanders wife. He issued orders that day to dismantle all the stacks and dump them into the Columbia off one of the nearby piers. Some of the soldiers managed to stash a few as keepsakes and the rest, several dozen, were dumped.
A few years ago this story resurfaced and someone hired a local diver to try to locate some of the lost relics for the now Ft. Stevens state park museum. I belive only a couple were located, the rest probably sank too deep in the shifting sands or rolled away with the strong river currents.
The soldier that rescued my particular souvenier was a little old man my wife had taken care of in his last years and the family had no interest in any of his possesions after he had passed away. They hadn't spoken to him in 20 yrs. and were only wanting the money from the sale of his house and land in Astoria.
Now taking a hit from one of these would really ruin anybodys day :winking: