The Little Known Truth about Fort Columbia - Harbor Defenses of The Columbia River

We explore Fort Columbia, a U.S. Army fort built in 1896, located at the mouth of the Columbia River in Washington State.
This is the second of a three-episode series on the forts at the mouth of the Columbia River. On this episode of Searching for History, we explore more Pacific Northwest history by visiting the second of three forts that make up the harbor defenses at the mouth of the Columbia River, Fort Columbia. Construction of Fort Columbia began in 1896 and was completed in 1906. However, it was deactivated in 1947. Today, Fort Columbia is a Washington State Park, with a dozen historic wood-framed buildings and four artillery batteries. The most fascinating battery is battery 246, a former Emergency Operation Center for Washington State. Fort Columbia like Fort Canby is on the Washington side of the river, about 10 miles east of Fort Canby along Highway 101, not far from the small town of Chinook. The fort’s southwest aspect allowed the gun batteries to have a strategic view towards the mouth of the Columbia. Join us as we visit Fort Columbia.
Please subscribe to Searching for History: / @searchingforhistory
#abandonedplaces
Music Attributions:
Song 1: To the Top by Silent Partner (TH-cam Audio Library License, no attribution is required)
Song 2: Seasons by Telecasted (TH-cam Audio Library License, no attribution is required)
Image Attribution:
Image 1: FortColumbiaBattery246_Plan.jpg by John Stanton. No changes were made to the image. (Source: www.fortwiki.co..., Creative Commons, creativecommon...)
Image 2: FortColumbiaBattery246 1 Feb 1945.jpg by John Stanton. No changes were made to the image. (Source: www.fortwiki.co..., Creative Commons, creativecommon...)

[@earthandtime5817]

Really interesting. I have visit dad some of the coastal defenses in California and Hawaii, but never saw artillery left. Thanks for the history and sharing.

[@searchingforhistory]

Apparently Battery 246 didnt had its guns installed when the fort was operational. The outer shields were installed but not the actual artillery piece. In hind sight I should have mentioned this in the video but during the 1990s the two guns were obtained by Washington State Parks from two U.S.A. military bases overseas. Washington has more coastal defenses around the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the entrance to Puget Sound. I hope to make videos of those in 2023. Thanks for watching!

[@lukehansberry]

yup visited all 3 of those places back in early 90s someday ill go back my favorite is fort Steven's and Astoria and the goonies and kindergarten cop locations

[@searchingforhistory]

I think Fort Steven's is probably my favorite too. We have Astoria on our list to make a future video. Thanks for watching!