HENRY BOWLBY – FLYING BISCUITS TO THE COLUMBIA

The two Samuel’s – Hill and Lancaster – get all of the attention for the building of the Columbia River highway in the Gorge where the mighty river bores through the Cascades Range. The highway project proposed by Sam Hill included a highway from Portland downriver to the ocean at Astoria. Enter Henry Lee Bowlby.

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AMERICA REMEMBERED ON ISLAY, TORPEDOED VICTIMS OF THE GREAT WAR

America standing high on the cliffs of Islay.

The Setting

High above the cold, wind-driven waves of the Irish Sea, sitting atop rocky vertical cliffs on a southern peninsula with the odd name of the Mull of Oa on the Scottish island of Islay, a forgotten stone monument fashioned in the shape of a lighthouse.  The American Red Cross erected the monument in 1920 to honor the memory of those who died in two separate troopship sinkings – the Tuscania and the Otranto – off the coast of Islay.  Designed by a Glasgow architect as a monumental cairn recognizing the importance of those dead in the cold waters off Islay. Most who see the monument see a lighthouse peering into the dark and icy seas. America intertwined with Islay.

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