Fort Stevens National Cemetery is one of the smaller units under the jurisdiction of the Veterans Administration. One of the newest units, the cemetery transferred over from the Army in 2020. Although one of the smallest cemeteries within the National Cemetery system, there still are openings for new burials.
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A short trail winds through the forest and down the hill from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. It connects to the road ascending from the Cape Disappointment Coast Guard Station on the Baker Bay (east) side of the headland on which the lighthouse sits.
Earlier posts included information about the lighthouse, the old artillery fort – Fort Canby – on which the Coast Guard station sits today, and a little about the evolution of the Coast Guard mission at the mouth of the Columbia River.
Continue readingThe Life-Saving Service had a long impact on the new Coast Guard in terms of drills and rescue organization for many years. With even better equipment, helicopters, better boats, better training, the Coast Guard has continued to build on the service of their forebears in the Life-Saving Service serving the mariners of Oregon.
Now, life saving, falling into the category of search and rescue today, is an important function of the Coast Guard, especially along the coast of Oregon. But it is only one of many jobs tackled by the Coasties – smuggling interdiction, law enforcement, navigation aids are all some of the other many jobs the Coast Guard is entrusted with.
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Lighthouses were one thing to keep mariners safe as they traveled along the Pacific Coast, in and out of harbors and river bars. When they were not enough, a newer organization in Oregon appeared, the Life-Saving Service.
The official US Life-Saving Service got its start in 1878, though an ad-hoc arrangement went back further to 1848 when a series of unmanned stations, run by volunteers – similar to volunteer fire departments – existed along the coasts of New Jersey and Massachusetts. Without full-time employees, no organization or standardization of equipment or men, the results were middling at best.
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In case you did not read my last post about southern Oregon lighthouses, I will repeat some of the basic history leading to the lighthouses of north Oregon.
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