Day trip

Fort Stevens

Oregon State Park

Oregon is not well-known for its role in any of the wars that impacted our country. Battle scars, historical plaques, and memorial cemeteries don’t dot the landscape as they do in states like Virginia or Massachusetts. But history buffs, especially those seeking our military past, can find their place at Fort Stevens State Park. Families of history buffs, who may not want to trace the routes of war, can find plenty of other activity on this road trip.

As the day closes take a casual stroll along the beach and look for the historic shipwreck that casts its eerie shadows and provides a perfect backdrop for some ghost stories.

As the name implies, there is a fort, an earthen fort, on-site that served to protect the mouth of the Columbia River from the Confederates and even the British Navy during the Civil War. That’s right. Oregon was alert and prepared for action in the Civil War, and in fact, the Fort is named for Union Army General Isaac I. Stevens. Who knew?

From that early start, Fort Stevens served as a military watch-post during the Spanish-American War, and World Wars I and II. While it wasn’t a hotbed of military action, the fort is the only military fort in the country to be fired upon by an enemy since the War of 1812. It was attacked by a Japanese submarine in 1942.