Early 2024, during the trip to Arizona with Mark, we saw plenty of planes moving but also a few that won’t be flying again. Mark knew of a bunch of planes on display in the area and we were able to swing by a few of them during our trip. Some were in odd locations – a school would not be a place I expected an A-26 for example. A Veterans center was a more logical one. Old airframes show up in the oddest places. Here are some from our explorations.
The site of the Oso landslide is one we have visited on a couple of occasions, and I have posted some images of the initial memorial that was created. At that time, they were looking for donations to put together a more permanent memorial. To be honest, I don’t think I figured that they would be able to do much, but I was very wrong. They now have built a substantial exhibit to remember the events, the town that was wiped out and the 43 people that died that day.
There is an entrance area which is nicely laid out and then there is a trail that walks through the gardens. Everything is amid grounds that have been populated with wildflowers so, while it has been carefully laid out, it has a very natural feel to it. There are exhibits that talk about the landslide itself along with the hosting of the area and the process for recovery. The most important parts, though, are the individual memorials.
The stories of what happened to people that day are heartbreaking. Those who died and those who survived and all covered along with what happened to them all. Each of the victims is remembered on steel panels set into the ground with the panel reflecting the person or people in their own individual style. The inscriptions and artworks are a reflection of the people they recollect. Some of them are sad to see and others will make you cry. It is a very sad thing to experience but it is also done in such a lovely way that you don’t feel totally hopeless.
The road through Oso takes you up to the North Cascades Highway so it is not totally unlikely that you will find yourself up there, but it is out of the way for most people. If you do end up in this part of Washington, I would definitely recommend you make time to stop off and visit. We ended up spending way more time there than we had anticipated and I am glad we did.
Walking through the old parts of the city of Portsmouth took us by the cathedral. In the grounds there was a memorial to the Women’s Royal Naval Service. Known more commonly as the Wrens, this was the branch of the Navy for the women before everything became more integrated. The top of the memorial is the various types of hats that Wrens wore in service. My gran was a Wren in the war and made friends in the service that stayed with her for the rest of her life. She would go to many reunions.
During our return from the North Cascades Highway earlier this year, we drove past Oso, the site of a terrible landslide. At the time, I didn’t realize where a good place to stop would be but, on a more recent trip up in that area, I decided to stop at the location of the memorial. The Oso Slide made national headlines at the time it happened in 2014 – before we moved to Washington – but it quickly faded from the national headlines. The side of a hill gave way after extensive rain and the nature of the material meant that, rather than sliding gently downhill, it gathered momentum and went a long distance.
A huge amount of the hill gave way, crossed the river and engulfed the small community and the highway on the other side. 43 people died and 11 survived. Given those numbers, it is surprising that it is so little known outside the local area. The river was blocked and caused flooding upstream and a lack of water downstream. It soon cut itself a new path though. The highway needed extensive repairs which took many months to complete. There was nothing that could be done for the people and their homes though. Most were found quickly but it took a while until the last victim was found.
There is a small memorial by the highway. A tree is planted for each of those lost. They each have a story and profiles of them all can be found on the Seattle Times website if you get a chance to look. There is a sculpture of mailboxes of Steelhead Drive, the area that was wiped out. Plans are underway for a more permanent memorial and donations are being accepted.
The hillside itself has a huge scar across it where the land gave way. As is often the case, the scale of it is hard to understand when you are far enough away. Looking closer at the trees around the rim shows you just how big it is and how much material thundered down the hillside. There are mounds all around the valley floor where material piled up after it stopped. To stand in front of it, you are left deeply touched by what happened. Someone else was visiting when we were and he sat on the hood of his car starting up at the hill for many minutes. I was left wondering just what his connection was to the awful events that took place.
The journey to Portsmouth on the ferry is one I have made more times than I can recall and one of the landmarks that is embedded in my mind is the Naval Memorial on the front at Southsea. This obelisk is a clear sign of either arriving or leaving but it is something that I have never actually looked at in any detail. After we departed the Island on our last trip, we stopped off on the seafront at Southsea and walked along to the monument to check it out.
The obelisk is all I had in mind previously, but the memorial is so much more. The original monument was created after the First World War for all the seaman that lost their lives. There are many panels around the column with names and ranks of seamen. Just looking at the different roles of sailors in that era of ships is interesting and to think of them all lost is sobering.
The memorial was expanded after the Second World War. The walls surrounding the tower and the columned end sections were added along with sculptures of sailors. The detail of them is impressive considering how long they have been exposed to the sea air and the Woolly sweaters, boots, beards and hats have a very authentic feel to them. I find it hard to believe I have passed by this memorial all my life and only now did I stop to look and appreciate it.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been under construction for a while including the restoration of the B-52G, Midnight Express that spent many years outside at Paine Field. The opening ceremony took place over the Memorial Day weekend and I went along to check it out. I wrote an article for GAR about the ceremony and, if you want to read that, you can see it here.
The article includes most of the good images from the event so I won’t duplicate it all here but instead I shall just post a couple of shots that summarize what happened.
After our trip around the Legion of Honor, we took a stroll around the grounds by the museum. The majority of the land is taken up with a golf course – a sad use for some great open space in the city – but, as we walked around the sidewalk, there was a sign for a holocaust memorial. We figured we would take a look. We were anticipating some sort of plaque or a wall. We weren’t prepared for what was actually there.
Tucked behind a wall was a sculpture that really made you stop. A solitary figure stood behind a barbed wire fence while many bodies lay on the ground behind him. It was striking. I know I had been anticipating something straightforward so the contrast was marked but, even so, the effect when I first saw the memorial was dramatic. It really struck you hard. I hope the pictures provide even a hint of how effective the memorial was.
Walk around the headland from Sutro Baths and you come to a great view looking across towards the Golden Gate Bridge. Here is located the memorial to the USS San Francisco. The ship was engaged in a vicious battle during the Second World War at Guadalcanal in which her senior officers were killed. The ship survived albeit heavily damaged. When she was scrapped after the war, the wings from the bridge were kept and placed as part of the memorial. They still bear the scars of the rounds that hit the ship during the engagement with the steel holed and twisted in many places.
Of course, Donner Pass and Donner Lake are named for the Donner Party. If you are not familiar with American history, this was a group heading west that got trapped in the pass in winter and many did not make it out alive. Those that survived had to do some harsh things to make it. The tale is a sad one and there is a memorial to the party near one end of the lake at the location in which they camped. There is a visitors’ center and a number of trails. The focal point is a large memorial. The base of the memorial is as high as the snow was reportedly deep that winter. It is a lot of snow! On top is a group of hardy travelers. When you think what people went through to get across the country in those days, they were truly hardy types.
In previous posts about the federal building memorial in Oklahoma City, I talked about how it is lit at night and that I wanted to go back. This I have now managed to do. I showed up around sunset and walked around the whole memorial. I was traveling light so no tripod, only a GorillaPod. This worked fine for most things. I was interested to discover text on the end of the memorial which lit up at night. I had thought it was a blank wall previously.
The subtle lighting across the memorial was very nice. As the sky color faded, I got a bunch of shots, some with quite long exposures which helped to blur out the other visitors of which there were plenty. The gentleness of the scene was what I wanted to convey since it was even more apparent in the dark than during the day, even though it is a calm place then too. That the place feels so peaceful while remembering such a violent event is a tribute to those who created it and maintain it.
