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At one time, Astoria was known as the salmon canning capital of the world and the city was home to countless canneries over the river on wooded pilings. Today, few of the original structures remain and if they do, they are mostly remnants of the once great buildings.
The first image is of the floor of a long forgotten cannery taken on a sunny day in December of 2008. At this point in time, the remaining structure was disconnected from the shore and served primarily as a landing zone for tossed rocks. Surprisingly, given it's age, the majority of the wood is in very good condition.
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The second image was taken in April of 2009 following several winter storms. During one of the storms, a large log floated down river and became lodged between the pilings. As you might expect, the water level of the river rises during the winter months so the log acted as a demolition battering ram.
During a recent walk I noticed that the log is still wedged between the pilings. I wonder how much of the structure will remain in April of 2010?
7 comments:
Steve, I enjoy these bits of history you share about Astoria. I find it to be an interesting place and I wish I'd known more about it when we made a quick drive through in 2008. I hope you follow up on this old cannery next spring. I'll be interested to see what's left of it.
Thanks Earl. The next few days are a series of major storms forcasted for the area so the next update might be sooner than April.
When I read the story and then looked at the top picture, I imagined that the stuff on the platform was the remains of some long forgotten salmon.
It looks like the landscape of this area will change quickly. It looks to have drastically changed in less than a year.
Paul, mabye there are some "rock fish" on the floor. Today it's blowing a gale so I think the next dose of change is pretty close.
Your posts about change in the form of deterioration and decay strike a melancholy note. A natural part of life, but one that comes with a degree of sadness at what is passing and often at such a fast pace. A clear and powerful reason to have those things we can look forward to. Looking back certainly doesn't provide much motivation for getting out of bed in the morning.
Anita, I agree about the past. I think it's better to look forward to the dawn of a new day.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
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