6.11.2012

A Little (Big) Piece of History

Nathan has Mondays off work, so today he took advantage of the nice weather and took a motorcycle ride to the coast.  He rode to Waldport first, and then up to Agate Beach in Newport to take a look at a piece of history that washed up on the shore there last week.

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For those who may not have heard, last week a gigantic concrete and steel dock from Japan washed up at Agate Beach.  It is 19 feet wide, 7 feet high, and 66 feet long.  According to MSNBC, it is the largest piece of tsunami debris to reach the US so far (most of the debris is not anticipated to arrive until winter).  When it got here, they tested it for radiation and found none.  Since then, it has become quite the tourist attraction. 

Nathan said there were a ton of people at the beach today, and that there was a constant stream of people walking to and from the dock.  They have state park employees out there to make sure people don’t climb on it (that is the white truck in the third picture).  Nathan said that was probably a good thing, because even as an adult he was tempted to climb on it.  He and his friend overheard the parks employee telling someone that the way they tested for radiation was by scraping pieces off of the side of the dock.  Nathan didn’t touch it (despite what the scientists say, it’s still hard to shake that fear of radiation lurking in the back of your mind), but sort of wishes he had.  He didn’t see the plaque with Japanese writing on it, otherwise he would have taken a picture of that.

For a little perspective on just how big the dock is, he took this picture with people standing next to it (hello, random tourists!  thanks for visiting my blog!).

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It may not be quite as large as the freighter that got beached off of Coos Bay in 1999, nor as entertaining as the Oregon Highway Division’s botched disposal of the dead whale in Florence in 1970.  But it is still a piece of Oregon Coast history nonetheless, and I think it’s pretty cool that Nathan got to see it up close.

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