Treachery Of The Columbia Bar

The mouth of the Columbia River is located about 10 miles west of Astoria, Oregon. It is where the Columbia River meets the ocean, forming a wide estuary that stretches for several miles along the coast. The river’s mouth is one of the most hazardous stretches of water to navigate in the world due to the shifting sandbar that makes up the Columbia Bar. The mouth of the Columbia is unusual for a big river because it has no delta. The Columbia River does not have a delta because it changes direction near Portland, Oregon, and heads north instead of westward toward the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, powerful waves and currents in the ocean prevent the sediment from forming a delta. This also makes that area quite treacherous for ships going in and out.

Since 1800 the coastal stretch from Tillamook Bay into Vancouver Island, which includes the mouth of the Columbia River and the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, has claimed over 2,000 vessels and possibly as many as 1,000 lives. The interplay of river flow and offshore currents produced a constantly shifting sandbar at the mouth of the Columbia River, posing a significant navigational hazard. In addition, fog and violent North Pacific weather systems, as well as sheer misfortune often led to ships foundering, burning, or being wrecked against the shore. During the California Gold Rush, when sailing ships and steamers transported lumber to California, mariners began referring to the area as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Light houses, lightships, buoys, as well as audible and electronic beacons assisted mariners in locating the Columbia’s entrance, while navigational improvements such as jetties and a dredged channel reduced major disasters after the 1920s. Unfortunately, the sea continues to claim lives annually.

The mouth of the Columbia and the near-shore areas to the north and south are littered with shipwrecks. That area alone has more than 330 known shipwrecks. Some, like the Peter Iredale, which ran aground on the Oregon shore south of the river in 1906, are visible to this day. The skeleton of the Peter Iredale still stands like a decrepit old house, except that this one doesn’t seem to be crumbling. It has, of course, but for a shipwreck that is almost 120 years old, it has really deteriorated quite slowly. I suppose that is a tribute to how well ships are built. Nevertheless, even an expertly built ship is not always a match for the Columbia Bar.