Today, we commemorate the wreck of the sailing cargo ship Oriole, which sank 168 years ago Saturday on the the Columbia River Bar. She was carrying the materials to build the Cape Disappointment lighthouse.
We’ll hear an account from Long Beach Peninsula historian Frank Lehn about what happened to that ill-fated ship (her crew and captain were saved by the quick thinking of her bar pilot, the famous Captain George Flavel).
And we’ll talk about how the region has changed since sailing cargo ships plied its waters, and how  it still remains one of the most dangerous river entrances in the world.
[Note: image courtesy of the Columbia River Bar Pilots. The buoy is about 16 feet high, so those waves are mighty big!]