BrunoMado

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Fort Barrett

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Fort Barrett

    Bit of Canadian Homefront history here, I happen to be lucky enough to live in a town with a very vivid history in the second world war. but you won't find my town in any history book, if you ask the local, you will not get much more than a confused look, it seems as if the military history of my town has been all but forgotten in the modern day, save for a few adventurers and sightseers.

    I live in the coastal town of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada's only other pacific port -- The other being Vancouver -- And after the attacks on pearl harbour our eyes were opened to the threat and the town's defenses were built, from artillery batteries to submarine nets we had it all, we even had an armored train running down the rails. Since I've lived here (just over a year now) I've been doing all I can to find out the forgotten history and visit these overgrown, lost and hidden 'ruins' and it seems like the ball is rolling faster than ever as of late, finding more and more information and sites.
    One of my biggest finds was this book (Which has 40+pages online, all about the bunkers,fortifications and whatnot of the area) including what I've never seen before - Period photos!. Now on to my end of the story, What I've seen.

    my first big find was the main fortification Fort Barrett, two searchlights, gun positions and many other buildings, even several underground portions (Which I have not visited, yet, planning an expedition in just a few weeks actually) but here are the photos from my first visit to Barrett Point

    first is one of my favorite buildings


    A look into the lower portion (Where you can see me sit in the above picture)

    The upper section



    one of the gun positions, If I recall correctly I had ran into four of these

    encircled with storage lockers

    Period photo of one


    two of the entrances into the underworld


    -Staircase, not too sure what's blocking the way there. some kind of roof vent I assume.

    and the iron rungs down to the other entrance I found


    one of the larger buildings


    Just to show how thick the walls are on the previously shown building

    still many buildings to visit and photograph from barrett point but I'm on my way.
    Last edited by Ypres Creepers; 04-11-2010, 02:12 PM.

    #2
    Next up: the command post

    Comment


      #3
      Good find thanks for posting. Brian

      Comment


        #4
        Command Post

        Next up is the fortress command post


        this building is a lot easier to access compared to the previous installment (just off the side of a dirt road) and therefor is much more visited making it much less intact but compared to some other locations around town it's actually not too bad.


        you first get in and see this fallen door frame (and let me tell you this thing is huge!)

        here's a shot for scale.
        beyond that there is a bit of a gap between a large mass of dirt and the stairs leading to the floor of the room.

        on my first visit I wasn't quite prepared to crawl through that gap into the lower level, but on my second visit am I ever glad I did.


        this is the upper level, not really much to see at all.

        crawling through the gap lead me to a lower floor infested with shards of broken bricks and one large pile (the one creating the gap between the floors )

        said pile also filled two small rooms


        and now just some shots of the rest of the floor










        For some more detailed pictures and a few extras feel free to check out the post on my blog
        http://ticktock-shellshock.blogspot....-number-2.html (Just click the thumbnails for the full pictures)

        Comment


          #5
          Great pictures. Were these built during the war to counter the Japanese threat or had they been built earlier?

          Comment


            #6
            Hey Ypres this is pretty cool!! i had no idea, maybe ill make a trip up there to check this out!! well there not much military history here in Vancouver ethier, but what is of interest is i was wandering around some old native grounds near UBC on the coast, i found an old ammunition bunker right on the cliffs overlooking the sea, and what looks to be a old arty emplacment, (no guns of course) everythign was sealed up so i couldent get in, but was interesting that you mentioned this, the japaneese invasion threat was very real in BC during ww2.

            *edit
            I also want to add after clicking the link for "prince rupert 39-45" the first picture shown of the round emplacement is EXACTLEY like the one i found near UBC. quite interesting.
            Last edited by bjack; 04-14-2010, 04:54 PM.

            Comment


              #7
              yeah, even the locals don't know the history of the town really, it's cool that you've found some stuff down there too, I'm sure with some research you can find locations of some other things up and down the coastlines.

              The sad thing for me is that I'm moving to the island for college in 4 months or so but in that time I will document as much of the history as I can before I leave

              Comment


                #8
                That's cool! I would love to see the pics if you can get down into the lower level. Who would have thought you'd find an old abondoned bunker from WWII in Canada.LOL!

                Comment

                Users Viewing this Thread

                Collapse

                There are currently 2 users online. 0 members and 2 guests.

                Most users ever online was 10,032 at 08:13 PM on 09-28-2024.

                Working...
                X