Just off the Salmon Creek trail, on the south side in the woods, about even with Northwest 19th Avenue, give or take a few hundred yards, there is this huge hulking wreck of a vehicle. It’s maybe 30 feet long and on its side in kind of a gulch. Based on the rust and moss, it looks like it has been there for decades. It could be part of a bus, a semitrailer or maybe even some once-amphibious vehicle. I have walked that trail hundreds of times for years and never saw that thing until today.
What is it? How did it get there and when? Why is it still there?
Inquiring minds want to know!
—Steve Foster, North Salmon Creek Neighborhood
That’s quite the find, Steve. After getting your e-mail, I decided to trek up the trail and look for myself, hence the photo. Unfortunately, there isn’t much information available on that thing.
I queried Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation about the mysterious rusting object and was referred to Brian Potter, the organization’s resource program coordinator.
He said that folks looked into it a few years back — neighbors brought it to the county’s attention in 2007 — but they don’t have much information about what it is.
“That thing predates most of us in that office,” he said.
He suggested the item is probably some form of “car hauler” trailer, but he has no info on how it got there or how long it has been there.
It is safe to say the object has been resting a few yards off the trail for at least 20 to 30 years, because the county bought much of the Salmon Creek Greenway property in the 1980s and 1990s, Potter said.
From the 1920s into the 1970s, the Salmon Creek bottoms were mined for gravel by Harry Klineline and others. Some of the H-shaped poles used to support a gravel-dredging bucket and drag line are still visible along the trail. It’s not known if the rusty object is related to the gravel mining, however.
The object will probably remain in its current location for quite some time. A contractor estimates it would cost somewhere between $4,000 and $5,000 to remove it, Potter said.
“At this point, it isn’t cost effective for taxpayers to have it removed,” Potter said. “There never has been a large public outcry to have it pulled out of the greenway.”
The county determined that the hulk wasn’t causing any damage to the surrounding area, and removing it would probably do more harm than good. If there was a safety or environmental issue, the county would spend the money to remove it, but Potter said for the time being, scarce money is better spent elsewhere.
If any neighbors or groups felt especially motivated to remove the object, Potter said, the county would be willing to consider working with them to remove it piece by piece.
— Paul Suarez
