Well, as it turns out, that canon pad won't be empty too much longer. A 16 inch gun that originally graced the USS Missouri was saved from the scrapheap and it will be making the trip from Hawthone NV to the left coast later this month.
The 120 ton barrel will be making the trip on a rig smaller (?!) than the one that hauled Michael Heizer's 340 ton rock to the LA MOA earlier this year. But the gun's road trip will be three times as long. (311 vs 105 miles). Any way you look at it, that's one helluva road trip.
3 comments:
Man. That's a lot of gun.
Is there a mount that comes with the barrel? Or will the cannon just kind of lay there on the ground?
Wait. Why was that gun position built in California, anyway? In anticipation of a Japanese invasion that never came? And how many gun positions were provided? Just that one (which would be crazy, you'd think)?
OK, I couldn't wait. I read up on Seacoast Defense in the US and checked into Battery Townsley and also Battery Davis nearby. My questions are answered. Except, perhaps, whether the folks moving that cannon to Townsley do in fact have a carriage to mount it on or if they're just going to leave it lying about?
As I understand it, they're building a replica of the carriage on-site and the barrel will be on display outside the casemate until work is completed. This is the same group of volunteers that restored the Nike Missile site just down the hill, and they did a bang-up job on that project.
Not sure a "bang up" job is what you want when paying with missiles and projectiles, but, hey, whatever works!
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