Big Betsy
Posted by: 
Volcanoguy
N 46° 16.693 W 124° 03.222
10T E 418819 N 5125499
Sign near Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment S.P., Washington.
Waymark Code: WM10KK
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 12/03/2006
Views: 35
This sign is located at Big Betsy gun platform on edge of northern gun emplacement of Battery Harvey Allen below the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center.
Marker Name: Big Betsy
Marker Text: These granite blocks are from the gun platform of Fort Canby’s 15-inch Rodman cannon. Nicknamed “Big Betsy”, this gun was the largest of the fort’s muzzle loading cannons. During the Civil War, the big, smoothbore gun sat behind earth mounds just west of the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. To aim the gun, the barrel pivoted on the center pin, while the back turned on an outer track. Because the blast would rattle the lighthouse windows, Big Betsy was seldom fired from this position. In 1906 the Rodman was scrapped, and the granite blocks were dumped into the brush behind the battery.