Battery Pratt Restoration Project
CDSG Member Jack Buckmeir has been working at an ambitious project to restore Battery Pratt, a circa 1900s seacoast artillery battery at Fort Stevens State Park, Oregon, to “active status.” With the help of the Friends of Old Fort Stevens (FOOFS), Fort Stevens State Park, the Oregon National Guard at Camp Rilea, and valuable technical assistance from CDSG members, Jack has built a working full-scale replica of one of the 6-inch disappearing guns once installed in the battery.
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- Battery Pratt, July 2008
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- 1930s Signal Corps picture of a drill at one of Battery Pratt’s 6-inch guns.
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- Battery Pratt circa 1920s
Ft. Stevens was very fortunate to recruit John Hofbauer, a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer with years of Navy boilermaking and metalworking experience, to do some restoration on the galleries of Bty. Pratt. Below are some pictures so you can see the beautiful results of John’s work.
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- 2010 Repairing the doors of Battery Pratt
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- 2010 Refurbishing the light fixtures at Battery Pratt
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- Battery Pratt June 2008
Jack Buckmeir May, 2001
The Friends of Old Fort Stevens (FOOFS) had this 200 lb. Parrott Rifle built locally out of steel. The bore is 8 inches and the rifle is fired with a salute charge with a spring recoil mechanism that pulls the rifle back the length of the carriage to simulate recoil. FOOFS expended $2000 for the rifle tube and $2500 for the carriage. This is one of a series planned to be built to completely re-arm the Ft. Stevens Earthworks. Next on the list will be a 15-inch Rodman and carriage.
In the summer of 2004, a interpretive replica emplacement was built near the museum for the 200 lb. Parrott Rifle. FOOFS named the emplacement Bty. Lewis E. Scott after FOOFS Board Member Lew Scott, who was the driving force behind the construction of both the weapon and the emplacement. Lew passed away in 2014.
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