Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-09-13
RED CROSS
IN OREGON
Miss Estelle Fryska, On Duty at Fort
Stevens, Oregon, Writes Interest
ing Letter of Scenes and Expert
ences in an Army Post Hospital.

Fort Stevens, Ore, Sept. 4, 1918.
Mr.. Kenyon and Miss Weir.
Dear Folks: | get the Tribune each
week and must say l surely would
be disappointed if anything should
happen to it, as l look for it the same
as a child does for things from it's
parents. 1 read accounts or letters
from the lads, and surely do enjoy
them, so thought perhaps it would be
interesting to get note from me.
1t is now five months since / landed
here. found good sized hospital,
but now it has been enlarged quite
bit. They have built three new wards
containing 80 beds each, which of
course will mean "get busy"
This is rather small post; it is
called "Fort Stevens Coast Defense
of the Columbia" Of course, there
are two other forts near; namely,
Fort Candy and Fort Columbia. If
you will take your map you can read
lily see just where l live. 1t seems il
is a peninsula. We have the Pacific
ocean on one side and the Columbia
river on the other. Of course you
| know the Columbia river is noted for
its wonderful or famous salmon
fisheries. wish Abe Hogeboom could
be here; the little town couldn't hold
him-the fish stories he would be able
to tell!
l have had the pleasure of eating
some salmon fresh while here; my!
but it was delicious.
A little town about 21a miles from
here, called F'lavel, was quite noted at
one time, as it seemed to be the start
ing point for ships of the Pacific
ocean; but now the. government pro-
hibits all pleasure trips, as they have
no further use for it, have turned the
station into a fish cannery.
We are about 1 u miles from the
ocean; we nurses walked there one
evening; it sure was pretty. The
sea-gulls were lowering near, the tide
coming in, the sunset coloring
most beautiful. 1t surely would take
an artist many weary years to paint
anything quite so fine. l put my
hand into the water; so at least I
have been that near the ocean. Then
again two other nurses and walked
out on the jetty. l did not look mp
the word in the dictionary; but any
way C1dC is WndG we Call 1t.
All along the shore of the Columbia
river there are great number of
very large rocks piled one on top of
the other to prevent the water in its
swiftness from washing the sand
back into the river, causing sand bars
and thus causing wrecks of ships. On
top of these rocks is built frame
work like that of bridge, or as
though it were going to be a railroad,
so to say; across these are planks
about six inches wide; some places
one plank, other places two and three.
We walked on that structure to the
ocean, about five miles away-up in
the air a gale blowing. l believe /
said my prayers quite a few times;
but we laughed, and said, "Well, that
is an adventure, anyway"
Then we walked along the ocean
beach about three miles until we
reached the fort. The tide had been
in, and it is claimed the sand is hare
enough to hold up an automobile. We
sure were good and tired.
l heard a colonel say he had the
pleasure of going east last winter
He landed in Cincinnati just during
our awful cold spell, if you remember
in January. They were blockadec
for over day, so of course time grew
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