Looking downstream from the overlook at Monteith Riverpark on the evening of August 16, 2024.
The view from the new platform at Monteith Riverpark is nice, someone noted in an email. But what about the ugly pole sticking out in the middle? Will it be removed?
No, I’m pretty sure the pipe will stay where it is until the end of time. The plans for the Albany Waterfront Project make no mention of removing the remains of what was once an elaborate floating dock.
The dock was a downtown attraction at the time, especially when it was the home port of the Willamette Queen, an 87-foot sternwheeler, from March 1998 to November 1999.
During the creation of the Monteith River Park in 1982, the pilings were driven in and the dock was built.
In September 2000, the Albany Park Department closed the gate and posted a sign: “Dock Closed Due to Dangerous Undercurrent.”
I wrote in the Democrat-Herald at the time: “The changing currents of the Willamette River have transformed the floating dock at Monteith Riverpark from an attraction into a potential death trap.”
Park director Dave Clark hoped to save the dock by dredging the river to redirect the current that had slammed sideways into the dock and pushed at least one kayak under the float.
The dredging came to nothing. Instead, the site where the Willamette Queen, smaller boats, and even a seaplane once moored became a gravel bar and now a patch of land covered with brush.
So no, leave these posts standing. They remind us of the past and how this river changes over time. (hh)
On March 29, 1998, the riverboat Willamette Queen docked at the Monteith Riverpark floating dock for the first time. (Albany Democrat-Herald)
And here is a more comprehensive view of the piles that still stand today.
