Abandoned Shipwreck Attraction in King Salmon

 

In Humboldt County, there used to be a large ship attraction called "Shipwreck." In it's heyday, it was a fun tourist attraction for all people to go to and enjoy. Constructed in 1961, it was 30 feet wide by 200 feet long. It opened in September, 1961.

In front of the ship was a seal pond where there was real seawater, and seals that swam around. Being interactive, you could buy sardines to feed to the seals to do tricks. This playful area for the seals was 80 feet wide by 12 feet long. The deepest part of this pond was seven feet down. There was even a small rowboat in there kids could row about in.

When you got inside the ship, there was an aquarium. The aquarium had a variety of animals, many of them were local to the Humboldt Bay. Some of these included sand sharks, leopard sharks, moray eels, and bat rays. There was also a gift shop inside to collect souvenirs from the day.

On the top of the ship was a coffee shop that parents could sit and relax at while their kids ran around and saw everything. There were also telescopes where you could look out onto the bay and see the nature of the area. 

This place was about $250,000 to create, and during it's most popular years it had 20 employees, and 90,000 people in a year registered to go.

Well, I wouldn't be featuring a tourist attraction on this blog. So what happened to this Shipwreck attraction that once brought frolic, fun, and people to the small area of King Salmon? It lays abandoned on the outskirts of the town, right off the highway. 

I explored it, and here's how it looks now.

Here's right off the highway onto King Salmon. You can see the old railroad tracks. In this photo, my car is right behind me and I'm parked, about to walk up the driveway to the Shipwreck.

You drive up to a gated entryway. Luckily there were no keep out signs. In fact, a cop drove by and didn't seem to mind I was there after he saw the camera in my hand.

Some abandoned tires to the right of the gate. 

When you're walking up, there's all of these pockets of water leading down the driveway to the Shipwreck. The crumbling concrete keeps edging out to make itself a little bit bigger. Which is good for all of the crabs in there. When I looked in, there were at least a couple of dozen skittering around.

This is the view when you're walking up the long driveway, before you hit the bend right and get a full look at the attraction. 

There it is in all of it's glory. There's no ship, and only a remembrance of the attraction. All of it covered up in graffiti. 

Here's where the seal pool must have been. The photo above this would have been the shallow end, and the earlier photos would have been the seven feet depth part. 

A little cove, maybe a shore where the seals would go up and rest. Now all it has in it is empty bottles and attempted artists. 

The bridge over the seal pond. I can imagine a lot of people enjoyed standing on this while looking out over the seals. It looks like we found those other tires' mother though. 

Me standing on top of the seal cove on the shallow end of the pond. Next to me was this large cave looking area. This was my view of the entire scene. The ship would have been right in the middle there.

The pool is to the left in this photo, and there's the graffiti cave. It looks like people may have tried to skate here with the way that board on the ground is angled. 

The inside of the cave. I've got to admit, it looks pretty amazing in there. I read somewhere that a rock band came in and filmed a music video in there because of the cool looking graffiti. I don't know how true that is, but it's not a bad idea if it hasn't been done. 

This place would be a great revitalized skate park.

Here's to the right of the pool and the cave, these two blocks. They had some interesting graffiti, and they were hollow inside too.

Here's all the various angles and artwork of these structures. The top of the left structure is designed almost like the top of a castle tower. 

They really care about you, Mel.

I bet you were excited about what was inside these structures when I said they were hollow. Nothing really - empty bottles, sprays of graffiti lines as people tried to reach inside, and whatever that yellow and red piece is.

Here's the view of the cave and pool area from the hollow structures.

This was right next to the hollow structures. If I was a teenager today, I'd use it as a firepit. But don't do that - remember Smokey the bear, kids. 

A glimmering, mini inlet from the bay next to the structures. It looked so deep, nice, and refreshing - I had to hold my dog back from swimming in it. 

These were on the opposite sides of the water from behind the cave. So if I was standing on top of the cave, the front of my body going the same direction as the opening to the cave, this is what I'd see. The water in this direction is a lot shallower. It looks like a burnt down tree (I told you to remember Smokey, kids), and an old planter maybe. There was a lot of miscellaneous objects around the big structures. There was also a ton of broken glass and rusted nails, so be careful if you're going out here to explore.

One of the miscellaneous objects I saw. This one was interesting to me, because you can see coral growing out of it.

My last view of the scene. Flooded, colorful, crumbling, and just a remnant of what it once was. 

So, what happened to the Shipwreck tourist attraction? In 1969, 38 signs that were put onto the highway to attract tourists were taken down. Since Humboldt is so little, and this was pre-internet, no one new could find out about this attraction unless they saw it off the highway. This obviously lowered the numbers, until 1972 when the owners closed the attraction temporarily so they could figure out what to do next. 

Unfortunately, it fell into disarray and was never re-opened. On April 12th, 1989, a fire burned down the Shipwreck. 

Here's what's left of the scene. It's a sad story all around, and it would have been a great attraction for Humboldt if it had stayed open. But now it lays there on the side of the highway, forgotten and disintegrating. But the happy memories will be with those who were lucky enough to have seen this attraction in its prime.