Sunday, February 22, 2009

There's Something Fishy About This Clock Tower

As promised, my favorite local public timepiece, the Salmon Run Bell Tower and Glockenspiel in Esther Short Park, Vancouver, Washington.

The City of Vancouver website notes:
Generous donations from local businessman and philanthropist George Propstra, created this one-of-a-kind amenity.

There's a great writeup on Oregon Live about the park and clock. It describes the wonderful show that the clock puts on:

Vancouver's 69-foot-high Salmon Run Bell Tower features a revolving musical display at noon, 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. The tower commemorates the life cycle of the Pacific salmon and the fish's value to the Chinook tribe, the original inhabitants of the lower Columbia River.
There's a really neat shot of the diorama close up on flikr. You should check it out! Better yet, come to Vancouver and listen to the bells.

6 comments:

lisahgolden said...

That's very cool. I've only been to the Pacific NW once, but I loved it. Bells, huh?

Lisa Wheeler Milton said...

Nothing better in the summer: Playing in the water, near the tower, flowers in bloom.

Love that park.

Jayne said...

That's fantastic! Melbourne has some great timepieces, including the Nylex Clock, which is iconic and even immortalised in song (and on my blog), though I noticed this morning that it's not working. Damn.

Fantastic Forrest said...

Lisa - time for another visit!

Lisa Milton - It IS a wonderful park. Thank goodness for the Propstra's donation to the city. It transformed the place.

Frisky L - Someday I will go to Melbourne. For now, I'm off to your blog. Maybe the Nylex clock is linked to Blogger's followers thing, which is also temporarily not working...

shrink on the couch said...

A glockenspiel? I recall a book I read as a kid about a glockenspiel, drawing a blank. Some type of musical instrument, no?

Rachel said...

I've never seen that. I guess I'll have to next time I'm home.