Brookings Japanese Aerial Bombing Site, Oregon

One of the few (and likely the first) places on the Lower 48 of the USA to be bombed by enemy aircraft is located here, in the forests of southern Oregon. It happened one evening in the fall of 1942, when a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast. A pontoon airplane was unloaded from a waterproof silo on its deck, and took to the air. The pilot of this small bomber turned south at the Cape Blanco lighthouse, and flew another 50 miles to a strategic point above the forest, near Brookings, and dropped two incendiary bombs, intended to set the Pacific Northwest, and its vast supply of wood, on fire. Though a small fire was started by the bombs, the moisture of the forest kept it from spreading quickly, and it was extinguished by fire crews. The location is a mile or so hike from the trailhead. Commemorative signs are on a few roadways in the area.