Years ahead will prove cannon's value

Another important block in the  foundation of the growing historical tourism of Delaware's Cape Region is sitting on a railroad car in Georgetown awaiting final delivery to the Fort Miles complex in Cape Henlopen State Park.

The last 16-inch-diameter cannon from the fabled battleship USS Missouri is making an historic journey from a shipyard near Norfolk to Lewes to take its place as part of the Fort Miles Military Museum.

This is not the first time 16-inch cannons have come into the area by railroad. When Fort Miles was constructed as one of the world's most advanced coastal fortifications in the midst of World War II, several 16-inch cannons were brought in by rail to take their place as the largest guns in the bunkers protecting the bay entrance.

Although those cannons are said to have rattled windows in the Lewes and Rehoboth Beach communities when they were test fired, they were never deployed in actual battle. By the time they were in place and ready, the war was coming to an end. They were eventually removed by the military after the fort was decommissioned.

The cannon barrel coming to Fort Miles isn't one of those that was deployed here, but more importantly, was one of those from the deck of the Missouri under which the Japanese surrendered in 1945.

The cannon on its way crossed the mouth of Chesapeake Bay last week on a tugboat-rail system that has been in service since 1885, one of only two in the U.S.

When it comes through Lewes in the next few weeks, it will cross the canal on one of the nation's only man-powered, turning railroad bridges. This history runs deep!

Between the $110,000 raised to transport the cannon to Lewes, and the cost of getting the cannon set in place at the museum, the Fort Miles Historical Association will have nearly half a million dollars in the cannon project.

The allure of the cannon as part of the rich history of our region, which already attracts so many people and contributes significantly to our tourism economy, will only strengthen in the years and decades ahead and prove the value of this initiative.