Eureka, California: Shipwreck

Built to resemble a turn-of-the-20th-century schooner, this was a local attraction along Highway 101. The building housed an aquarium, a gift shop, and a small diner above deck. In front was a small pool that housed four sea lions, with a small bridge across to the entrance. Sadly, after a number of years of being closed, transients burned the building to the ground. Only a remnant of the pool is left.

"Shipwreck" burned some time before May of 1989, but exactly when I don't know. The "ship" was not on its side, but straight up. Located south of Bayshore Mall, and directly west of Ft. Humboldt, the former site is now dominated by the mothballed Humboldt Nuclear Power Station, which was closed when it was realized it was built (like Oregon's Trojan) on a fault line.

I remember "Shipwreck." My family stopped there in the '70s, when I was a kid. It was a neat place. The last couple of years I have been trying to find out if it still existed. (I wasn't even sure if it was in Eureka). I wanted to take my wife and daughter there this summer on a trip along the coast. This is the first that I have heard or found any information about it -- which is sort of moot now, Since it (burned down??).

I think the ship was actually lying on its side. I remember feeding the seals out front. The gift shop was nice; it had a restaurant as well.

Shipwreck was a square-rigged sailing ship built on land on the southern end of Eureka CA. It had a pond alongside with seals, and there was a coin-operated dispenser that sold fish to feed to the seals. Inside the ship was a very large aquarium and gift shops and such. I remember going there in the 1960s and 1970s, but I heard that it later burned down.

Anybody else remember?