Unexploded mortars, possibly from World War I, discovered at Vancouver’s Pearson Field
By Anthony Macuk, KGW
VANCOUVER, Wash. (KGW) — Several unexploded mortars were discovered during construction at the Pearson Field airport in Vancouver on Tuesday and Wednesday, requiring a police disposal unit to be called to safely detonate them, KGW reported.
The Vancouver Police Department said in a post on X that the devices appear to be Stokes mortars that date back to World War I.
An archeologist discovered the first device on Tuesday, and the VPD Mobile Explosive Device Unit and U.S. Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel safely detonated it inside a hole in the ground. Several more devices were found and disposed of on Wednesday, according to the VPD post.
Credit: Vancouver Police Department
The mortars are footlong cylinders about three inches in diameter, based on a VPD photo with a measuring tape, which does appear to fit the description of a Stokes mortar. Stokes mortars were designed in Britain in 1915 and became widely used during WWI, including by the U.S. Army.
Pearson Field is among the oldest airports in the United States still in operation; it was first used as an airship landing site in 1905 and the first plane landed there in 1911, according to the city of Vancouver website. The city operates the airport and owns about half the land, with the other half owned by the U.S. National Park Service.
The airfield does have a connection to WWI; it became the site of a spruce mill that mass produced military aircraft components. The city's website doesn't mention if any ordnance was manufactured or stored there, and VPD didn't include any information in its post about how the mortars may have gotten there.
The airfield is currently undergoing a construction project to upgrade its electrical systems; a city of Vancouver memo from 2024 mentions accepting state and federal grants for the project, and Washington State Department of Transportation's Statewide Capital Improvement Plan describes it as a $1 million upgrade that will replace the runway edge lighting, reconstruct the airport lighting vault and add an emergency generator.
