OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Drivers headed around Lake Crescent about 9 a.m. Friday were delayed about 15 minutes as people from the National Park Service, Washington State Patrol and U.S. Navy worked to remove an invasive species from Lake Crescent.
A hand grenade.
“It is unknown how the grenade came to be located in the lake. It is certainly unusual, and we can only speculate at this point,” Megan Huff, Olympic National Park public information officer, said in an email.
“We aren’t sure as to the specific grenade type. It resembled what is informally called a ‘pineapple’ style grenade.”
According to Erik Lewis, director of the U.S. Army Museum at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, “The pineapple style (Mk II/III) hand grenade was replaced in the early 1950s by the M26, which was similarly shaped but without the ‘pineapple’ ridges. The current ‘baseball’ style of grenades began with the M67 model during the Vietnam War.”
Huff’s email stated recreational divers spotted the grenade about 35 feet from shore in 30 feet of water and notified law enforcement. The National Park Service contacted the State Patrol Interagency Bomb Squad.
Then divers from the Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit arrived from the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. They were able to locate the grenade and render it safe. It is not known if the grenade was live when it was found, but it is unlikely after having been in the water.
“The operation went very smoothly. We’re grateful to our partners at the Washington State Patrol and the US Navy, and to the recreational divers who reported what they saw,” Huff wrote.
Images of the grenade and where it was found are available in a YouTube video located at https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=tXec9Gl_RwI.
According to the video, Mark Hitchcock and Olivier Deiss, who were diving with Moss Bay Divers/ PNW Scuba, found the grenade toward the end of their dive. They speculate that the grenade had been thrown in the water from the roadside parking lot, roughly 20 yards from where it rested below.
The group had been contacted at the beginning of their dive by Olympic National Park Ranger Tim Lutterman, who mentioned that a grenade had been reported in the area before. He asked if they had seen it and if so to mark its location. Previous attempts had been made to recover the reported grenade but the search team was unsuccessful in locating it, Lutterman told the group.
________
Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached by email at brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
