What to See in Aberdeen - Top Sights and Attractions

Kurt Cobain Memorial Park is a park in Aberdeen, Washington and the first official, full-scale memorial to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in his hometown.

A welcome sign to the city installed in 2005 which obliquely says "Come As You Are", but does not mention Cobain by name, was the first official recognition of the musician. The Memorial Park, initially built in Felony Flats on city-owned land near his Aberdeen home in 2011, and maintained by local volunteers as Kurt Cobain Landing, was adopted by the city of Aberdeen in 2015, 21 years after his death. As recently as 2011, a motion not to rename the adjacent Young Street Bridge after Cobain was applauded at a city council meeting.

The lyrics of the Nirvana song "Something in the Way" are about the Young Street Bridge. The lyrics to the song are etched on an aluminum plaque posted in the park.

A granite memorial headstone inscribed with Cobain quotes rests in the park. Part of one of the quotes was sandblasted away because the city mayor found the phrase " will fuck you up" offensive.

Cobain immortalized the bridge through music, but now the bridge immortalizes Cobain.

Aberdeen’s must-see Cobain site is a small park, opened in 2011 by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Foundation, called Kurt Cobain Landing, which sits at the foot of the Young Street Bridge, the inspiration for the song "Something in the Way." Cobain claimed that he lived under the bridge for a time, and while most who knew him don’t think he did, it was clearly one of his preferred hangouts. Set along the banks of the murky Wishkah River, the strangely appealing little park features a guitar sculpture, a likeness of Cobain with the lyrics to "Something in the Way," a headstone with some amusing Cobain quotes (sample: "I’m a walking bacterial infection"), a Kurt Cobain "air guitar" sculpture and a collage of Nirvana-related graffiti under the bridge itself.^[1]

Bridge in Aberdeen, Washington. Young Street Bridge is a bridge in North Aberdeen, Washington. It covers a brief span along the Wishkah River, carrying a north/south-bound thoroughfare which connects the City of Aberdeen with the North Aberdeen neighborhood and other outlying communities.

Most notably, the bridge has been mentioned in numerous accounts as a temporary home for Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. It is hinted at in the lyrics of the song "Something in the Way". The walls of the bridge are completely covered in graffiti inspired by Cobain and Nirvana.

In April 2011, the City of Aberdeen commissioned a 13 feet (4.0 m) tall electric guitar statue near the Young Street Bridge in honor of the musician's career. In 2015, the Kurt Cobain Memorial Park was created nearby.^[2]