Once the Nicholas was decommissioned, it was sold off to Zidell Marine in Portland for scrap metal. The mast was donated to the Portland Sea Scouts where it was stationed along the Columbia River across from the Portland Airport.
Veterans attending the Nick Reunion, held in Portland June 2015, collected around the mast for a photo op flanking the Roadrunner flag (subsequently donated to the USS Missouri when they reconvened in Hawaii for the 2017 reunion...seen above).
The Nicholas Veterans Association appropriately had a replica made for the mast.
In 2020, the Portland Airport Authority informed the Sea Scouts that docks and structures along the stretch of the Columbia River adjacent to the airport would have to be removed or demolished. The Nicholas Veterans Association was informed leading member Bill Linn (TM3, 69-70) to initiate action. He organized and supervised dismantling the mast and moving it to the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis, WA near his hometown.
