Fort Hayden, now Salt Creek County Park

Salt Creek County Park in Clallam County is an absolute gem - a beautiful and heavily-used park where a lush second growth forest merges with a spectacular coast.  It also, like some of our other park gems scattered around the eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca (i.e. Fort Worden, Fort Ebey, Fort Casey and Fort Flagler), was once part of the Puget Sound Harbor Defense System, the initial three fort core of which is described here.  What was known at the time as Fort Hayden was a relatively late addition to the system, constructed at the onset of WWII, and decommissioned at the end of the war.  Walking around the grounds now speaks to the changes and transformations of uses of the coast that this blog is all about.

One of two 16-inch guns firing at Camp Hayden, probably in the early 1940's.  Photo from the Burt Kellogg collection, hosted by the North Olympic Library System.

The same perspective, photo collected 27 May 2020.