Ediz Hook Part Four: The Light House

I think this will be the last one for a bit on Ediz Hook...time to move on to other large spits!  But for number 4 I wanted to stick with the old stately lighthouse that used to grace the end of Ediz Hook...an area that has now evolved into a sort of storage lot for the USCG base that now takes up the end of the Hook.  Here is an 1890 photo of one of the first Ediz Hook lighthouse (there was another built in the early 1900's):

Ediz Hook lighthouse, 1890.  Photo from the Bert Kellogg collection, hosted by the North Olympic Library System

So this photo is a bit hard to place exactly, given that you can't make out any landmarks in the photo.  However, if my placement of the fog bell that I covered in this previous blog is correct, then this is roughly the modern perspective of the 1890 shot above:

9 June 2020 photo of Ediz Hook.  Photo by Ian Miller

Again, impressive changes to this impressive place on Washington's shoreline.  BTW this original Ediz Hook lighthouse (or perhaps one of the later buildings?) apparently still exists as a house in Port Angeles.  One of my earliest Coastnerd Gazette entries attempted to tell the story...

Ediz Hook Part Three: The Fog Bell

I'm just going to continue on with a focus on changes to Ediz Hook, and notably the beautiful old lighthouse facility that used to sit on its tip.  Part 1 and Part 2 are here and here.  Below is a 1907 view of the fog bell that once sat on the end of Ediz Hook:

1907 photo of fog bell on the end of Ediz Hook.  Photo from the Burt Kellogg collection, hosted by the North Olympic Library System.

This view is notable for a variety of reasons.  One, it was shot in winter, and there is snow on the ground.  Second, it appears that this was a manual bell...so during foggy weather, or presumably any time visibility was impaired, the light-keeper had to be working that bell.  Pretty astonishing.

I could find no trace of this building...no foundation, no indentation in the grass.  However, based on the outline of the mountains that are visible behind the building its evident that this photos was taken from roughly here, looking towards the south.  Here is the modern view, as close as I felt I could match it:

Photo collected 9 June 2020, Ediz Hook, by Ian Miller

The site of this fog bell building is important, as it is the only thing that provides any reference for a few other photos of the lighthouse complex that sat on Ediz Hook.  A post to follow will focus on one of those photos.