Another view of New Dungeness Lighthouse

We’ve visited New Dungeness Lighthouse in a previous post, but it’s such a unique spot, it’s worth looking at from multiple angles. My bucket list goal for this blog is to find a historical photo taken from the top of the lighthouse that looks out toward the end of Dungeness Spit. The reason? Due to the erosion of nearby bluffs and the currents in the Strait of Juan de Fuca that carry the eroded material to the east, Dungeness Spit lengthens by around 15 feet per year. When built in 1857, the lighthouse was only 900 feet from the end of the spit. It’s now more than a half mile from the end. I hope to someday find a historical photo that will allow us to document that growth.

In the meantime, our now and then photos show some of the changes that occurred at the lighthouse itself, which has also evolved significantly over time.

Then: 1896, courtesy National Archives / Now: Feb. 2021

Yes, those photos are of the same lighthouse. The tower was lowered in 1927 due to deterioration of the brickwork. So the dark section above is now gone. Many other buildings have been added and subtracted since our Then photo was taken in 1896. Most notably, the keeper’s home was added in 1904 (on the right in the Now photo).

My now photo is from a perspective a little lower in the water then the then photo because I was shooting while sitting on my paddleboard and I presume the historical photo was taken from a boat with a much higher deck.

Seeing the outer fence in the historical photo reminded me of my favorite New Dungeness Lighthouse story. It’s from a book written by James C. Isom, published by the New Dungeness Light Station Association, and aptly titled, History of the New Dungeness Lighthouse. The book tells us that keeper E.A. Brooks (1902-1925) kept cows and sheep on the spit, and apparently the cows weren’t too happy with the location:

“Several keepers likely had cows on the spit, particularly if there were small children…The Brooks family had a cow that would sometimes swim to the mainland in search of better grass. The boys would have to find the cow and drag it home for milking.”

If I was paddling out to the lighthouse and passed a cow headed for the mainland, I think I might have to give up paddling. 😊

Sources: 

https://www.sequimgazette.com/news/mother-nature-and-the-dungeness-spit/
https://newdungenesslighthouse.com/the-lighthouse/
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/45708329?&sp=%7B%22q%22%3A%22dungeness%22%7D&sr=1

Port Williams...Bustling Port Now County Park

Port Williams is located on the Olympic Peninsula near Sequim, between Sequim Bay and New Dungeness Lighthouse. It’s currently a Clallam County park with a boat ramp and wonderful beach combing opportunities. But in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, this spot served as a port for Mosquito Fleet steamers that were providing supplies and transportation to the new settlers of the Sequim prairie. The wharf was built in 1890 and included a hotel, restaurant, post office, store and dance hall. The Port Williams townsite was abandoned in 1922.

Port Williams - Then (early 1900s) and Now (2020)

The historic image is courtesy of the Museum and Arts Center in Sequim-Dungeness. The exact date is unknown, but the ship, the Alice Gertrude, was built in 1898 and ended its run in Clallam Bay, running aground during a snowstorm in 1907.

It’s interesting to note the dark stripe that runs horizontally, halfway up the bluff in both photos. This is the result of glacio-lacustrine deposits, sediment that settled in glacial meltwater during the Vashon glaciation period. More than 14,000 years ago, the Cordilleran glacial ice sheet, measuring at least 3000 feet deep, covered most of Western Washington. As it advanced and retreated, the glacier carved much of Puget Sound into the landforms and waterways we see today. It also left us with timeless features to match up in then and now photographs of our ever-eroding bluffs.

A better look at the different sediment layers in the bluff, with bonus pigeon guillemots!

There are many other historic photographs of Port Williams to enjoy in the Bert Kellogg Collection, available for viewing on the Washington Rural Heritage digital archive website or in person at the Port Angeles branch of the North Olympic Library System.