Even before my wife and I were married, we discovered a shared affinity for lighthouses. It didn’t hurt that her parents lived in Lincoln City, on the Oregon Coast. But other than occasional short trips to one of Oregon’s most famous beacons at Yaquina Head, north of Newport, we limited our collection to decorative photos and calendars.
It wasn’t until a trip to Monterey, California, in 2000, and a visit to the Point Pinos Lighthouse, that we discovered the true joy and adventure of “live” collecting — visiting and touring lighthouses and taking our own photos. Our hobby really took off later that year when we visited my birthplace, Key West, Florida, and visited its marvelous sentinel in the heart of the city — the southernmost lighthouse in the continental United States.
After that, we were hooked. We have since collected some 30 lighthouses in Washington, Oregon, California and Canada, including eight on a week-long tour last year of the Central and Northern California coast. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina ruined our plans for a New Orleans trip and a chance to snap up the Lake Pontchartrain light. Hurricane Wilma squelched a scheduled Florida trip a month later, and although I still went to Miami for a two-day conference, I was turned back at the state park gate in my efforts to collect the Key Biscayne lighthouse — too much hurricane damage in the park, although the light itself was spared.
But you need not venture so far. One of the truly enjoyable aspects of this hobby is the wealth of lighthouses surrounding Puget Sound (there are 12 lights, many of them still active, around the Sound), including three drive-up lights in the Seattle area: Alki Point, West Point and Mukilteo. A day trip to these lighthouses, as well as any of the others within an hour or two of the city, is a pleasant way to enjoy a sunny, summer day.
Much of the information in this article is taken directly from Hartnett House Map Publishers’ “Northwest Lighthouses” map and information guide, written by Peter Dow Bachelder. “Northwest Lighthouses” can be found at various retail outlets and gift shops, including the one at the Mukilteo Lighthouse, which is featured on the cover of the 2002 edition. For more information about Hartnett House guides, visit www.hartnetthouse.com. gbarton@karrtuttle.com.
Alki Point
This operational lighthouse is nestled within a residential neighborhood in West Seattle. The busy nature of the Alki Point community confounds the notion that the light, like many of its brethren, sits on historic U.S. Coast Guard property.
Alki Point light is not tall by lighthouse standards — the white, octagonal tower is just 37 feet high. But because of its prominent location, height was not a necessity. At the southwest tip of Elliott Bay, where it merges with the Sound, the point’s proximity to the comings and goings of generations of marine commerce has made it a long sought-after landmark, by landlubbers and seamen alike.
Though short in stature, the light is long in history. In 1851, Seattle’s pioneering settlers — adventurous souls from the Midwest — landed at Alki Point, seeking to carve out a new existence in the awe-inspiring land of forests and mountains that confronted them. In the late 1860s, members of the Hanson family, who had recently purchased the property, hung out a lantern so passing ships could follow the friendly beacon by night.
This event did not escape the notice of district Lighthouse Board officials, who recognized the need for a more powerful light on the site. In 1887, the agency erected a 10-foot, brass-post lantern. Later, the board mounted a lens lantern atop a wooden scaffolding and hired Hans Hanson as “keeper” at a salary of $15 a month.
In 1910, the government acquired 1.5 acres from the Hansons for $9,000. The lighthouse itself finally arrived two years later when the small, square stucco building was built on the point, along with an attached brick tower and a nearby keeper’s cottage. The new station began operating in 1913.
Automation came to Alki Point in 1984 and the modern optic that replaced the original fourth-order Fresnel lens continues in operation. Active-duty Coast Guard families reside in the two houses on the lighthouse grounds. Historical displays inside the lighthouse include one detailing the 1906 sinking of the passenger steamer Dix, in which 39 passengers died after the Dix collided with the steam schooner Jeanie while ferrying passengers between Seattle and Port Blakely.
Directions: From I-5, take Exit 163 (West Seattle Freeway) or exit west onto the West Seattle Freeway from Highway 99. Travel over the West Seattle Bridge and take the Harbor Avenue exit. Turn right onto Harbor Avenue and follow it until you reach the lighthouse. (Harbor Avenue becomes Alki Avenue at the northern tip of Duwamish Head, but the route to the lighthouse requires no turns onto other streets.) Parking is available just past the lighthouse in a waterfront parallel parking area. When leaving the parking area, turn left (north) onto 63rd Avenue NW for about two blocks and then turn right (east) on Admiralty Way. Follow Admiralty Way back to the West Seattle Freeway.
Visiting Hours: Coast Guard auxiliary volunteers provide lighthouse tours, including a climb to the top of the lighthouse on the narrow, spiral staircase, on a walk-in basis from noon to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, May 1 through September 30. There are no rest room facilities. Information: 206-217-6123.
West Point
(Discovery Park, Magnolia)
The West Point lighthouse, which is located northwest of downtown Seattle in Magnolia’s Discovery Park, has been a welcome fixture at the north entrance to Elliot Bay since 1881. Jutting conspicuously into the bay below Magnolia Bluff, the eye-catching sentinel commands a front-row seat for the perpetual parade of maritime traffic moving in and out of the lower Puget Sound ports.
Anticipating the further growth of waterborne traffic in the wake of Seattle’s flourishing lumber export business, the Lighthouse Board in 1872 recommended a lighthouse at West Point. Congress responded with a $25,000 appropriation and, in 1881, workers completed construction of a brick/stucco lighthouse and dual keepers’ houses at the tip of the sandy spit. The squat, square tower supports an octagonal lantern containing a fourth-order Fresnel lens. Although the lighthouse’s red-and-white flashes emanate from only 27 feet above the water, they are visible more than 15 miles up and down the Sound.
Automated in 1985, West Point Lighthouse was the last Washington light to be tended by a resident keeper, marking end of a 130-year era in Washington lighthouse history. While the old Coast Guard facilities still stand, the station is no longer manned and the grounds are closed. However, they do provide a great foreground for lighthouse photos. New quarters for the Coast Guard personnel on duty are located near the eastern entrance to the park.
Directions: From downtown Seattle, follow First Avenue to Alaskan Way. Turn right (northwest) onto Alaskan Way and follow it (as it turns due north, it becomes 15th Avenue) to W. Emerson Place. Turn west onto W. Emerson Place onto the overpass above the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe railroad yard. The Salmon Bay Fisherman’s Terminal will be on your right to the north. Turn right (northwest) onto Gilman Avenue. Follow Gilman up the hill as it turns due west and becomes Government Way. This will lead you directly into Discovery Park.
Those with physical limitations can stop at the Visitors Center to pick up a pass for the parking area at the lighthouse. You also can take a shuttle to and from the lighthouse. More intrepid visitors may elect to take the cool, shady 11/2 - mile hike through the
forest to the lighthouse, although there are some steep portions and a long set of steps as you descend toward the beachfront area. The lighthouse is not open, but there are excellent viewing locations along the beach (easily accessible over some rocks and driftwood) both south and north of the lighthouse, as well as from the parking area itself.
Visiting Hours: Discovery Park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., all year. The Visitors Center is open daily, except holidays, from 8:30 a.m. to
5 p.m. Information: 206-386-4236.
Mukilteo Lighthouse
First called Point Elliot, a steady increase in local shipping past the point during the closing years of the 19th century finally convinced the Lighthouse Board to consider a light and fog signal at the tip of the cape. In 1905, crews constructed an octagonal, wood-frame lighthouse attached to a square fog-signal house. Shoreward, twin Victorian keepers’ dwellings, an oil house and storage building completed the station layout.
The 30-foot tower was fitted with a red-roofed octagonal lantern containing a fourth-order Fresnel lens. The light was activated on March 1, 1906. Although the light was automated in 1979, Coast Guard personnel continued to live at the station until 1996.
In 1992, the volunteer Mukilteo Historical Society began offering public tours of the lighthouse and initiated a fund-raising campaign to restore the property. In early 1999, the Coast Guard transferred ownership to the City of Mukilteo. Under the arrangement, the city acts as landlord and the historical society as caretakers.
Society volunteers continue to offer public tours, including the lighthouse tower, which is accessible by (what else) a narrow, spiral staircase. An historical display in another building on-site describes Mukilteo’s contribution to the World War II effort. A gift shop also sells many lighthouse-related items.
Directions: Follow I-5 to its junction with I-405. Take Exit 182 and follow the signs to Highway 525 to Mukilteo. The highway crosses over Highway 99 (Aurora Avenue) after about 2 miles and becomes the oxymoronic Mukilteo Speedway. Simply follow this all the way down the hill into Mukilteo toward the Whidbey Island ferry, but do not stray into the ferry line on the shoulder. As you descend into Mukilteo, you will see the ferry terminal directly in front of you and the lighthouse on your left (to the south). There is free, four-hour parking in the lot east of the lighthouse.
Visiting Hours: The lighthouse is open Saturdays, Sundays and holidays from noon to
5 p.m., April through September. Information:
425-513-9602. Exhibits in the lighthouse include the fourth-order Fresnel lens used in the “lost” Desdemona Sands Lighthouse once located in the mouth of the Columbia River off Astoria.
Gene Barton is the editor of the Bar Bulletin. He is a shareholder with Karr Tuttle Campbell in Seattle, with a general litigation practice that includes securities, asbestos and insurance litigation. He can be reached at 206-224-8030 or
