New Dungeness Light Station, Sequim, Washington

The New Dungeness Light Station is located at the end of the five mile long Dungeness Spit just West of Sequim, Washington on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  It is accessed only by hiking the spit which is part of the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge. The light was the first light on the Strait of Juan de Fuca and one of the four earliest lighthouses constructed in Washington. The light was first lit in December 1857. In 1868 eighteen Tsimshian Indian were massacred by S'Klallam Indians on a second spit that juts out from Dungeness. One wounded and pregnant woman survived and made her way to the light station and was protected by the keeper and his wife. In 1976 the Fresnel light was removed and replaced by a rotating bulls eye prism and automated. Since 1994 the New Dungeness Light Station Association has maintained the station and volunteer keepers live at the station for a week at a time, maintaining the grounds and buildings and acting as tour guides for visitors. The station is on the National Register of Historic Places. A visit to the light is well worth the hike.  Photos taken in June 2012.