Point No Point Light (Washington)

For the light in the Chesapeake Bay see Point No Point Light (Maryland).

This lighthouse stands at Point No Point, on the west side of Puget Sound, near the point where Admiralty Inlet ends, in the small town of Hansville, Washington. Point No Point Light is the oldest lighthouse on Puget Sound.

History

Local residents wanted the lighthouse located further north on Foulweather Bluff. When the Point No Point location was agreed upon, the owners of the land were reluctant to sell. Finally, the owners agreed to sell 40 acres for $1000. Construction of the lighthouse began in April 1879. The first light used was a kerosene lamp. As 1879 drew to a close, the lens and a glass for the lantern had not arrived, so the first lighthouse keeper, J.S. Maggs, a Seattle dentist, hung a canvas over the south window openings to break the wind and keep the kerosene lamp from blowing out.

Upon completion of the light station in February 1880, the lantern room held a fifth-order Fresnel lens. The original masonry structure was 27 feet (8.2 m) high. The present 30-foot (9.1 m) brick and stucco tower is square and situated between the office and fog signal building. A fog signal, formerly used at New Dungeness Lighthouse, was installed in April 1880. There were no roads to the Point No Point Lighthouse for the first 40 years, so supplies had to be brought in by boat.

Lightning struck the lens in 1931, cracking a prism. The tower was also damaged which required patching and replacing the copper tubing.

In 1975, a 90-foot (27 m) radar tower was built on the west side of the lighthouse. The tower is used for the Vessel Traffic Service (VTS). In 1977, the Point No Point Lighthouse became fully automated, and only required one man to be assigned to the station. In 1990, the fog bell was replaced by a Daboll trumpet. The lens in the tower was changed to a fourth-order Fresnel lens, which is still in place today.

In 1997, the last U.S. Coast Guard personnel left Point No Point and it stood empty until the Coast Guard leased the property for Kitsap County Parks and Recreation.

References

• Nelson, T. Umbrella Guide to Washington Lighthouses, 1998.
• Strait History, the quarterly publication of the Clallam County Historical Society and Museum, 1(4).\

External links

• Point No Point Lighthouse & Park - official site at Kitsap County Parks & Recreation
• Friends of Point No Point Light - tour information
• Point No Point Light - History from Lighthouse Friends