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New Dungeness Light Station Association Embarks on their Second Decade
To the founders of the New Dungeness Light Station Association (NDLSA), it probably seems like only yesterday that they sat around the dining room table in the home of the late Al Simpkins of Sequim, Washington, to discuss the launching of a new organization dedicated to the preservation of their beloved local light station. Within a few months of that meeting, the Coast Guard removed their personnel from the lighthouse and the nonprofit group shifted into high gear as they took over the maintenance of the historic buildings and grounds.
All of that happened back in 1994. After a decade of many accomplishments, the NDLSA observed their 10th anniversary in grand style with a public celebration last September at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim. The event featured live entertainment, displays on the history of the lighthouse, student art, clowns, games and prizes, and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife display. Government dignitaries were on hand along with volunteers and members of the NDLSA. Lighthouse author Elinor De Wire, who is on the group's board of directors, reports, “It was a lovely day, typical of sunny Sequim which sits in the 'rainshadow' of the Olympic Mountains. Our membership is nearly 700, and many came to the celebration.”
The lighthouse stands about a half-mile from the end of Dungeness Spit, which is more than five miles long and is made up of sand and debris carried from the Olympic Mountains by the Dungeness River to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It's been called North America's longest natural sand spit. This unique feature formed a convenient harbor
of refuge in Dungeness Bay, but part of the low-lying spit also presented such a hazard to navigation that it earned the nickname “Shipwreck Spit.”
Even today, with the lighthouse and other modern aids to navigation, small vessels occasionally lose their way in thick fog or run aground on the narrow strip of sand. New Dungeness Light was established in 1857 in an effort to improve the situation. It was the second lighthouse (after Cape Disappointment) in America's Pacific Northwest.
Due to water damage, the brick tower atop the keeper's dwelling was considered unsafe by 1927 and its top 27 feet were removed. A lantern from the abandoned Admiralty Head Lighthouse was installed, leaving the structure 63 feet tall from the ground to the top of the lantern. The tower was later covered with parge, a stucco-like material that helps protect the brickwork.
Despite being tenuously attached to the mainland, this station was a lonely and isolated one for keepers and their families. Boats of varying types and sizes, as well as horses, were used by keepers in preference to hiking the spit. For a time in the early 1900s, Keeper E. A. Brooks used a small steamboat someone had abandoned on the spit. It took Keeper Brooks a half-hour to chop enough driftwood to fuel the vessel.
Brooks and other keepers kept livestock on the spit, and the families usually had pets, too. In his book New Dungeness Lighthouse, James C. Isom wrote that Keeper Brooks had a milk cow that would sometimes swim to the mainland in her quest for greener grass. Brooks' granddaughter, Jan Norwine, recalls that there was always a playful dog or two for the children.
The Coast Guard eventually took over the operation of the station, accessing it by four-wheel vehicle and later by helicopter. For a number of years they staffed the lighthouse with three keepers, who lived in the original dwelling and a second house built in 1904. Some of the Coast Guard keepers had families, but no school-age children were permitted because of the difficult trip over the sand spit to Sequim. By the time of automation in 1976, there was only one keeper.
The Coast Guard deemed New Dungeness Light Station important enough to retain staff even after automation. In 1980, the keeper was Jeni Burr, one of a very small number of women ever to serve as a lightkeeper under the Coast Guard. The last Coast Guard keeper, Seth Jackson, wasn't removed until March 1994. For a few months after that, Coast Guard Auxiliary personnel maintained the station. In the autumn of that year, the New Dungeness Light Station Association stepped in and was granted a license by the Coast Guard to care for the station.
Since September 1994, the NDLSA has staffed the station 365 days a year with volunteer keepers who put in one-week shifts. These volunteers gladly pay a modest fee for the privilege of spending a week working at this isolated but beautiful spot. They're transported to the site along with supplies in a four-wheel drive vehicle. They clean and repair the lighthouse and other buildings, maintain lawns, and conduct tours for visitors.
Despite the difficulty involved in reaching the light station, about 5,000 visitors sign the guest register each year. Some visitors arrive by walking the more than ten-mile round trip from the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge parking area, while others arrive via their own small boats or kayaks after securing docking reservations from the Refuge.
The NDLSA set their sights high from the start with their stated vision: “The New Dungeness Light Station will be the finest example of historic restoration, preservation and interpretation in the nation.” It would be hard for anyone to argue that they haven't lived up to their word. Recent improvements include a new fence, new roofs and windows, a new coat of special weather-resistant paint on the lighthouse, an interpretive center in the base of the tower, and restorations to the 1905 keeper's dwelling. The buildings here are amazingly well preserved, especially taking into account the remoteness of the location.
The NDLSA was originally a chapter of the U.S. Lighthouse Society, but in 2002 they incorporated as a separate nonprofit organization. They had much to celebrate at the September event at Carrie Blake Park, which was named for a descendant of the light's first keeper, Henry Blake. After his career at the lighthouse, Keeper Blake settled in Dungeness. His heirs still reside in the area and a 175-foot state-of-the-art Coast Guard buoy tender homeported nearby bears his name.
Erik Henriksson was one of the founders of the group and is still the NDLSA's historian. The board presented Henriksson with a special gift at the tenth anniverary celebration – an image of the night sky over the lighthouse at the time of that first meeting in January 1994. Henriksson insisted the image be displayed in the keeper's house for all to appreciate.
Henriksson's gift characterizes NDLSA's pride in their decade of hard work and their firm commitment to saving an important public landmark. But one doesn't need to read the stars to clearly see the upbeat future that's in store for this dedicated group.
This story appeared in the March 2005 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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