Reprinted from the U. S. Lighthouse Society’s The Keeper’s Log – Spring, 2015 <www.USLHS.org> VOLUME XXXI NUMBER TWO, 2015 •Point No Point Lighthouse •Stepping Stones Lighthouse •Lighthouses of the Southern Coast of Tuscany •Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse, Part 1 of 2 Reprinted from the U. S. Lighthouse Society’s The Keeper’s Log – Spring, 2015 <www.USLHS.org> Point No Point Lighthouse: Oldest Sentinel on Puget Sound By Elinor DeWire A 2012 restoration effort spearheaded by the U.S. Lighthouse Society, along with the Friends of Point No Point and Kitsap County, has returned much of Point No Point Light Station’s former beauty. USLHS archive photo. oint No Point Lighthouse has fishing, hunting, and wood-gathering area had established a lively trade midway be- served mariners diligently since for the S’Klallam. Several European explor- tween Point No Point and West Point 25 January 1880. Though small ers and fur traders passed the point in the years earlier, and there was talk of building in stature as lighthouses go, it 1700s and 1800s, but it was Lieutenant a naval shipyard in Bremerton. Lumbering, looms large in our nation’s his- Charles Wilkes of the U.S. Exploring Ex- shipbuilding, fishing, and other enterprises tory and bears the significant pedition who bestowed the curious name. were burgeoning in Puget Sound, and the responsibility and noteworthy honor of From the water in May 1841, he noticed port of Seattle was growing rapidly. An en- welcoming ships to Puget Sound. The light- the quarter-mile-long point tended to ap- gineer for the U.S. Lighthouse Board noted house not only marks a critical turn where pear and disappear from view, depending that lighthouses at West Point and Point No Admiralty Inlet ends and Puget Sound on his position. Point No Point seemed an Point would “open these waters to foreign as begins, it also represents a period of rapid appropriate name. well as to home trade.” growth in commerce for the region. In a Several lighthouses already were in ser- The board focused on Point No Point sense, the little sentinel was a harbinger of vice along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and first. By 1876 funds had been appropriated things to come, including the Northern Admiralty Inlet when the U.S. Lighthouse by Congress and negotiations began with Pacific Railroad and the expansive ports at Board began researching sites for light- the James family who owned much of the Seattle and Tacoma. houses on Puget Sound in 1872. Point No land on the point. Francis and Mary James Point No Point’s contradictory name can Point, at the entrance to the sound, and requested $3,770 for two parcels of land, be blamed on its appearance from the water. West Point, on the northern entrance to El- one 3.4-acre plot on the spit and another The native S’Klallam called the point Hahd- liott Bay, were considered prime locations. 6.96 acres to the south. Francis James had skus, or “the long nose.” It was a favorite A sawmill and shipyard at Bainbridge Island been a lighthouse keeper at Cape Flattery, a 2 Cover Story—Spring 2015 Reprinted from the U. S. Lighthouse Society’s The Keeper’s Log – Spring, 2015 <www.USLHS.org> stories tall, with double fireplaces and a large attic. Cisterns filled by rainwater from the roof supplied water for the duplex, and behind it was a privy. The sprawling front porch faced north to provide a magnificent view of the Admiralty Inlet, as well a pleas- ant breeze most days of the year. But the weather was anything but clement when the station’s keepers arrived. A dentist named John S. Maggs and his assistant keeper, Henry H. Edwards, came to the station in late December to take up duties as its first keepers. Maggs, a native of Pennsylvania, was a bit of a speculator. He had wavered between lighthouse keeping and dentistry for several years and owned land and several businesses in Seattle. In 1859 he had been a bachelor lightkeeper sta- One of the earliest known images of Point No Point Light Station, circa 1880, shows the tower and attached workroom and the fogbell in its wooden framework tower. Later, an oilhouse and tioned at Cape Flattery Lighthouse. When fog signal room would be added. Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Museum NW. his pay was cut, he quit the position and be- came a trader in Neah Bay at the Makah In- remote sentinel that stood on Tatoosh Island ern beach, and a tide-gate near the center dian Post. He probably knew Frances James, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. to drain off, during the ebb, any water who also had been a keeper at Cape Flattery He had been dismissed from that job after a that may make its way inside during the Lighthouse before buying land at Point No gunfight at the lighthouse. It’s likely Francis flood. From the drift-logs gathered from Point. Maggs may have gotten a tip from James knew the value of Point No Point as the beach, a low revetment, well founded, James about the position of principal keeper a potential site for another lighthouse and was built along the margin of the reserva- at the new lighthouse. purchased it with the idea of selling it at a tion, facing seaward, and made to envelop Since the lens for the lighthouse had not high price to the federal government. After the frontage occupied by all the buildings. yet been delivered when Maggs and Edwards much dickering and argument, the James’ Its object is to protect the buildings against arrived at Point No Point, the two keepers settled for $1,000 for the combined 10.36 waves during the storms, and to prevent hung a household kerosene lantern in the acres. The U.S. Lighthouse Board also pur- the deterioration of the crest of the beach. lighthouse as a temporary beacon. There chased a 40-foot-wide easement between The spacious duplex dwelling was two were no windows in the lighthouse lantern; the two parcels and reserved an additional thus, the temporary kerosene lantern was unclaimed 18 acres south of the spit for gov- extinguished frequently by wind. The keep- ernment use. ers were watchful, though, and kept the By the summer of 1879, all land had light going. Maggs detailed the first month’s been purchased, and on September 19 con- difficulties in the lighthouse journal: struction of the lighthouse, fogbell tower, January 2, 1880—Very disagreeable and keepers’ duplex dwelling began. Bad for keepers to attend to it [the kerosene weather slowed the project, but by the end lantern] and keep it going, as the tower of December 1879, the light station was had to be ascended from the outside by a near completion. A report made to the U.S. common lader. [sic] Lighthouse Board described the site: January 4, 1880—Had to put canvas The tower is a detached brick tower, around outside of lantern to keep violent and is placed 200 feet northeast of the wind from blowing out light. dwelling, near the outer end of the spit. The bad weather continued well over a The bell, formerly used as a fog signal at month. Maggs noted that he had lived on the New Dungeness Light Station, was Puget Sound for 22 years and never seen transferred in April to this station, and a such bad weather. frame tower was built for it a short dis- It was February 5 before the plate glass tance south of the light-tower. To reclaim for the lantern windows was installed. The that portion of the interior of the salt lens pedestal was bolted to the floor of the marsh, which lies within the reservation, lantern the next day. Maggs and Edwards an earthen dike was thrown up along the Keeper John S. Maggs. Courtesy of the Coast “set a common house lamp on the pedestal” dividing line from the western to the east- Guard Museum NW. to serve mariners until the lens arrived. It The Keeper’s Log—Spring 2015 Reprinted from the U. S. Lighthouse Society’s The Keeper’s Log – Spring, 2015 <www.USLHS.org> in a wooden framework tower about 100 feet south of the lighthouse. It went into service April 28, 1880, and sounded a single bong every 30 seconds when in use. A fog- bell striking apparatus, possibly made by Gamewell or Stevens, was installed in the tower to operate the bell. It was similar to a cuckoo clock with a clockwork mecha- nism and weights suspended in the wooden bell tower to power the metal hammer that struck the bell. When in use during foggy periods, the keepers were required to wind up the weights every 45 minutes. The bell had been cast in 1855 at J. Ber- nhard Foundry in Philadelphia and shipped around Cape Horn to the West Coast for use in New Dungeness Lighthouse, com- pleted in 1857 on the tip of a long sand spit at Sequim. The bell was deemed “almost, if not quite, useless” at that site, probably due to prevailing winds stifling its sound. When New Dungeness received a steam fog An aerial shot of Point No Point, date unknown, and Norwegian Point in the upper right, shows whistle in 1873, the bell was removed and a sparsely populated area. Today the road to the lighthouse is lined with homes, many inhab- placed in storage until the light station at ited year-round.