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1857
Lit in 1857, it was the second lighthouse in Washington territory
The New Dungeness Light was first lit in 1857, after the Cape Disappointment Light of 1856. The lighthouse was a 1½-story duplex with a 100-foot tower rising from the roof. The tower was painted black on the top half and white on the lower section.
The spit
The light stands on the longest natural sand spit in the country
The light stands on Dungeness Spit, a sand spit jutting out about 5 miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It is the longest natural sand spit in the United States, and it grows in length by about 15 feet per year. The spit was first recorded by Europeans during the Spanish 1790 Quimper expedition. In 1792 George Vancouver named it New Dungeness, after the Dungeness headland in England.
5 milesAbout how far the spit juts out
“The low sandy point of land, which from its great resemblance to Dungeness in the British Channel, I called New Dungeness.”
George Vancouver, British explorer, writing in 1792
The cracks
Cracks in the tower led to a shorter lighthouse in 1927
Over time the tower developed structural cracks, most likely from a combination of earthquakes and weather erosion. In 1927 the district's chief lighthouse engineer, Clarence Sherman, feared that the tower would topple. It was lowered to its current height of 63 feet. The lantern room from the decommissioned Admiralty Head lighthouse was placed on top, and it was relit with a revolving 4th order Fresnel lens.
The last keepers
The last keepers left in March 1994, and volunteers took over
By 1994 the Dungeness light was one of the few lighthouses in the United States with a full-time keeper. Michelle and Seth Jackson and their dog Chicago were the last to hold the post. In March 1994 the Coast Guard boarded up all the windows at the station, checked the electrical equipment and left. Within months the United States Lighthouse Society started the New Dungeness chapter and secured a lease.
The storm
A storm split the spit in three places in December 2001
Since September 1994, members of the New Dungeness Light Station Association have staffed the station 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. In December 2001 a heavy winter storm forced water over the spit. The next morning the spit was split in three places, and vehicles supplying the lighthouse could not cross for about a month.
In this plan
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article New Dungeness Light and the Wikipedia article Dungeness Spit, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.