|
Cattle Point, WA |
  |
Description:
The southern tip of San Juan Island is known as Cattle Point, and, as you have likely surmised, there has to be a cattle-related story connected to the point. Cattle appeared at the point in 1853, when the Hudson’s Bay Company established a ranch on the southern end of the island, populating it with sheep and cattle, which were off-loaded near the point. Four years later, a vessel was stranded nearby, and its load of cattle was forced to swim ashore near the point. The following year, 1888, Cattle Point showed up on British charts.
The first navigational aid on the point was a lens lantern established in 1888. A local contract keeper was hired to trim the wick and change the fuel tank weekly. Several five-gallon barrels of kerosene were brought to nearby Griffin Bay every couple of months by a lighthouse tender. A radio compass station was established by the Navy near the light in 1921. Using radio signals from Cattle Point, New Dungeness Spit, and Smith Island, ships sailing through the Strait of San Juan de Fuca could pinpoint their location even in dense fog. The modern thirty-four-foot, octagonal, concrete tower on Cattle Point was erected in 1935. The lighthouse received a temporary makeover in 1984, when it was used as a backdrop for an Exxon television commercial. The lighthouse was outfitted with a faux lantern room and a hipped roof for the filming, confusing many a lighthouse buff who saw the commercial. The lighthouse is located within the Cattle Point Interpretive Area. Parking is available near a picnic shelter housed in an old powerhouse, leftover from the Naval Radio Compass Station. Trails lead from the shelter to the lighthouse. Photo Gallery:
1
2
3
References
Purchase prints and gifts featuring photographs on this page Location: Located on the southern tip of San Juan Island. Latitude: 48.45066 Longitude: -122.9633 For a larger map of Cattle Point Lighthouse, click the lighthouse in the above map or get a map from: Mapquest. Travel Instructions: Friday Harbor on San Juan Island can be reached by ferry from Anacortes, which is roughly 75 miles north of Seattle. Once in Friday Harbor, follow Spring Street west out of the town. Spring Street will become San Juan Valley Road. From San Juan Valley Road, turn left on Douglas Road and drive 1.5 miles to Little Road. Turn left on Little Road and drive 0.4 miles where it ends. Turn right on Cattle Point Road and drive roughly six miles to the southern end of the island. Cattle Point Lighthouse is accessible via a short walk along an interpretive trail. The lighthouse is owned by the Coast Guard. Tower closed. Find the closest hotels to Cattle Point Lighthouse Notes from a friend: Kraig writes:Wonderful views can be had from the Cattle Point Interpretive Area, and eagles are often seen perched atop the large trees near the lighthouse. Just north of the lighthouse is American Camp, home to a company of soldiers during the Pig War. The Pig War started when an American settler shot a pig owned by the Hudson’s Bay Company and nearly set off a war between America and Britain. The pig ended up being the only casualty of the standoff, and the conflict was finally settled by arbitration twelve years later, when Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany ruled that San Juan Island belonged to the U.S., not England. See our List of Lighthouses in Washington |
