Aerial view of Burrows Island Lighthouse Photograph courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

Burrows Island Lighthouse, located on the southwestern end of the island, warns of the dangers of nearby Dennis Shoal and Lawson Reef. The wood framed lighthouse was designed by C.W. Lieck, who also designed the somewhat similar Mukilteo lighthouse around the same time period. The 34-foot-tall square tower is attached to a fog signal building, which originally held a Daboll trumpet fog signal.

The fourth-order Fresnel lens, a white light with a red sector, was first lit on April 1, 1906. Unbelievably, during the first three months of operation the fog signal never had to be sounded. The next year it blew for 329 hours.

The island's shoreline is primarily sheer rock with sharp drop-offs while steep hills covered with evergreens or grass make up most of the island. The light station was built on one of the few level spots on the island. Originally, the station included the combination light tower and fog signal building, a keepers' duplex, a boathouse, and a derrick. Later, a bungalow was built north of the duplex to house an additional keeper. When electricity came, a power plant was added. Every eight months the buoy tender Fir delivered enough fuel to keep the generators going.

On Election Day in 1960, Nancy Johnson cast her ballot for JFK, and then traveled to Burrows Island with her two infant daughters, Jennifer and JoJo, to join her husband Richard, who had already been serving as officer-in-charge of the station for one month. During the Johnson's three-year stay on the island, a third daughter, Jill, was born. When Nancy started having contractions, she was taken by boat to the hospital in Anacortes.

To prevent any of their children from accidentally falling into the water, the Johnsons installed locks on all of their doors and made sure that someone always had an eye on the children when they were outside. The family also had a dog named Johnsy that helped look after the children and together with other dogs at the station sounded alerts when visitors arrived or when boats offshore were in trouble.

One summer the family was watching "Hawaii 5-0" on TV when they heard a commotion outside. "There was all this jumping, splashing, squealing, and grunting," Nancy recalls, and the family rushed outside to see their first pod of Orcas playing in the kelp beds near the island. Another sound frequently heard on the island, the fog signal, wasn't quite so welcomed, as one of the Johnson daughters would cry continuously until it stopped going off.

Andrew (Andy) and D'Wanda Giles were stationed on Burrows Island from January 1966 until June 1968. Frank Showers was the Office in Charge (OIC) when the Gileses arrived, and Seaman Andrew Goodwin and his wife Stephanie were also serving at the station. D’Wanda remembers the spectacular view from the front windows of their living quarters that often included Orca pods, ferries plying to and from Vancouver Island, and occasionally planes from NAS Whidbey Island conducting bombing practice on a cluster of rocks in the water straight out from the island. The planes looked like they were dropping bags of flour, and a loud “WHOMP” could be heard as the as the makeshift bombs hit their target.

The OIC occupied a keeper’s bungalow while the Gileses resided in the duplex. Each side of the duplex had a foyer, living room, dining room, pantry, kitchen, and an enormous laundry room complete with double sinks and folding table on the main floor with two bedrooms, a huge bath and storage on the second floor. A full attic, accessed by a rope ladder, provided more storage, and the basement was finished with workbenches. The Coast Guard furnished the duplex, providing a washer and dryer, vacuum cleaner, and all the paper products and cleaning materials.

When D'Wanda Giles and Stephanie Goodwin were pregnant in 1967, all three of the coastguardsmen had to watch an instructional film on delivering a baby, but luckily this training did not have to be called upon. Andy Giles received notice on the station’s radio when his first child, a daughter named Candace, was born, and then took thirty days of leave before bringing the infant back to the island. The men rotated shifts, and every third week received a weekend off. If the weather were good, they would often take one of the station’s boats and go to town to pick up the mail and any needed supplies.

The enlisted families had to alternate laundry days, as the power drain was otherwise too much for the diesel generator. However, if the foghorn were in operation, no laundry could be done, and even the ovens couldn’t be used. After the first soundings of the fog horn, the regular blasts would soon become background noise, and the families had to focus to notice the signal was even operating.

The light was automated in 1972. A modern optic replaced the Fresnel lens in the early 1990s, and the boathouse and keepers' dwelling were boarded up. A helicopter landing pad now stands where the keeper's bungalow was located. The original lens can now be found at the Coast Guard Station in Port Angeles.

Forty acres of the island now make up Burrows Island State Park, which includes the light station and 1000 feet of shoreline. A trail behind the lighthouse winds through groves of madronas to the top of the island, where the 650-foot climb is rewarded with a spectacular view of Rosario Strait.

On April 27, 2006 the availability of the Burrows Island Light Station to an eligible entity was announced under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. Applications for the lighthouse were made, but the National Park Service has yet to announce the result of the review process.

References

1. "In Focus - Nancy Johnson Remembers Burrows Light," The Focal Point, July 2007.
2. Lighthouses of the Pacific, Jim Gibbs, 1986.
3. Umbrella Guide to Washington Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1998.
4. Email from D'Wanda Giles, December, 2009.