In 1788, Captain John Meares, one of several explorers who managed to confirm the existence of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, visited a small island a half mile off Cape Flattery. Meares encountered the "surly and forbidding" Tatooche, Chief of the Makah Indians who had been using the island as a summer base for hunting whales and catching and drying salmon for years. Meares reportedly named the island Tatoosh after the Chief.

Cape Flattery Lighthouse and outbuildings Photograph courtesy Clallam County Historical Society

In 1849-50, William McArthur led an expedition surveying sites for lighthouses along the west coast. McArthur gave the following report after visiting Cape Flattery.

A lighthouse is much needed also at Cape Flattery and I would recommend that it be situated on Tatoochi Island, a small island almost touching the Northwest extremity of Cape Flattery … to vessels bound from seaward a lighthouse on this island would be of much assistance. It would enable them to enter the straits, when the absence of a light would frequently compel them to stay at sea until daylight.

Congress allocated a sum of $39,000 in 1854 to construct both the Cape Flattery Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island and one on the New Dungeness Spit. These two lights were part of the second batch of eight lighthouses to be completed on the west coast.

Although the government paid $30,000 for the island in 1855, the construction crew did not receive a warm reception upon their arrival. An outbreak of smallpox had killed several hundred of the Makah Indians in 1853, and the Makah were understandably reluctant to have more disease bearing "Bostons" around. The Indians continued to use the island during the summer, prompting the construction workers to build a blockhouse of rough-hewn timbers for protection, before beginning work on the lighthouse. One member of the work crew was always on guard duty, but other than a few missing supplies and tools, there were no problems with the Indians.

Like most of the early west coast lighthouses, the construction plans called for a one-and-a-half story dwelling with a tower protruding through the roof. This design permitted the keepers to access the tower without having to be exposed to the possibly harsh weather that might exist outdoors. The tower of this lighthouse was taller than most of the Cape Cod style lighthouses, and was also large enough to house a first-order Fresnel lens. The lens, found to be too large for the Point Loma Lighthouse for which it was ordered, was first illuminated in the tower on December 28, 1857, two weeks after the New Dungeness Lighthouse.

A principal keeper and three assistants were assigned to the lighthouse. During the first years, several keepers resigned due to poor pay and the miserable conditions they encountered on the island. A visitor to the island in 1861 noted the dilapidated state of the lighthouse. The roof leaked, moss grew on the interior walls, and winds blowing across the top of the chimney caused smoke to back up in the dwelling.

In an act of nepotism, Victor Smith, the new customs collector for the Puget Sound District, appointed his father George K. Smith principal keeper in 1862. During his tenure, the District Inspector reported: "the light is in deplorable condition. He (Smith) has with him two assistants who are as ignorant as he is. They have got the light out of order and are unable to repair it." The inspector suggested the station should be opened to families so it would be "no longer at the mercy of the rollicking bachelors who have had possession since its establishment." The station would not receive its first family until 1885. In 1865, Victor Smith transferred his father to the just completed Ediz Hook Lighthouse, located closer to the younger Smith's residence in Port Angeles.

A fog signal building with a 12-inch steam whistle was built on the island in 1872. To provide the necessary water, a 33,000-gallon cistern was also added to the island. In 1875, the lighthouse dwelling was described as not being fit to be occupied. A new duplex was built nearby, and the rooms in the lighthouse were used for storage. When families arrived at the station, more living space was required, and the dwelling in the lighthouse was made habitable once again in 1894. Three years after the families arrived, the stations population jumped again when a weather station was established on the island.

Though living conditions on the island improved over the years, it was still an isolated place. To supplement the lighthouse tender deliveries, the keepers hired local Indians to transport people, supplies, and mail to the island. The Indians received $1 per trip in calm conditions, and that sum was doubled if the seas were rough. One fearless Indian named Old Doctor lost three dugouts on the island's rocks while trying to deliver supplies. It is claimed that a piano and even a cow made it to the island thanks to the Indian delivery service.

The lives of the keepers on the island produced some memorable stories. One of the first principal keepers, Francis James, became enraged with an assistant keeper and threw hot coffee in his face. The men decide to settle the dispute with a gunfight. Outside the lighthouse, the men took three shots at each other before calling it a draw and shaking hands. An assistant keeper later confessed to having removed the bullets from the shells.

The next story might be a bunch of …, well you'll see. A seventy-mile-per-hour gale that swept across the island in 1921 sent keeper John M. Cowan tumbling across the island for some 300 feet. By tenaciously clinging to vegetation growing on the island, Cowan avoided being swept off the island and was able to crawl to safety. The Cowan's bull, equipped with only its hoofs, was not as fortunate and was blown off the island. The bull was listed in the station's log as lost at sea, but to everyone's surprise it managed to swim ashore and was rewarded with extra rations.

Keeper John Cowan arrived at Cape Flattery Lighthouse in 1900 with his wife and seven children, and another child was born to the couple four years later. For ten years, the Cowans sent their children to live with relatives in Portland so they could attend school, but the family was always together on the island during the summer months. The Cowans never left the island during that period, as they had to save every penny to support their children. A school was eventually established on the island, when the families serving at the light, radio, and weather stations had enough children to merit one.

Keeper Cowan is credited with saving the lives of five people while serving at Cape Flattery. One of Cowan's rescue involved a boat that was traveling between Tatoosh Island and Neah Bay. When Cowan saw that the vessel was foundering in heavy seas, he set off in the storm to offer assistance. He managed to rescue two navy radio men, but was unable to save the three other individuals aboard the vessel one of whom was his own son Forrest, who served in the lighthouse service under his father's command.

Cowan served at Cape Flattery Lighthouse for thirty-two years, leaving the station in 1932 when he reached the mandatory retirement age of seventy. Less arduous assignments had been offered to Cowan during his tenure on Tatoosh Island, but he turned them down preferring to remain on the island.

The weather station on Tatoosh Island was closed in 1966, and its buildings were demolished. The light station was automated in 1977, and the island lost its last year-round inhabitants. A fourth-order lens replaced the first-order Fresnel lens sometime in 1932, and a Vega Rotating Beacon served as the light source in recent years. In 1999, substantial maintenance and repair work was performed on the island's remaining structures. Windows and rotten beams were replaced, walls were plastered, smoke detectors were installed, and the fog signal was repaired. A fence was rebuilt around the cemetery, which contains the graves of two keeper's children, a reminder of the many people who once called Tatoosh Island home.

In September 2009, a three-phase clean-up of Cape Flattery was completed by the Coast Guard. Old generators and fuel tanks were removed, and a new thirty-foot skeletal tower was erected that will require a checkup only once per year. The decommissioned Cape Flattery Lighthouse will eventually be turned over to the Makah Indian Tribe, who control the island.

Photo Gallery: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. "Cape Flattery Light Station," Wayne Wheeler, The Keeper's Log, Summer 2001.
2. Umbrella Guide to Washington Lighthouses, Sharlene and Ted Nelson, 1990.
3. Lighthouses of the Pacific, Jim Gibbs, 1986.

A fourth-order Fresnel lens reportedly used in the Cape Flattery Lighthouse is on display at the Museum at the Carnegie in Port Angeles. The museum is open open Wednesday through Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m., and is located at 207 South Lincoln Street.