Barbers-Point

Chris J LeBlanc Photography - Lighthouses

Providing details and historical information of lighthouse pictures taken during my travels

New Dungeness Lighthouse

New Dungeness, Washington

Location: Located at the remote end of a 5 1/2 mile-long sandspit north of Sequim.

Latitude: N 48.18169

Longitude: W 123.11019

Year Constructed: 1857. Active (privately maintained)

Tower Height: 63 feet Focal Plane: 67 feet

Stucco-clad brick tower with lantern and gallery, rising from a 1-story assistant keeper's house. Buildings painted white with red roofs. 1-1/2 story frame principal keeper's house (1905). The lantern was relocated from the Admiralty Head Light in 1927.

Historical Information:

Location: ADMIRALTY ISLAND/ST. OF JUAN DE FUCA

Station Established: 1857

Year Current Tower(s) First Lit: 1857

Operational? YES

Automated? YES 1976

Foundation Materials: SANDSTONE BLOCKS

Construction Materials: SANDSTONE/BRICK/STUCCO

Tower Shape: CONICAL

Markings/Pattern: WHITE W/BLACK LANTERN & RED ROOF

Original Lens: THIRD ORDER, FRESNEL 1857

New Dungeness Spit, a six-mile flat spit barely visible from a distance, is one of the largest natural spits in the world. Captain George Vancouver named it "New Dungeness" because it reminded him of Dungeness Point on England's southeast coast, where a light has guided mariners since around 1600. Perhaps Vancouver imagined a light someday gracing New Dungeness as well.

A half century later, in 1849, the spot was designated as a site for a lighthouse and on December 14, 1857, the light from the New Dungeness Lighthouse, the second lighthouse established in the Washington territory, was exhibited for the first time.

The original New Dungeness lighthouse was a 1 ½ story Cape Cod style duplex with a tower rising from the roof. The tower stood at 92 feet and had an unusual color pattern. The bottom half was painted white, the top half painted black, and the lantern room a bright red. The lightstation also had a fog bell, which was replaced by a steam whistle in 1873.

Two keepers manned the lighthouse until 1895 when two more were added. Requests were made for additional living quarters, and eventually a second keepers' quarters was built in 1905.

Over time, the tower developed structural cracks and in 1927, it was shortened by 30 feet. With the new tower dimensions, the original lantern room and lens was too large for the tower, so they were replaced by the lantern room and fourth-order lens from the decommissioned Admiralty Head. The remodeled tower was painted white from top to bottom, the same as it appears today.

New Dungeness was the last Coast Guard manned lighthouse on the West Coast. In 1994, the last keeper left.