Destruction Island
Four and a half miles out from Ruby beach towers an island in the shape of a skeletal human hand. It's 80' above sea level and 33 acres around. On this sunless day the name didn't help its gloomy appearance accentuated by an abandoned 92' lighthouse standing darkly in the distance like something straight out of the Lord of the Rings. The reefs around the island are known to have claimed three ships over the years, but that's not where the name came from. In the late 1700's two different ships twelve years apart sent a long boat to shore to collect wood and water, neither returned.
Today, visiting the island is prohibited to all but research scientists who go there to check up on what is almost the Tufted Puffin's last stand in Washington State. They make their homes by burrowing into the loose soil atop the sandstone beneath and have no natural predators as there are no eagles or hawks out there.
For you Fresnel Lens fans, the original light, in service from 1892-1995, was rescued and is preserved and displayed at the Westport Maritime Museum. It's beautiful.
Destruction Island
Four and a half miles out from Ruby beach towers an island in the shape of a skeletal human hand. It's 80' above sea level and 33 acres around. On this sunless day the name didn't help its gloomy appearance accentuated by an abandoned 92' lighthouse standing darkly in the distance like something straight out of the Lord of the Rings. The reefs around the island are known to have claimed three ships over the years, but that's not where the name came from. In the late 1700's two different ships twelve years apart sent a long boat to shore to collect wood and water, neither returned.
Today, visiting the island is prohibited to all but research scientists who go there to check up on what is almost the Tufted Puffin's last stand in Washington State. They make their homes by burrowing into the loose soil atop the sandstone beneath and have no natural predators as there are no eagles or hawks out there.
For you Fresnel Lens fans, the original light, in service from 1892-1995, was rescued and is preserved and displayed at the Westport Maritime Museum. It's beautiful.