Five things
#1. Fort Flagler, along with Fort Worden and Fort Casey, was part of the Triangle of Fire, three forts that guarded Admiralty Inlet, the entrance to Puget Sound. Together with Fort Whitman on Goat Island in Skagit Bay and Fort Ward on Bainbridge Island, these five forts were part of the national coast defense system, built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to protect commercial shipping routes into Puget Sound and the naval station near Port Orchard (today’s Puget Sound Naval Station).
#2. The national coast defense system was in part a response to the decline of the U.S. Navy after the Civil War. By the late 1870s, the Navy had barely 6,000 men and its ships were outdated. To secure the enormous, often complex coastline of the United States, the federal government slowly developed the national coast defense system, consisting largely of guns mounted behind strong walls. One of these fortifications was Fort Flagler, the batteries, barracks, officer housing, and hospital of which were built between 1897 and 1906.
#3. The park’s nine gun batteries, military buildings, and searchlight housings make for interesting exploration. On the beach below the searchlights, look for giant concrete pieces of the housings that have broken off; some of the old lights are stashed near the park museum. When the military built the batteries and searchlights, concrete construction was a new technology, and the Puget Sound forts are evidence of its sturdy longevity.
#4. On a clear day, Fort Casey and Fort Worden are easy to see from the bluffs of Fort Flagler. The headquarters were at Fort Worden, and soldiers would take steamboats or row across Port Townsend Bay to enjoy social events there. Still, Fort Flagler’s “dismal isolation” led many coast artillerymen to desert, according to Battle Ready, an excellent book about the Puget Sound coast defense fortifications. Standing on a sunlit bluff on a gorgeous summer day, it’s difficult to imagine the lives of the artillerymen who served here. Their days were mind-numbingly dull, a drudgery of never-ending drills in the constant rain and no actual action, all for considerably lower pay than could be earned working in nearby lumber mills or shipyards.
#5. The eastern point of the park houses a lighthouse and buildings that comprise the United States Geological Survey’s Western Fisheries Research Center, Marrowstone Marine Station. Although visitors cannot enter the buildings, you can walk the beach around the station. A few people were trying their luck fishing, but the day we visited there was too much sea vegetation in the surf and the fish weren’t cooperating. Just behind the USGS station is a firing range used during World War I by soldiers stationed there.
Fast Facts about Fort Flagler Historical State Park
- 1451-acre camping park, open year-round
- 19,100’ saltwater shoreline
- picnic tables, reservable kitchen shelter with electric
- seasonal concessions include Beachcomber Cafe (food and supplies) and Olympic Kayak Tours
- 5 miles hiking trails, 2 miles beach trail, interpretive trail
- 256” dock and moorage, 7 moorage buoys, 2 boat launches
- boating, clamming, crabbing, fishing, swimming, diving
- birding, kite flying, paragliding
- seasonal museum and gift shop
- seasonal guided tours of gun emplacements and military hospital
- two campgrounds, one on the beach and one in the forest: 50 standard sites, 55 full hookup, 2 hiker/biker, 1 Cascadia Marine Trail site, one dump station, 2 restrooms, 2 group camps
- Discover Pass required, $10 daily or, for a very reasonable $30, purchase an annual pass
- vacation houses, camping, and retreat center reservable online or by calling 888-CAMPOUT
- park brochure
- park map
Land Acknowledgment
Fort Flagler Historical State Park occupies the traditional and unceded lands of the Chimacum, Jamestown S’Klallam, and Port Gamble S’Klallam peoples, who have lived and travelled here since time immemorial.
