Jason Goldstein readying his kit. Photo by Steve Weileman

In 1775 the Spanish explorer Bruno de Heceta is alleged to have discovered the island know today as Destruction Island. While searching for water in a near-by river his men where attacked and killed by hostile natives, prompting him to name his anchorage Isle of Sorrows. Later Captain Charles Barkley suffered the same fate; giving the river where his men perished the name of Destruction River. Finally, Captain George Vancouver, while surveying the Pacific Northwest, charted the island as Destruction Island. Long before Europeans arrived the natives used the island to grow potatoes.

As we readied our kit in yet another attempt to reach the offshore island, I hoped that our fate wouldn’t be quite so dramatic. Twice last year we where thwarted in our attempt to document the lighthouse and island; once by 14′ seas that we just couldn’t break out of, and then by Jason coming down with fever, however the conditions seem to be in our favor this time with fair weather forecasted.

The signature lighthouse was built between 1889-91 with the 94 foot tower and first order Fresnel lens being lit on December 31^st, 1891. It certainly was an isolated duty for the light tenders but for those married, they could have their family’s accompany them. In addition to the tower, two oil houses were built, a water cistern, fog sire housing, a barn, and derrick platform for lifting supplies from tenders.

Making our way toward Destruction Island. Photo by Jason Goldstein

The families planted gardens and had live stock grazing on the island. A story relates how when the boiler-fed first class steam siren was replaced by a diaphragm horn the station bull would go on a rampage thinking he had a rival for the cows. It was a hard but rewarding life for those who lived there. The particularly bad storm during the winter of 1930 sent seas crashing up to the plateau of the island, doing some damage to the station outbuildings, and windows in the tower. The lighthouse was automated in 1968, with the homes of the families razed. In April of this year the automated light was removed and the once proud beacon has been delegate to the title of ‘abandoned building’.

In a previous visit to the island we had used Ruby Beach as our put-in/take-out, but it has a steep back breaking trail from the parking lot to the beach. Although the paddle from the Kalaloch National Park is twice as far, we decided that we’d rather paddle then man-haul any day! A lone surf fisherman was awake as we launched through the 4′ surf. Once outside the breakers we turned our bows toward the island and double checked our charted bearing. Just as well, as shortly after leaving the surf zone, we where blanketed by fog which stayed with us most of the 6 NM journey.

Entering the reef system which surrounds the island. Photo by Jason Goldstein

As we paddled up to the old loading platform, which with the exception of the old walkway, is unrecognizable as such, things looked much the same as last time we paddled out. However, unlike last time, as the nesting season was over for the Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) and Glaucous Gull (Larus hyperboreus) which colonize on the islands, we where determined to pay the lighthouse our respects.

To be continued…

Tags: Destruction Island, Kalaloch, lighthouse

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 1:20 pm and is filed under Journal Entry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.