Destruction Island Lighthouse

by Robert Harris

Title

Destruction Island Lighthouse

Artist

Robert Harris

Medium

Photograph

Description

In 1775, while at anchor under the lee of the island, the Spanish explorer Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, commander of the schooner Sonora, sent seven men ashore for wood and water. Upon landing, the entire party was killed by Indians, prompting Bodega y Quadra to name the island “Isla de Dolores,” Isle of Sorrow. The British ship Imperial Eagle visited the island in 1787 and dispatched a long boat to explore the nearby coast. During the exploration, the crew rowed some distance up a river where they too were massacred by hostile Indians. Charles W. Barkley, captain of the Imperial Eagle, named the river Destruction. The name was eventually transferred to the nearby island, and the river was called by its Indian name Hoh.
In 1884, the Lighthouse Board requested $85,000 for establishing a first-order light and fog signal on Destruction Island, but Congress granted just $40,000 for the purpose on March 3, 1885. As a light of any less order would not provide the aid navigators required, work on the project was delayed until Congress appropriated an additional $45,000 on August 4, 1886.

Bids for constructing the dwellings, fog signal building, barn, tramway, cisterns, and oil houses, for erecting the tower, and for furnishing the required metalwork were opened on May 29, 1888, and three separate contracts were awarded. James E. Smith was hired to erect the lighthouse for $11,800, while John Cooper of Mt. Vernon, Ohio was contracted to provide the metalwork for $22,400 and J. & S. Carkeek of Seattle were paid $29,595 to build the keeper’s dwellings and various outbuildings.

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February 22nd, 2022

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