Westport
The only thing I knew about Westport was its reputation as a great fishing location. Many years ago, I went there with a group of friends on a charter fishing boat. I don’t remember much about that day because I spent most of it inside the cabin where the boat’s rocking didn’t leave the same impression. I’m pretty sure I didn’t catch any fish.
Westport was a summer resort for Native Americans before the arrival of the first white settlers in 1857. Located on the lower lip of Grays Harbor, it grew slowly as a village for fishing, for harvesting shellfish, seafood processing, and tourism. The town was incorporated as the City of Westport in July of 1914. With a population of just over 2000, the attractions and economics of Westport remain the same as 100 years ago, with the addition of boat building as a newer contribution.
The major activity in Westport takes place at the Marina which is lined on the inside with restaurants, shops of all kinds, and places to sign up for a day on a fishing charter. On the ocean side are hundreds of boats, both commercial and private, coming and going all day long. Visitors flock to Westport to catch salmon, halibut, ling cod, rockfish and albacore tuna. Most of the crews on the charter boats will clean and fillet your fish for you and have them ready before you leave the vessel. A store selling fresh fish and seafood sits on one of the docks where you can purchase your dinner that is just out of the water.
On the nearby jetty, piers and docks, anglers line up and down with their poles, nets and coolers, hoping to catch rock and Dungeness crabs or their limit of whatever is in season. It was fun to see young children learning to fish with their parents and sharing a hobby that may have been in their families for many years.
At the north end of the marina sits the Port of Grays Harbor Observation Tower that provides 360 degree views of Westport and the Pacific Ocean. I took my camera to the tower’s top level and waited for the sun to go down. Despite April’s evening cool temperature there were people surfing in the water below. Apparently Westhaven Park, the largest park in Westport, provides excellent conditions year-round for both beginner and experienced surfers. By the time sundown came I had braved the cold to capture some lovely images.
The Westport Maritime Museum, also located along the marina, showcases the maritime history of the South Beach area. The museum resides in the former Coast Guard building, having moved in following the Coast Guard’s relocation to a newer facility. Two floors of exhibits offer a fascinating collection of items relating to just about anything about life at sea. From glass floats and seashells to navigation, ecology, shipwrecks, the Native people who were the first fishermen, and much more. Adjacent to the main building are the two Whale Houses that contain enormous sea mammal skeletons, I was pleasantly surprised at the breadth of artifacts and information shared.
The lens from the Destruction Island lighthouse is housed in a separate structure adjacent to the Maritime Museum, specifically built to accommodate the lens’s 17-foot height and 6-ton weight. The Fresnel lens, containing 24 concentric rings with 1,176 prisms, was built in 1890 in France and is still in working order today. A skylight above the lens lets natural sunlight dance on the prisms, while the lens slowly rotates, casting its twenty-four spotlights around the room. The lens’s display allows visitors to see all sides of the lens as it rotates. This lens is known as the finest first-order lens in the world. Fresnel lenses are categorized by size and weight, known as orders, with first-order being the largest and heaviest.
The Grays Harbor Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in Washington State. At 107 feet high, its construction was completed in 1898. Its walls are four feet thick at its base, tapering to 18 inches toward the top. There are 135 very narrow, cast-iron circular steps leading up to the lantern room which still contains its original lens. The clamshell shaped third-order Fresnel lens is 7 feet across, 5 feet high, weighing 2.5 tons and contains 252 prisms. An interesting scientific point - the lighthouse was originally placed 300 feet from the water’s edge. But, as a result of land accumulation from the construction of the jetty system in the 1900’s, the distance from the high tide mark is now 3,000 feet. The circular stairway and the outside view from the lantern room are magical.
During my last visit to Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties I stayed overnight in Westport. Wishing for another sunset I went to Cohasset Beach knowing full well that the chances were slim. The night was extremely foggy yet the beach’s parking lot was packed with cars whose passengers had come to dig for razor clams. Walking toward the beach at first I didn’t see anyone at all. I was almost at the water’s edge when I suddenly saw what appeared to be lines of people clamming, but they were partially and mysteriously concealed by the fog. It was one of the most beautiful images I’d ever seen, and was gift for my camera and me.
