Saturday Hike: Fort Flagler
Ben and I went hiking today at Fort Flagler State Park, on Marrowstone Island, about an hour from home. It’s a pretty fascinating little piece of military history in our own backyard.
Marrowstone Point
Gun emplacement at Battery Lee
Fort Flagler, along with two other Puget Sound area forts, guarded the waterways. Established in the late 1890′s, they became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett.
Battery Revere
Winch at Battery Rawlins
During World War I, ten of the fort’s guns were redeployed – only two remain onsite. During World War II and the Korean War the fort was used for training in amphibious warfare, and at the end of the Korean War, June 7, 1953, Fort Flagler was deactivated.
Battery Calwell
Battery Wansboro, with one of the two remaining guns.
As always, click through to enlarge an image, or for more pictures in my Flickr photo set from the day’s adventure.
September 13th, 2009
Jeri,
Those are beautiful photographs. I forget how much fortification we had on our own shores at the time of the 1st and 2nd WW’s. There are several spots like that in Maine that I get to see when we go there. I hope that we never have to man places like that again.
September 14th, 2009
Interestingly, my son asked me that when we were leaving – did I think those fortifications would ever be used again. I have no idea – but I think that they would not support today’s wired, electronically-enabled method of warfighting, and are probably obsolete.