Cattle Point Lighthouse is a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

on the southeastern tip of

San Juan Island San Juan Island is the second-largest and most populous of the San Juan Islands in northwestern Washington (state), Washington, United States. It has a land area of 142.59 km2 (55.053 sq mi) and a population of 6,822 as of the United States ...

overlooking the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The international boundary between Canada and the United States runs down the centre ...

where the

Haro Strait The Haro Strait is one of the main channels connecting the Strait of Georgia to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, separating Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada from the San Juan Islands of Washington (state), Washington sta ...

s meet the San Juan Channel, in San Juan County,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

. The light lies adjacent to the state's Cattle Point Natural Resources Conservation Area and, since 2013, is part of the

San Juan Islands National Monument San Juan Islands National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in the Salish Sea in the state of Washington. The monument protects archaeological sites of the Coast Salish peoples, lighthouses and relics of early European American sett ...

History

The first light at Cattle Point was a

lens lantern A lens lantern is a small, self-contained lamp structure which may sometimes be used to serve as a lighthouse. Unlike a regular Fresnel lens, the lantern requires no housing to protect it from the weather; its glass sides would refract I ...

on a post erected in 1888. In 1921, the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

installed a radio compass station. The modern , octagonal, concrete tower on Cattle Point was erected in 1935. Following automation in the late 1950s, the tower's lantern was removed and replaced with a 250-mm drum lens that sits on a short mast on top of the tower. The lighthouse received a temporary makeover in 1984, when it was used as a backdrop for an Exxon television commercial. The commercial's ahistorical additions were subsequently removed. The

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

announced plans to reinforce the structure, which was in danger of collapse from the forces of erosion, during the summer of 2010.

References

{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1935 Lighthouses in Washington (state) Transportation buildings and structures in San Juan County, Washington