Most are concrete gun emplacements that housed weapons never fired at enemy ships and became obsolete with the advent of the airplane in World War I.
But inside this grass-covered bunker, military personnel maintained surveillance of the entrance to Puget Sound in the mid-1940s and occupied it into the Cold War era.
“They used hydrophones to detect sonar,” said Alfred Chiswell. “They were listening for low-level sounds.”
Chiswell is president of the Puget Sound Coast Artillery Museum, also located at Fort Worden State Park.
In addition to serving as docents, museum volunteers help maintain the gun emplacements, put up interpretive signs and give guided tours.
Cleaning the bunker
Their latest project: an extensive cleaning of the heavily vandalized surveillance bunker in order to bring the building’s history to light.
“We took about 3,900 pounds of trash out and painted over most of the graffiti,” Chiswell said. “It was a three-year project.”
The volunteers are now starting to offer guided tours of the bunker, the only way to see the interior, on Saturdays.
Built by the Navy in 1943, the bunker served a joint purpose as the Navy’s Harbor Entrance Control Post and the Army’s Harbor Command Defense Post.
Inside one entrance, a decontamination chamber with air locks reminds visitors of the realities of war and the bunker’s purpose — to provide a secure command post in case of chemical, biological or nuclear attack.
Bunker details
“It was built at two right angles to the entrance to absorb a blast,” Chiswell said of the chamber, demonstrating how the air lock on the door could be operated by foot in case the power went out.
The entry hall leads in a narrow hallway running the length of the bunker, off of which are utility rooms.
The larger room, also the length of the bunker, was divided into offices, but vandals tore out the dividing walls and wall surfaces, Chiswell said, leaving the cable raceway exposed.
A photograph from the era, of a man working at a desk, matched the electric light boxes on the back wall, identifying the space as the code room.
Only one other photo has been found of the interior when it was operational, Chiswell said.
“I’d love to have more,” he said.
While none of the original furniture remains, the furnace has been restored, and an original fire extinguisher hangs on one wall.
Outside, the hand-cranked generator that ran the radar unit rusts on the roof, and remnants of the two flag poles remain.
The Navy took over use of the bunker in 1946, Chiswell said, using it into the 1960s as a place for reserve units to meet and train, including learning to lay land mines.
The giant white anchor now down at the end of the parade ground was moved from the bunker, he said, which explains why an anchor is on an Army post.
The bunker’s original radar screen was found where it had been thrown down the hillside, Chiswell said, where it had been used as a trampoline.
The screen is now in the Coast Artillery museum, next to park headquarters.
Generator light
Photographs of Fort Worden being constructed are displayed in one of the bunker’s rooms, illuminated by light from a portable generator.
A donation of $35,000 would bring electric power to the part of Artillery Hill, Chiswell said, allowing it to be rented out for retreats or meetings and also provide power for concerts in the nearby cistern, which has unusual acoustics and is used for recording sessions.
Replacements also need to be found or built for all except one of the bunker’s 14 interior doors, which were torn off and destroyed.
“They’re five-panel, 84-inch high doors, an odd size that is larger than normal,” Chiswell said.
Near the bunker is another concrete historic structure that protected the fort switchboard.
Built in 1919, the structure is not open for public tours because of its condition — the interior was burned out to discourage people camping or squatting in it, Chiswell said.
“It’s a lost cause,” Chiswell said. “We got most of the trash out of it.”
Chiswell hopes that if people realize the history that Artillery Hill holds and how many hundreds of hours volunteers put into keeping its structures from being trashed, they will treat them with more respect.
They are more than local treasures. The Coast Defense Study Group, whose members travel all over the world studying fortifications, is meeting at Fort Worden State Park in April 2010 to tour the gun emplacements.
The command post bunker will be a highlight.
“We need to educate people about what it has been,” Chiswell said. “It’s a beautiful historical site.
“There’s a mystique about it.”
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.
