Lighthouse keeper to speak at First Friday Lecture in Port Townsend

PORT TOWNSEND — Ginger Nichols will talk about her experience as keeper of the Destruction Island Lighthouse in the 1960s at the First Friday Lecture sponsored by the Jefferson County Historical Society on Friday.

The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the Port Townsend City Council chamber, 540 Water Street.

Admission is by donation. Proceeds support historical society programs.

Nichols lived on the 30-acre island, which is four miles from the mouth of the Hoh River, from 1961 to 1964.

While living there, she was flown to Port Angeles to give birth to a daughter and returned two weeks later.

In “Life at the Destruction Island Lighthouse,” Nichols will tell of the challenges of raising a family on the isolated tabletop island, which rises roughly 80 feet from the Pacific Ocean.

She also will talk about the many tasks necessary to maintain the remote lighthouse.

Construction of the Destruction Island Lighthouse began in 1888. The Coast Guard assumed responsibility for it in 1939 and automated it in 1968.

The beacon was switched off for good in April 2008.

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