QUILCENE — John Austin has found something a little different in the Quilcene area woods.
By foot, his discovery is well off the beaten path. Austin, the Jefferson County commissioner for District 3, said that to walk to it is a wild trek across private property lines, abandoned roads and long forgotten trails.
“I had a guide who knew where it was and still, I wasn’t sure if we were going to run into it,” Austin said of his first trip to the oddity located near the shores of Pulali Point back in April.
“And then, when we got there, I didn’t know exactly what it was.”
This thing, this discovery, this forgotten structure Austin found in the woods, is difficult to describe.
When approaching the site by boat — as Austin did last week — the object looks like an old, super-sized phone booth with a set of rickety wood stairs leading up to it.
Above that, hidden in the woods, is a large dome structure with a small hatch on the side.
Inside the hatch is an old, mounted contraption of mammoth instrumentation that looks like a part of a periscope from some long-abandoned plans for a submarine.
Guess: something military
Austin thinks it might have been used to observe activity in the Quilcene Bay during military exercises. But he admits, that is only a guess.
Despite his questioning, Austin hasn’t found an answer on what the purpose of the site served before it was abandoned.
What it definitely is — or was — is an old, abandoned naval structure of some type. But even Navy employees don’t remember what it’s for.
Spencer Horning, a public liaison for the Navy, said he sent a few interns out to inspect the location in early May after Austin contacted them.
“They went up and observed the location,” Horning said.
“I don’t really know what they found out. I don’t honestly know what it is.
“It definitely was a Navy site at one point, though.”
Austin said he discovered the site listed in some paperwork that found its way across his desk a few years ago.
“The building was sort of mentioned in a proposal we saw for the state considering giving the county some lands for parks,” he said.
“It talked about how the area was only accessible by steps built by the Navy.”
The land transfer didn’t happen, but Austin said he didn’t forget about that footnote on the facility.
“Something was out there, and no one knew what it was,” he said.
“I kept it in the back of my mind.”
When Austin first found the location by foot, he contacted the Navy and asked officials to look at the site.
“When you got there, you could see it was untouched,” Austin said.
“But eventually it’s going to get trashed.”
Austin was hoping the Navy would move the equipment inside the large dome, possibly to a naval museum, to preserve the history of the site.
“That didn’t happen,” Austin said.
Gave Austin the key
“But they did put a lock on the hatch into the big dome and gave me the key.”
So last week, Austin returned to the site with Bill Tennent, executive director of the Jefferson County Historical Society, on the boat of JD and Connie Gallant.
“We had to document it before it got destroyed,” Austin said.
Tennent said the historical society has a goal of documenting all historic structures in the area.
“We don’t typically take them over or protect them,” Tennent said. “What we do is document them, take pictures, provide a record that they were here in the county.
“This is probably over, or pretty close to, 50 years old, making it historic. Also, this is interesting, because we don’t really know what it is.”
Upon arrival, Tennent took photographs and explored.
The only noticeable vandalism on the structures is the writing, “Darma Property” near the hatch.
Tennent smiled, recognizing that the graffiti near the hatch to the building was likely a reference to the television show, “Lost.”
“Yeah, it is kind of like that with the hatch and everything,” Tennent said.
Overall, the site is in good shape considering the neglect it has suffered, he said.
But that can all change overnight, Austin noted.
“Honestly, I am a little disappointed they left the equipment out here,” Austin said.
“It’s part of our history, and I’d like it to remain that way.”
For now, Austin said he will have to be satisfied with the lock on the building.
He said that the difficulty of accessing the location likely would keep most vandals away.
“It is a really, really long walk in,” he said, “or a boat ride, where all you can see is a big, oversized phone booth.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
