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HistoryArchaeological sites indicate Native Americans used the island for thousands of years as a shellfish harvesting site. Europeans first discovered the island during the late 1700s when the Spanish Elisa Expedition surveyed the area. The island was named Patos Island which is Spanish for duck. Alcid sea birds, sometimes referred to as "ducks," are abundant in the area. A rock formation in the small east cove near Toe Pint is shaped like a duck's head.
In the 1890s, a lighthouse station was established at Alden Point and the existing lighthouse was finished in 1918. The lighthouse station was occupied and operated by Lighthouse Service and the U.S. Coast Guard staff and their families until the late 1960s. Civilian employees then Washington State Parks staff lived and operated the site until it was finally automated in the 1970s. Numerous buildings were contructed at the station over the years, but all facilities except the lighthouse have been razed and burned by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The last remaining support building, a 1950s duplex residence, was burned on Nov. 18, 2005. The BLM intends to re-establish native flora to the site.
Interpretive opportunitiesThere are currently no interpretive opportunities at this park.
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