Cape Flattery Lighthouse
Cape Flattery, Makah Bay
First lit: 1857
Automated: 1977
48.3717 -124.7366
Cape Flattery was so named by Captain Cook in 1778 when he arrived at the Northwesternmost point of what would eventually become Washington State. “In this very latitude geographers have placed the pretended Strait of Juan de Fuca. Nothing of that kind presented itself to our view.” And so he dubbed the cape a “flatterer.”
Cook erred. The nearby Strait of San Juan de Fuca leads to the massive Puget Sound which hosts such cities as Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The lighthouse was built with the light tower itself incorporated into the building so that the keepers did not have to risk the hostile natives to maintain the light. The natives were hostile because they ha
