Fort Casey

Destination

Around Fort Casey

Notes

Fort Casey Historical State Park is a marine camping spot located 3 miles south of Coupeville on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. It’s a former coast artillery post with four historic guns on display. The park offers breathtaking views of Admiralty Inlet and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Visitors can explore 10,810 feet of saltwater shoreline on Puget Sound (Admiralty Inlet), including Keystone Spit, a 2-mile-plus stretch of land separating Admiralty Bay and Crocket Lake.

Fort Casey was built by the U.S. Army in the late 1800s. It was designed for defense and used as a training facility until the mid-1940s. At first, the fortification on Whidbey Island was part of a new national defense system to protect U.S. coasts and waterways. Soldiers were stationed at Fort Casey from 1899 to 1945. The fort’s 10-inch disappearing guns and other modern weapons were the latest technology in the early 1900s, just like the fort’s plotting rooms, observation stations, and communications systems.

But improvements in warships and the rise of airplanes soon made these forts obsolete. By the 1920s, they weren’t very effective anymore. Fort Casey stayed open for training during World War II, but it was closed soon after the war ended.

Fort Casey is home to Admiralty Head Lighthouse, which stands 127 feet above the waterway where Puget Sound meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The lighthouse was finished in 1903 and has a light keeper’s residence. In 1922, the lighthouse was closed down because it wasn’t as useful for navigation as the nearby lighthouses at Point Wilson and Marrowstone Point. Washington State Parks bought Fort Casey in 1955.