Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, built in the mid-1850s and originally named cape Hancock, shown here with gun batteries from the Civil War era. Located at the SW tip of Washington state. Thank you dear Debbie for the great card.
"The Cape Disappointment Light is a lighthouse on Cape Disappointment near the mouth of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington." Find more info here.
The area got the name from a fur trader named John Meares. He saw the headland and tried to cross over the bar into the Columbia River. When he missed, he named the area Cape Disappointment. Given that the Columbia River is the second longest river in the US at over 1200 miles long. By the time the current reaches the Pacific, it crashes creating a hazardous bar that mariners must cross. Due to this fact, the area has become known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Originally, locals cut the tops of trees and used a white flag to create a daymark. At night they would set trees on fire to mark the entrance. By 1848, the Government agreed that a lighthouse was needed, but it would still be almost another eight years before a lighthouse was built."
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