Lime Kiln Point State Park History

Lime Kiln Point State Park provides an opportunity for park visitors to view orca whales from shore in an area with connections to the cultural stories of the picturesque San Juan Islands.

Suspect Terranes

The bedrock landscape of the San Juan Islands is made of assemblages of rocks called terranes that have been thrust over one another like a stack of cards by tectonic forces.

The rocks in the terrane exposed at Lime Kiln Point State Park are a collection of oceanic rocks that include chert (a dense sedimentary rock made of microscopic, interlocking quartz crystals precipitated from ocean water), limestone (formed from ancient coral reefs), and lava that erupted on the ocean floor. The lava formed distinctive bulbous masses called pillow basalt, having quickly hardened on contact with cold seawater as it erupted.

The limestone is visible as pods or lenses, thick in the middle and thin on the edges, like a doubly convex lens. The light-colored limestone is surrounded by the other rocks that formed around it on the ocean floor.

Interestingly, small fossilized protozoan animals visible in the limestone, known as Neoschwagerina, indicate that this terrane formed in an ancient body of water known as the Tethys Sea, adjacent to the Asian continent. Over hundreds of millions of years, the terrane moved 6,000 miles or more on an oceanic tectonic plate that eventually brought it into contact with the North American continent. As geologists began unraveling the history of far-traveled terranes in the 1980s and 1990s, the term suspect terrane became a favored term for their classification.

Indigenous Lands

Lime Kiln Point State Park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Lummi Nation, Samish Indian Nation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and Suquamish Tribe. For thousands of years this area has provided habitat for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures.

The waters of Haro Strait plunge more than 950 feet deep just offshore at Lime Kiln Point, the deepest channel in the San Juan Islands. This biologically rich zone hosts bull kelp forests close to shore that support a wide variety of fish and shellfish and shelter young salmon on their way out to sea. Deeper waters are used by mature salmon returning to their spawning streams.

Local tribes ceded ownership of the area to the US federal government under duress in the Treaty of Point Elliot in 1855, keeping rights to harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places including the waters of Haro Strait off the west side of San Juan Island.

International Dispute

The 1846 Oregon Treaty established the border between the United States and British territories at the 49th parallel but was unclear about the maritime boundary between the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The 1856-57 Boundary Commission was also unable to settle on the location of the border. As a result, both countries claimed the San Juan Islands. The British Hudson’s Bay Company developed a sheep farming operation on San Juan Island and more than 20 American farmers began establishing private farms on the island.

On June 15, 1859, Lyman Cutler, an American farmer, shot and killed a pig belonging to Charles Griffin, an Irish employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, when he found it rooting in his garden. Cutler’s offer of compensation was rudely refused by Griffin, and British authorities threatened to arrest Cutler, prompting American settlers to request US military protection.

Captain George Pickett was dispatched to the island with 66 American soldiers. Captain Geoffrey Hornby arrived with three British warships to counter the American military presence. US President James Buchanan sent an envoy in October 1859 to negotiate a joint military occupation of the island.

The joint occupation continued for 12 years until the US and Britain signed the Treaty of Washington in 1871. The joint commission established by the treaty recommended international arbitration of the maritime border in the San Juan Islands. On October 21, 1872, a commission appointed by German Emperor Wilhelm I completed the arbitration, determining that all of the San Juan Islands belonged to the United States.

After United States jurisdiction over the San Juan Islands was established, government surveys were completed in 1875. 39 acres of today’s Lime Kiln Point State Park were reserved for lighthouse purposes by President Ulysses S. Grant on November 4, 1875.

Rocky Road to Success

In 1860, the US Boundary Commission had reported that limestone deposits, “immense masses raised up into perpendicular walls,” were located in the area of today’s Lime Kiln Point State Park.

Lime, used in mortar for brick buildings and as an ingredient in Portland cement, was a resource essential to the growth and economic development of Washington and the entire West Coast. The San Juan Islands became a principal source of lime as deposits were located close to the shoreline with deep water for easy freight transport to markets.

Lyman Cutler, the farmer whose killing of a trespassing pig nearly started a war between the US and Britain, founded the San Juan Lime Company in 1860 with a partner. They began to mine and process limestone on the site but soon sold the operation to Augustin Hibbard. Hibbard mortgaged the land to Catherine McCurdy in 1868 to raise capital for expanded operations.

One of the partners brought in to manage the expansion, Charles Watts, murdered Hibbard three months later. Because he had died without a will, the court overseeing the Hibbard estate ordered the sale of the company to cover debts. Catherine McCurdy purchased the property and turned it over to her son, James McCurdy, to operate with former partner Nicholas Bailey.

Bailey died in 1875, leaving the property to his wife Jane. Jane married James McCurdy shortly after, consolidating the company in one family.

McCurdy purchased nearly 150 acres of public domain land that the lime quarrying operation was located on as a Cash Entry patent in 1880. A few months later, the McCurdys received a Homestead Entry patent for 152 acres just to the north of the lime quarry.

The limestone deposits were located along the slope above Haro Strait, ranging up to 320 feet above the water surface. The first quarries were located in bench-like areas around 200-260 feet above sea level. After being quarried, six-to-eight-inch chunks of stone were loaded by hand onto carts situated on railroad tracks for transport to the kilns, located about 60 feet above sea level. Within the kilns, loads of quarried limestone were heated to more than 1,600°-2,000° F to release carbon dioxide from the rock, producing calcined lime (less than half the weight of the quarried stone) for further processing into cement. The kilns were heated with giant wood-burning fires fed through doors midway down their sides, and the burnt lime was removed from the bottom of the kiln and packed in barrels for shipping to ports throughout Washington, British Columbia and as far away as San Francisco.

Limestone for a Growing Population

By 1877, the San Juan Lime Company was producing over 20,000 barrels of lime annually and burning four cords of wood per day. In October 1886, the San Juan Lime Company was sold to the Henry Cowell Lime and Cement Company of California, the largest lime manufacturing business on the West Coast.

The new owners built a second, larger lime processing kiln and increased production to 80,000 barrels per year. The lime works at the site, which became known simply as “Cowell’s” became an economic mainstay for a number of families and farmers on the west side of San Juan Island, providing some with year-round employment and others with a way to supplement subsistence farming with part-time work or by providing cordwood to the kilns.

The lime kilns were closed by 1935, ended by the market downturn of the Great Depression, outdated technology, dwindling limestone deposits at the quarries, and a shift from maritime freight transport to rail transport of industrial commodities.

Though the lime kilns went cold, quarried limestone was still shipped from the site until 1957. In 2006, the San Juan Lime Company/Cowell’s lime kilns and associated structures were placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse

The lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point was one of the last major navigational aids to be constructed on the shores of the Salish Sea. Architect Carl Leick was engaged to design the lighthouse, keepers’ quarters and fog signal building. Leick’s design motto was “Build ‘em stout, and make ‘em last.” The buildings were all built with reinforced concrete, an early use of that building technique. The light was commissioned on June 30, 1919.

The two keepers were kept busy fueling the incandescent oil vapor (IOV) lamps that provided the light in the prismatic lens relied upon by mariners sailing through the passage of Haro Strait. Other tasks included winding the revolving mechanism on the light and running the foghorn compressors, as well as building maintenance.

Due to the difficulty of supplying electricity to the site through the rugged terrain of the west side of San Juan Island, Lime Kiln Lighthouse continued using IOV lamps long after other locations had switched to electricity. The lamps were replaced with electric lights after World War II. The operation of the light was automated in 1962. The Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Southern Resident Orca History and Survival

Orcas, or killer whales, are found in all of the world’s oceans and are known for their complex social life, living in a combination of matrilinear family groups called pods for all of their lives.

The orcas seen from Lime Kiln Point State Park usually belong to one of two separate populations—Southern Resident orcas and transient orcas.

Southern Resident orcas typically form larger pods and primarily eat fish, mostly Chinook salmon. Falling numbers of Chinook, along with vessel noise and contaminants that build up in their bodies, have reduced Southern Resident numbers so much that they are in danger of going extinct.

Transient orcas tend to live in smaller pods and often travel in mixed groups that may or may not be related. These orcas feed mostly on marine mammals such as porpoises, seals and sea lions. Because they eat a wider variety of foods, transient populations are thriving.

Between 1964 and 1976, 48 Southern Resident orcas from the Salish Sea were captured for display in amusement parks. In March 1976, Ralph Munro, then an advisor to Washington Governor Daniel Evans, witnessed a capture in progress. A group of Southern Resident orcas were being chased by powerboats and aircraft and herded into a net with explosives. “It was gruesome,” Munro said. He worked with Washington Attorney General Slade Gorton to file a lawsuit to stop the practice. The state prevailed, and the captured orca was released. No more orcas were captured in Washington waters.

In 2018, Governor Jay Inslee established the Southern Resident Killer Whale Task Force, including the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission (WSPRC), to implement an action plan to secure a healthy and sustained population of orcas in the Salish Sea.

Creating a State Park

After the Lime Kiln Point Lighthouse was automated in 1962, the vacant keepers' residences and lighthouse building were repeatedly vandalized. The US Coast Guard leased the property to the WSPRC in 1964 with an agreement that a state park caretaker would provide security to deter further vandalism.

On August 10, 1984, the WSPRC received title to 38 acres of the former lighthouse reservation; one acre including the lighthouse building remained under US Coast Guard control.

In 1997, the WSPRC exchanged one acre of land at the north boundary of the park for a three-acre parcel containing the smaller of the two remaining historic lime kilns, to provide interpretation of the historic lime works operation at the site. The lime kiln site is accessible on a ¼-mile park trail.

Also in 1997, nearly 200 acres completely surrounding Lime Kiln Point State Park were purchased by the San Juan County Land Bank. That public agency manages the lands for preservation and recreation, enhancing the opportunities for visitors to the state park.

In 1999, the lime kiln inside the state park was refurbished and stabilized for historic preservation and exhibit.

In 2000, the whale watching overlook at the park was designated the Ralph and Karen Munro Whale Watch Overlook to honor the Washington Secretary of State who served from 1981 to 2001. The trail to the overlook was also improved to allow easier access for visitors in a wheelchair. In addition to Munro’s work to protect orcas, he was a lifelong advocate for the rights of disabled persons. Governor Daniel Evans said of him, “Ralph was the one who taught me how to care.”

Visitors to Lime Kiln Point State Park can find inspiration and a deeper connection to the stories of the park at the Lime Kiln Point Interpretive Center established in 2008. The center is housed in one of the shop buildings built to aid lighthouse operations in 1919.