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…a seacoast fortification may be said to have most efficiently performed the function for which it was intended, if it is never called into action at all.

                                                                                  -Eben Eveleth Winslow, US Army Corps of Engineers

Ebey’s Landing State Park Heritage Site is situated at a point where tall bluffs of ice age glacial outwash that ring most of Whidbey Island gently lower to the sea, affording easy access from the saltwater beach to the open prairies of the island’s interior. People have lived here for more than 10,000 years. It is among the most culturally significant settings in the Pacific Northwest.

Steptoe Battlefield State Park Heritage Site preserves a significant site in the running battle that occurred on May 17, 1858, between allied Indigenous warriors under the leadership of Chief Kamiakin (Yakama/ Palús) and US Army soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe. The battle was a significant victory for the Indigenous warriors in their drive to protect their way of life against the incursion of American colonists into their homelands.

In the evening by lamp-light, Willie was buried here November 26, 1855.

Willie Keil Grave State Park Heritage Site commemorates a tale that is legendary for its strangeness, its example of devotional love for a departed son, and for its story of a father’s promise kept.

The Boring Volcanic Field

Battle Ground Lake is a part of a geologic formation called the Boring Volcanic Field (named for the town of Boring, OR), but the stories revealed in its bedrock are actually quite interesting!

Goldendale Observatory State Park Heritage Site offers visitors an opportunity to peer through a telescope to glimpse other worlds far beyond planet Earth, thanks to the dedication of people who generously gave their time and skill to build a 24.5-inch telescope for the sole purpose of providing the public an extraordinary experience.

An Observatory for the Public

In 1960, four men in Vancouver, WA came together to pursue their dream of building a telescope.

Steptoe Butte, or Eomoshtoss, rises high above the rolling hills of the Palouse country, an impressive landmark with many stories to tell.

“…it still looks the same as it did when I came here to visit 70 years ago…” --Dorette Rothschild Lemon, 2010

Formed by Glacial Meltwaters

Pearrygin Lake owes its existence to a quirk in the timing of melting glaciers. At the close of the Pleistocene ice age around 13,000 years ago, the huge Methow Valley glacier responsible for deepening the U-shaped Methow Valley persisted later than the tongues of ice that had flowed into the Chewack River Valley from a giant ice cap centered in today’s British Columbia.