August, 2021
With a blog post title like “guns and horses”, you might think this blog post is going to be about a western movie with old style shoot-em-up 45’s and hard-ridden and high-dancing horses. Nope. No western movie here. 🙂
We’ll do the guns first … then we’ll end with some wonderful horses.
This morning, my friends and I took a drive out to the end of Marrowstone Island (see map/image in the previous blog post). There’s a great state park on the northern end of Marrowstone Island with campsites right on the beach, right on the water’s edge of Puget Sound. That state park is Fort Flagler Historic State Park. Adjacent to the campground is an old USA military gun emplacement from pre-WWI (1897-1955). It was built as part of the “harbor defense of Puget Sound”, along with a number of other gun emplacements along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and along both sides of Puget Sound. This gun emplacement was active in WWI and WWII and the Korean war. The guns here face east, across Puget Sound to the mainland of Washington State. Other gun emplacements over there on the other side face west, across Puget Sound towards the Olympic Peninsula, so Puget Sound was protected from both sides from invasion by sea.
The battery we visited was Battery Wansboro.
It’s not that I like guns. In fact I hate guns. But, having lived in the Philippines as a child for more than five years in the 1950s, with my family having military privileges, we often visited military sites there, including Corregidor Island, many times. So these sorts of installations are familiar to me, and even a bit interesting, even though I detest the use of such weapons today.
Also interesting to me, when the Wansboro battery was finally closed, the two guns at Battery Wansboro here on the Olympic Peninsula were deemed obsolete, and so the two original 3″ M1903 guns were removed and destroyed. But when the state park system took over the property, they wanted two guns here to show how it looked “back in the day”. They found two, old, surplus 3″ M1903 guns (exactly the same type of guns). The two guns they found were at Fort Wint in the Philippines, and both of those guns were slated for destruction. Those two guns were brought here from the Philippines and installed here at Fort Flagler.
So it might just be that when I was a kid in the Philippines, I saw and touched these very same two guns that now appeared before me decades later at Fort Flagler. What goes around, comes around, eh?
If you want more info about Battery Wansboro, go HERE.
That might be interesting, but I really like what happened later in the day, back at the Escapees Evergreen Coho SKP RV Park where I was camped.
Shortly after my arrival here yesterday afternoon, and on into the evening, I sure thought I heard horses whinnying, not a great deal, but enough to get my attention. My friends said they heard nothing, so I wrote it off.
But this morning, I again heard whinnying, definitely. But we were in a campground with no horses, and there were solid trees/forest all around. How could I be hearing horses? And so off I went with my friends on that drive to Marrowstone Island and the campground there and the gun emplacement there. But the memory of whinnying horses kept nagging at me (nag pun intended) … all day.
We returned to the campground, and I again heard horses!!
By mid-late-afternoon, I gave up, grabbed my camera, and tromped off in through the trees and the forest in the direction that I thought I’d heard the horses.
After clambering through 20-30 feet of dense forest (the trees that surrounded the campground), this view opened up to me … horses! Yee haw! 🙂
The very moment I arrived here, a fellow was unloading the white horse (way back there) from a horse trailer. Evidently that white horse had been off-site yesterday and earlier today and at least one of the other three horses here had been whinnying and calling for the white horse to come home. But now all of them were here, all were home, and all was quiet and peaceful.
And indeed it was so peaceful here. Each of the horses (four of them) were quiet, simply munching away, having a pleasant early evening. At different times, three of them looked at me, and ignored me. I liked that.
What a sweet end to a great day.
My grandfather worked at and was stationed at a number of those gun emplacements around Puget Sound. I really liked seeing your photos of that one location. I don’t like guns either … but I liked seeing where my granddad might have been. Thanks for the peacefulness of the horses.
That’s cool, Joe. I don’t know that any of these guns were ever fired at a ship, I hope not. But I like to think maybe your granddad might have been here on Marrowstone Island. I bet they had horses here back then.
Wonderful guns & horses story! Interesting defenses we have located to visit; I am glad we are not in need of protection! Yee haw is right, horses and more!!! What fun we used to have when we were kiddos riding all over the place! Traveling mercies until we meet again 🎶😊🐎🎶
Thanks Melly. I like visiting all sorts of historic places even if I don’t like the reason that some of them were built. Charlie and Cody … our best pals. 🙂
Your tour of the Fort Flagler reminds me of many forts I’ve toured along the east coast (and other places). Fort Ticonderoga also had cannons that were brought in when the fort was being restored for a park, because the originals were destroyed. I think they have one or maybe two original cannons inside the fort. We spent all day there, it was fascinating and very similar stories to the ones you heard at Fort Flagler. And horses? I love horses, they are soooo beautiful! I’ve only ridden once, and that didn’t turn out to be so fun for me, but I do like looking at them!
Fascinating, I’ve always wondered about the east coast, or the St. Lawrence, or the great lakes, and if they too had such gun emplacements.
Ah riding horses … ouch. When I was an early teenager, my folks bought me a horse and I rode and rode and rode all over south Whidbey Island with friends who also had horses. But then I sold that horse and I didn’t ride for many years. At some point, I got on a horse to go for a good long jaunt thinking I was ok with that. It hurt! And if you have an activated horse when you really want/need a calm horse, that’s no fun either. Yes, looking at horses is wonderful. 🙂
Interesting history, lived in Lynnwood north of Seattle for a few years, but knew nothing about that defense system. Love the horses.
So often we don’t go see the local sites when we live somewhere. I lived in or near Seattle for about 20 years and didn’t see most of what the tourists see. Now that I live further south, I think about driving up and seeing things. Goofy. 🙂
Love the horses. That little gray one is sweet. Guns, no, not so sweet, but interesting history.
That big roan was beautiful. But that little gray one was the sweetest. Thanks, Shawn.
You heard them! You heard the horses for two days, and then you followed what you thought to be true and you found ……. horses. Makes me happy and makes me know that we all have the truth in us. 🙂
Oh I’m so glad I listened to my listening too, Tina. 🙂
I love western movies, that would have been cool. 🙂 But the horses made my day, Ann, thank you. I like that you kept hearing them and then believed your ears.
The whinnying seemed so out of place, but I had to believe my ears. When horses call, I go. 🙂
I don’t like guns either, but I liked the history. That last photo of the big gun aimed out over Puget Sound (?) is stunning. And yes I loved the horses, especially that roan with the white socks, what a handsome gal.
Yes, that photo you mention is of one of the guns facing east, out into Puget Sound, from the Olympic Peninsula out towards the mainland of Washington State. I hope it was never fired at anyone. The roan with the white socks was indeed a handsome gal. 🙂