Fort Casey
Fort Casey is a former US coastal fortification in the US state of Washington .
history
Fort Casey was built as a coastal fortification as part of the construction program named after then Secretary of War Endicott . In 1890 the US Army took over the area of the lighthouse on the Admiralty Head headland . In 1899 the fort was named after General Thomas Lincoln Casey , a commander in the US Army Corps of Engineers . Fort Casey's gun batteries and other facilities were built between 1899 and 1911. The fortification was officially put into service in 1900. When the USA entered the First World War in 1917, Fort Casey was fully operational, but the fort was already obsolete due to developments in military technology. Some of the guns were therefore sent to the European theater of war, where they served as railroad guns . The fort itself served as a training camp for the army. After the end of the First World War, the guns were no longer replaced and the garrison was reduced. In 1942, almost all of the remaining heavy artillery was withdrawn from Fort Casey during World War II. However, as in World War I, the fort itself served as a training and exercise area for the US Army. After the Second World War, the last guns were dismantled in 1946. In 1950 the last active troops left the fort, in 1956 the facility was abandoned as a military facility and handed over to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission.
investment
Fort Casey served to protect the Admiralty Inlet , the main access to the Puget Sound and thus to the naval port established in Bremerton in 1891 . Together with Fort Worden and Fort Flagler , it was supposed to form a triangle of fire to take both the Juan-de-Fuca-Strait and the Admiralty Inlet under artillery fire from three sides. Fort Casey was armed with a total of sixteen 305-mm mortars, seven 254-mm guns and twelve smaller guns in a total of ten concrete gun batteries. The 305 mm and 152 mm batteries were equipped with retractable guns . There were also fire control stations, searchlights and barracks for the garrison. To protect against enemy ships, Fort Ebey was built with two batteries with four 90 mm guns at Ebey's Landing in 1943 . In 1942, two batteries were equipped with 76 mm anti-aircraft guns. During the Second World War, the barracks for the training camp were rebuilt.
Current condition
The fort now serves as a state park and can be toured. The Worth battery was re-equipped with two 254-mm guns in 1967, and Trevor battery in 1960 with two 76-mm guns. However, these retractable guns are not part of the original armor at Fort Casey, but come from Fort Wint , a fortress protecting the US base in Subic Bay in the Philippines . The visible damage on the surface are traces of the Japanese bombing at the beginning of the Second World War. The bunkers, powder magazines and connecting corridors between the gun corridors can be viewed. There are also observation towers made of concrete, headlight batteries, mortar positions and fire control systems. Seattle Pacific University uses the former garrison accommodation as a branch office; the buildings cannot be visited.
literature
- John A. Hussey: A short history of Fort Casey, Washington. Region Four, National Park Service, 1955.
- Terry M. Buchanan: Fort Casey and coastal defense. Bellingham: Western Washington University, 1986.
Web links
- Fort Casey on Fortwiki
- Washington State Parks: Fort Casey
- Seattle Pacific University Casey Conference Center history page
- Fort Casey
- Fort Casey in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
Coordinates: 48 ° 9 '52 " N , 122 ° 40' 39" W.