5 Best Sights in The Olympic Peninsula and Washington Coast, Washington

Check out the 17-foot-tall Destruction Island Lens, a lighthouse beacon that was built in 1888 and weighs almost 6 tons, at this engaging maritime museum set inside a former Coast Guard station. Operated by the Westport South Beach Historical Society (WSBHS), it is filled with historic photos, equipment, clothing, and other relics from the life-saving service and artifacts related the area's local fishing, logging, and cranberry farming industries. WSBHS also operates the octagonal 1898 Grays Harbor Lighthouse, which at 107 feet is the tallest on the Washington coast. It's 2 miles south of the museum and adjacent to Westport Light State Park.

Dioramas of Long Beach towns illustrate the history of southwestern Washington, and other displays cover Native Americans; the influx of traders, missionaries, and pioneers; and the contemporary workers of the fishing, agriculture, and forest industries. The original Ilwaco Freight Depot and a Pullman car from the Clamshell Railroad highlight rail history. Also on display is a 26-foot surf boat used by the Klipsan Beach Lifesaving Service Station.

Learn about the cranberry cultivation that's taken place since the early 1900s in coastal Washington by taking a self-guided walking tour through the museum's bogs (open daily), and then check out the museum with its historical photos and advertisements and antique harvesting and processing equipment. Enjoy a dish of cranberry ice cream and pick up some cranberry products to take home.

The town's history and the logging industry that helped put Forks on the map in the early 20th century, earning it the prestigious nickname of "Logging Capital of the World" by the 1970s, are explored in this extensive indoor-outdoor museum. A pair of life-size figurines working a massive crosscut saw through an even more massive log marks the entrance, and artifacts include antique logging vehicles, chain saws and other equipment, historical dioramas, displays of furnished pioneer cabins, and samples of trees commonly harvested in the area's forests, including Western hemlocks, Douglas firs, and Sitka spruces. Today, the timber industry has declined, and tourism and other businesses, including nearby correctional facilities, have provided jobs. 

The carved-sandstone 1892 City Hall building houses this history and art museum operated by the Jefferson County Historical Society. You can also see the old courtroom and the basement cells of the old city jail, where author Jack London spent a night on his way to the Klondike in the summer of 1879. Attractions include a maritime display, clusters of Native American artifacts, vintage photos of the Olympic Peninsula, exhibits chronicling Port Townsend's past, and rotating art shows. The society operates two other sites in town, both of which are open in summer: the period-decorated 1868 Rothschild House Museum, which sits on a bluff in Uptown, and the Commanding Officers Quarters building in Fort Worden State Park.