52 Weeks of Fun

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Patos Island Lighthouse

Patos Island Lighthouse is an active aid to navigation overlooking the Strait of Georgia at Alden Point on the western tip of Patos Island in the San Juan Islands, San Juan County, Washington, in the United States. The station is the northernmost in the San Juan Islands and marks the division point between the eastern and western passages into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

In 2013, Patos Island and its lighthouse were included in the US Presidential Proclamation by Barack Obama creating the San Juan Islands National Monument and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Limited developments on the island are managed in partnership with Washington State Parks and volunteers with the nonprofit friends group Keeper of the Patos Light. On some maps it is also referred to as Patos Island State Park.

Volunteer opportunities, however, offer regular summer access through the Keepers of the Patos Light. Through a Washington State Lighthouse Environmental Program (LEP) grant, the Keepers of the Patos Light are developing exhibits for the lighthouse.

The original light station was a post light and third-class Daboll trumpet fog signal. Beginning operation on November 30, 1893, the light was used as a navigational aid to steamships traveling to ports around Georgia Strait such as Vancouver, and up the Inside Passage to Alaska.

The lighthouse was improved in 1908 with a new fog signal and a 38-foot (12 m) tower, which housed a fourth-order Fresnel lens. The light was automated in 1974. Today, it has a modern lens which flashes a white light once every six seconds and has two red sectors marking dangerous shoals off the island. The original fourth-order Fresnel lens is now in private ownership in Oregon.

Patos Island Lighthouse was listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Through federal funding from the BLM, the lighthouse was renovated in 2008 with a new roof, doors, windows, gutters and downspouts, and new paint inside and out. The lighthouse is the last remaining structure at this site, but similar 1893 structures can be viewed at Turn Point Lighthouse, located on Stuart Island and also part of San Juan Islands National Monument.



A 52 Weeks of Fun Fascinating Fact about Patos Island Lighthouse

In 1792, Spanish explorers who first circumnavigated Vancouver Island, named the northernmost of the San Juan Islands Isla de Patos (Island of Ducks), probably due to a rock formation on the eastern end that resembles the head of a duck.

Attraction Advice

Access to Patos Island is challenging as no public ferry system serves the 200-acre island. Two offshore mooring buoys are available for private boats as permitted through the Washington State Parks.




Patos Island Lighthouse is located on the northern tip of Patos Island, one of the more remote and least developed islands in the San Juan archipelago.

Built in 1893, the Patos Island Lighthouse is one of the oldest lighthouses in the San Juan Islands.

Patos Island is part of the San Juan Islands National Monument and offers opportunities for outdoor recreation, including hiking, camping, and wildlife viewing.

While the lighthouse itself is not open to the public, visitors can still enjoy views of the historic structure from the water or by hiking along the island's trails.

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