Westport an official Coast Guard City USA

The City of Westport has had a relationship with the Coast Guard for more than 120 years and the community’s welcoming support over the years got it recognized as an official Coast Guard City USA, the first in Washington state.

“The City of Westport has grown up with the Coast Guard, and it has always been at the core of our community,” said Mayor Rob Bearden. “We look forward to carrying on that legacy and for being recognized by the Coast Guard Cities program for our city’s long standing considerations and continued welcoming of the Coast Guard family and its dependents.”

There are currently 26 cities with the designation. Westport will be the first in Washington State. There are three in Oregon: Florence, Newport and Astoria.

In a letter to Bearden dated Aug. 30, Coast Guard Admiral Karl L. Schultz wrote, “The Coast Guard thanks you for your continued support of our men and women stationed in Westport. I am pleased to inform you I have notified the appropriate congressional committees of my intention to approve your request.”

The city has selected Feb. 7, 2020, as the date for the official designation ceremony, according to John Shaw, executive director of the Westport-South Beach Historical Society. The ceremony will include Rear Admiral Anthony J. Vogt, Commander of the 13th Coast Guard District headquartered in Seattle, and the 13th District command cadre.

Numerous elected officials have been invited to attend the ceremony. The invitation process started just this week so there are none to announce officially as yet, but invited are members of Congress, Gov. Jay Inslee and a slate of local and state elected officials.

According to the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard City program recognizes communities that support local Coast Guard members. A city, municipality, or county earns the designation “Coast Guard City” or “Coast Guard Community” by making special efforts to acknowledge the professional work of the Coast Guard men and women assigned to their area.

The Coast Guard describes Coast Guard Cities as those that regularly reach out to Coast Guard personnel and their families. The city’s efforts illustrate a longstanding and enduring relationship with an emphasis on considerations the community has made for the members of the Coast Guard family.

The City of Westport put together the extensive application packet for the designation, which included a letter from Bearden, letters of support from unit and district Coast Guard offices, letters of support from local, city and state government offices, and photographs from community events and ceremonies.

Fortunately, Westport has a long list of “specific examples of actions the community has taken and events it has sponsored to reach out to Coast Guard personnel welcoming them into the community and embracing them in a full community partnership,” another requirement of the application package.

Shaw put that list together for the application, and it included:

■ The annual Westport Coast Guard appreciation dinner. The dinner is held every fall and is open to all Coast Guard members and their families. The event started with American Legion and VFW organizers years ago and the next generation of WEfish families, Maritime Museum and the Seafood processors have taken the lead in recent years. The business community donates all time and materials for this event.

■ The Blessing of the Fleet event at the Fisherman’s Memorial, held yearly since 1954. The community and Coast Guard would gather for the event originally on Palm Sunday and later moved to the Sunday before Memorial Day. The Coast Guard along with American Legion, VFW, City, Police and Fire Departments, the Historical Society, WEfish and the Ministerial Alliance now join yearly for the event which include laying of the wreath at the Harbor entrance and reading the names of all the memorialized including the Coast Guardsmen lost from Station Grays Harbor as well as Stations Willapa and Quillayute.

■ Local fishing families group WEfish provides an additional connection for our Coast Guard families, and took the lead in local fundraising for Coast Guard families during the recent government shutdown when Coast Guard members were not getting paid.

■ Coast Guard families are included in the annual Santa By the Sea event sponsored by the Maritime Museum, the Pirates group and business community with the highlight being Santa arriving to the dock in from of the Maritime Museum, delivered by the Coast Guard to the waiting families.

■ Free admission to the Grays Harbor Lighthouse and the Westport Maritime Museum for Coast Guard families. This past season the historical society logged 240 Coast Guard free admissions.

■ The Coast Guard crew participates in the city’s Old Fashioned 4th of July event, with complimentary tickets and kids games coupons for Coast Guard families.

■ The city along with the Westport-South Beach Historical Society own and operate the Maritime Museum in the original Coast Guard Station, one of the classic Nantucket-style stations built in 1940. The museum displays the story of the Coast Guard and its local history from lifesaving service to the new Rescue Room for kids. The museum heroes rooms tell the stories of several of the famous local rescues.

■ The Maritime Museum’s annual open house as part of Coast Guard day kicks off new exhibits and has become a time for past station mates and the current crews to have a chance to visit.

History

Shaw also provided a brief history of the Coast Guard in Westport.

The relationship between the Coast Guard and Westport started with what was referred to as the “lighthouse proposal.” Developing lumber and shipping interests had been hampered in the 1870s with shipwrecks of significance and accompanying loss of life. In 1882, citing these losses as an impediment to fully developing the potential of the region, business interests published the “lighthouse proposal” in the Daily Vidette calling for a light at the entrance to Grays Harbor as well as a Life Saving Station. In 1897, the U.S. Life Saving Service opened Peterson’s Point Lifeboat Station on Grays Harbor at what will become Westport.

The following year the U.S. Light House Establishment completed the Grays Harbor Lighthouse. Both of the services were located at the end of current day Ocean Avenue in Westport. Still a small village on the spit, Westport eventually surrounded the lighthouse and lifeboat station.

In 1915, the Life-Saving Service and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service joined to form the United States Coast Guard. About this time, the Peterson’s Point facility became known as Station Grays Harbor.

Station Grays Harbor was busy with the needs of the developing shipping and fishing industries.

“Families that are descendants of the original Life Saving Station and lighthouse keepers are still part of the Westport community,” wrote Shaw. “The small town where a lighthouse and a life saving station had opened in 1898 has always been a Coast Guard City.”

The city will provide more information about the Feb. 7 ceremony as more details become available.

COURTESY WESTPORT-SOUTH BEACH HISTORICAL SOCIETY The U.S. Life Saving Service established a station in what would become Westport at the end of what is now Ocean Avenue in 1897.

COURTESY WESTPORT-SOUTH BEACH HISTORICAL SOCIETY The U.S. Life Saving Service, which later became the Coast Guard, established a station at the end of what is now Ocean Avenue in Westport in 1897. Here a Life Saving Service Crew trains in front of the Westport Lighthouse, which was put in service the year after the Life Saving Service station was established.