| Fort Flagler State Park is a 784-acre marine camping park surrounded on three sides by 19,100 feet of saltwater shoreline. The park rests on a high bluff overlooking Puget Sound, with views of the Olympic and Cascade Mountains. Many historic buildings remain at this 19th-century-established military fort.Two boat ramps and 256 feet of dock are provided by the park. The park offers shorebird-watching along sandy beach habitat just a few feet from mixed-forest uplands that cater to songbirds and forest-loving raptors. The 784-acre park also features sandstone bluffs, open grassy habitat that can attract species such as Savannah Sparrows and Western Bluebirds, and shrubby thickets that appeal to a wide range of sparrows, wrens, and thrushes. Habitats: Sandy beach, salt marsh, mixed forest, prairie, parkland. Specialty birds: Common Loon; Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants; Brant; Greater Scaup; Harlequin Duck; Barrow's Goldeneye; Bald Eagle; Peregrine Falcon; and Black-bellied Plove.Fort Flagler, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Worden and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890's, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955. Fort Flagler is named after Brigadier General Daniel Webster Flagler. |
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