| Port Worden State Park Conference Center is a 433-acre multi-use park with 11,020 feet of saltwater shoreline and a wide variety of services and facilities. The park rests on a high bluff overlooking Puget Sound. Many historic buildings remain at this 19th century military fort. Fort Worden offers dozens of outstanding day use / picnic areas. Whether overlooking the high centennial cliffs of Artillery Hill and the often wild Straights of Juan de Fuca. Or a placid vista encompassing the distant Mt. Baker, framed by Pt. Wilson Lighthouse and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center on the end of the pier. Numerous day-use picnic tables and fireboxes provide the excellent picnic spot. The Cable House Canteen is an on-site food and convenience store, offering sundries, delicious burgers or hot breakfast entres. Visitors enjoy kite flying, tennis, and photography in this grand setting. Several golf courses are nearby, along with the fascinating historic town of Port Townsend. The Olympic Mountains rise majestically nearby. From nearly everywhere, you can hear the cry of the gull and the call of the sea. Two boat ramps, two mooring floats, 8 mooring buoys, and a launch float are provided by the park. Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890s, 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 Worden is named after Rear Admiral John L. Worden. |
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