by John Maxwell

For the Sequim Gazette

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a monthly series about the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, past and present. — MD

In addition to natural threats such as storms and wildfires, human activities outside the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge also have sometimes threatened it.

One outside threat that did not happen was a proposed marina on Dungeness Bay. This dream of a marina went through several versions and caused much controversy until the building of John Wayne Marina on Sequim Bay finally put it to rest.

It all began in 1958 when Clallam County acquired land to the east of Cline Spit with the idea of developing it into a public marina, the future site of Dungeness Landing County Park. The county put in a road, built a bulkhead and dredged the flats to fill a lagoon and make a parking area.

They then added floats and two boat ramps. In 1963, they drilled a well and built a concrete block refreshment stand and restrooms. But the mudflats made it too shallow to launch boats at low tide. That led to a drastic but futile effort to blast a channel through the silt.

All this time the Dungeness River kept pouring new supplies of silt into the bay, defeating their efforts.

Then the dream changed shape radically. The Friday, March 26, 1965, edition of the Port Angeles Evening News reported ambitious plans for Dungeness Bay. Former State Director of Fisheries Milo Moore said that the bay should be developed as a marine recreation area and fish farm. The Clallam County commissioners enthusiastically endorsed the idea, while two local state representatives convinced the Legislature to send a letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson requesting his support.

The newspaper article included a half-page sketch of the proposal, showing the bay west of Cline Spit turned into a fish farm, complete with impoundment gates and a dam, and a small boat basin on the west side of Graveyard Spit.

A bridge would connect Cline Spit to Graveyard Spit, which would be turned into a resort, complete with a road, an airstrip and recreational sites.

Boosters of the idea claimed Dungeness Spit was never approved as a waterfowl refuge. (In fact, the state declared the inner part of the bay a wildlife refuge in 1943, not to mention President Woodrow Wilson’s original executive order of Jan. 20, 1915.)

Supporters of the refuge were horrified. Such a project would destroy the refuge with noise, greatly increased water activity and pollution.

While there were almost no environmental hoops to jump through in those days, the Army Corps of Engineers had to pass on the project. They agreed to study the proposal.

It soon became obvious that the project would require a huge amount of continuous dredging. In 1970, the Corps determined the bay could not support a marina.

But the dream refused to die and it came back in a 1972 version for a large marina anchored to the shore at Dungeness Landing County Park. This marina would have a long breakwater on its east side and a dredged channel coming in from the outer bay. The shallowness of the bay continued to be the main drawback and such a marina still would endanger the refuge with pollution and noise. Both refuge management and local residents fought the idea. The Corps turned it down again. By this time other agencies also had come out opposed.

The final blow came in 1974 when the Washington State Shorelines Advisory Committee created a zoning plan that made it impossible to build a marina on Dungeness Bay. Despite angry reactions from the county commissioners, it was obvious the project was dead.

Even then, the commissioners were not about to surrender the dream of a marina somewhere. Then in July 1975, local newspapers reported that the family of actor John Wayne had donated to the county 23 acres of land on Sequim Bay, stipulating it could only be used for a marina. While also controversial, as it would remove some prime clamming and waterfowl water, this time the project went through.

You can be sure supporters of the refuge breathed a huge sigh of relief on Sept. 14, 1985, when John Wayne Marina was dedicated with due ceremony.

John Maxwell is the historian for the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge.