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Halls Hill Lookout and Labyrinth
The lightly wooded parcel features a stone labyrinth, a bronze prayer wheel and carvings by Northwest artists. Meandering paths wind among native trees and plants, and benches and a chair swing looking down over the quiet harbor from the high bluff. Stone Labyrinth: The Halls Hill Lookout and Labyrinth’s signature feature is a stone mosaic labyrinth by artist and landscape designer Jeffrey Bale, of Portland, Ore. The 36-foot diameter labyrinth design is based on the 13th Century French Chartres Cathedral labyrinth. Counting the central ring, the number of circles is 12, which ties the labyrinth to both the seasonal and lunar cycles. Jeffrey incorporated the Native American medicine wheel into his mosaic pattern, through orientation and coloration of stones. His labyrinth uses color, symbols, patterns, and numerology in the design created from stones found on Bainbridge Island beaches. The bronze prayer wheel was commissioned by artist and sculptor Tom Jay of Chimacum, Wash. Prayer wheels, as developed within the Tibetan tradition, provide people a way to offer heartfelt wishes that all beings might be free from sources of suffering. Mechanically turning the wheel, installed at heart-level, offers a comforting motion and sound, as the wheel completes nine revolutions. |
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Fort Ward Park (8-dusk)
Fort Ward was originally known as Beans Point and was established in 1890, as one of several US Army Coastal Artillery Corps installations built to defend Puget Sound from enemy warships. Its primary objective was to protect the nearby Bremerton Naval Shipyard. In 1903, the Army officially designated Beans Point as a seacoast fort and named it Fort Ward in honor of Colonel George H. Ward. Activity in and around the fort continued as new buildings were constructed and new troops arrived.Coastal artillery batteries like Battery Vinton were located at Fort Ward. The artilleries guarded an underwater mine field placed across Rich Passage. The guns were removed on July 19, 1920, never having been fired for defense, and were shipped to France.
Then, in the 1920s, Fort Ward was placed on inactive status, but a small number of men were still stationed there. In 1928, the fort was essentially left abandoned. The fort remained abandoned for several years, until 1935 when it served as a state-operated summer camp for inner city children from Seattle.
- Battery Nash (1903–1918), three 8 inch (203 mm) M1888 guns mounted on disappearing carriages, hidden along the bluff, now on private property;
- Battery Warner (1903–1925), two 5-inch (127 mm) M1900 pillar mounted guns, now on private property and surrounded by modern homes;
- Battery Thornburgh (1903–1920), four 3-inch (76 mm) M1898MI masking parapet mounted guns;
- Battery Vinton (1903–1920), two 3-inch M1898MI masking parapet mounted guns.
Three years later in 1938, the US Navy took over Fort Ward from the US Army. The US Navy found the fort to be attractive after tests had shown that it was an outstanding location to eavesdrop on radio communication transmitted from the Far East, chiefly Japan. In August 1939, the US Navy relocated the Astoria, Oregon intercept site to Fort Ward. This was the beginning of the development of Fort Ward as a top-secret military listening post. Rhombicantennas were installed on the Parade Ground, and the old post exchange/gymnasium building was converted into a top secret listening post code-named "Station S". Inside "Station S", men and women worked 24 hours a day, listening in on Japanese naval communications, which were transmitted in the Japanese Morse Code. This building is now a private home.
The listening post activities were so top secret that personnel on the base were instructed not to look at the building when they walked by it.
Meanwhile, the Navy developed a "cover story" for what was happening at Naval Radio Station Bainbridge Island. The story—that it was one of the few Naval Reserve Radio Schools in the nation—received a full page of coverage in The Seattle Times on January 11, 1941. Some of the sailors pictured in the article actually worked at "Station S" after their training. Photos show the sailors copying Morse code in a classroom, setting up a Morse code-sending machine, and marching from their school building to noon mess.
In March 1941, a commercialteletype line between the installations at Winter Harbor, Main, Amagansett, New York, and Fort Ward was inaugurated. Communications between Washington, D.C., and its far-flung resources in the Pacific continued to be primitive. Messages and intercept logs, reports and professional correspondence, if classified, were painstakingly enciphered by the radio intelligence officer himself using special equipment and instructions. If transmitted as messages on manual Morse code circuits or landlines, they were delivered to the communications center where they were again enciphered. The Fort Ward command also oversaw the construction of the Navy's largest radio transmitter at Battle Point, with a tower 300 feet taller than the Space Needle. This was used to send messages to Navy Command at Pier 91 in Seattle.
The U.S. Army abandoned all operations in 1958. Upon this second deactivation, the Washington State Park System negotiated for acquisition of part of the fort in 1960, which became Fort Ward State Park. In 2011, it was transferred to the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District and became Fort Ward Park. The naval radio transmitting station located at Battle Point was deactivated on March 31, 1959, and the equipment was removed in 1971. The location is now Battle Point Park, administered by the Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District.
Over the years, some of the buildings have been converted into homes, and the area, the parade ground of the community of Fort Wrd has been designated a National Historic Site. Many of the homes are also listed on the City of Bainbridge Island's Historic Register. |
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