After our Cluster meeting yesterday, we went for a drive through Kitsap County, and found a hiking location at beautiful old Manchester State Park.
The park itself was constructed at the turn of the century as a U.S. Coast Artillery harbor defense installation for the protection of Bremerton. During World War II, the property was converted to a navy fuel supply depot and a navy fire-fighting station.
The buildings you see here are the gun battery deep in the ground and the torpedo warehouse, both built in 1901. The torpedo warehouse was later an officer's club, a barracks and a mess hall, and is now a picnic shelter in the day-use area.
A small concrete building east of the torpedo warehouse (not pictured here) was originally used as a mining casement, and later for coal storage. I walked through it, and it was so eerie - the walls were built two feet thick, with just one window at each end and a trap door in the top. It was incredibly dark and musty. I couldn't imagine men sleeping in such a 'tomb'. As I was walking along in the dark, looking up at the ceiling, I didn't see a pop can at my feet, and I stepped on it. It squashed, popping with an echo, and scared me out of my wits. Just the kind of boom those men living in this barrack probably expected!
