The Dec. 30-31 Peninsula Daily News article, “Big snow 20 years ago, Peninsula hit with several feet in 1996 storm,” triggered many memories for me as well.
As members of the recently formed New Dungeness Light Station Association, our friends, Barb and Bob Carl, and my wife, Pam, were doing a weeklong “tour of duty” at the Dungeness Lighthouse when the storm hit.
The night the storm arrived, it came from the northeast with a vengeance.
Forty-plus mph winds energized the driving snow into the keeper’s house and lighthouse.
During the night, looking out the upper bedroom window from the house, we observed a most stunning sight: The snow was blowing horizontally into the light house tower.
The rotating lightbeams from the lens in the lantern room pierced through the snow-laden night sky.
Although hindered, it seemed the light was forcing itself to continue its dutiful responsibility to warn mariners of the light station’s position.
The next morning, we could see the wind-driven green grass next to the house and out in the yard a picnic table covered with a 3-foot snowdrift.
Unlike the folks on the mainland, we were well prepared for our snowed-in situation.
Adding to our reminiscence of the week was the visit of eight snowy owls.
We went “owl hunting” several days during the week along the beach.
All residents who were here during the 1996 snowfall have both good and bad memories of the event.
Our snowstorm lighthouse experience was truly a wondrous time we will never forget.
Ted Bedford,
Sequim