Manchester State Park

Manchester State Park on Washington’s Kitsap Peninsula began as Middle Point Military Reservation, part of a harbor defense system protecting the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Rich Passage alongside Fort Ward. Established in the early 1900s, its key function was an electrically controlled minefield supported by a torpedo warehouse and a mining casemate. Battery Mitchell was built to help defend the minefield, though its guns were never installed. The site never saw combat, but the Navy used it through both world wars before it was decommissioned in 1958, transferred to the state in 1970, and opened as a public park in 1981.

Lofall, Washington · United States