In 1883, the United States Congress approved the purchase of 156 acres for a quarantine station, when a marine hospital in Port Townsend could no longer house seamen with contagious diseases.  A wooden ship used in the Civil War was used as part of the facilities, until it burned.  There was a hospital, officers quarters, disinfecting plant, and leprosy building, warehouses, and a small cemetery. According to law, all ships coming into Puget Sound stopped here for clearance.  Deceased or ill seamen were taken off, quarantined or put into the hospital.  When the station was no longer used, it was sold to a developer in 1938.  It changed owners several times over the years. The hospital burned in 1948-49. Some of the living facilities were purchased and restored.

 

There may have been up to 22 burials here, with evidence that some may have been cremated.  Three or four American servicemen were disinterred and moved to San Francisco in 1944.  The others buried here were foreign seamen.  In 1965, the County Superior Court approved removal of the bodies and re-interment in Sequim View Cemetery.  The required final report of completion was never filed, with the court, and there are no records or marker at Sequim View.  In 1982, it was reported that two skulls were found by a backhoe operator, but what happened to them is unknown.  This site is no longer designated as a cemetery.

 

Clallam County Genealogy Society has copies of legal documents regarding the sale to developers, and court documents authorizing the disinterment.  There are documents regarding attempts, over the years, to determine the status of the disinterment. There is also a list of burials, with names, death date, cause of death, and miscellaneous other details, such job and approximate age.

 

Links to Captain Thompson gravesite on Dead Man's Spit and Diamond Point Station history.