Willapa Bay Lighthouse

John Meares was an independent British fur trader commanding the East India Company ship Felice Adevturer. While exploring the Washington coast in 1788, he attempted to enter a bay sheltered by a cape. He wrote in his log, "We shoaled our water gradually to six fathoms. We immediately hauled off the shore until we deepened our water to sixteen fathoms" [Ed. a fathom is six feet]. With this attempt, he named both the cape and the bay 'Shoalwater.'