About this project
This Maritime Mapper is a tool to help the public contribute to the development of the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area.
By determining which maritime resources are important to our coastal communities, we’ll be better able to craft a heritage area that supports, protects, and shares the stories of these places. Down the road, the resources identified through this interactive map may also be used to create materials, tools, and programs to help local residents and visitors alike plan trips, explore maritime resources, and discover new adventures to be had along Washington’s shores.
Adding new points of interest to this site are now closed.
We have currently closed the option to submit new sites as we use your input to compile a plan for the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area. However, we hope that you continue to use this map to explore the wonderful places shared by others.
Want to stay in the loop on what comes next for the new heritage area? Learn more and sign up for email updates at www.preservewa.org/maritime. If you have additional comments or concerns, please reach out to Alex Gradwohl at [email protected].
Maritime Washington National Heritage Area
Officially designated by Congress in 2019 as a nationally significant cultural landscape, the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area (NHA) encompasses 3,000 miles of Washington State’s saltwater shoreline, from Grays Harbor County to the Canadian border—including 18 federally recognized tribes, 13 counties, 32 incorporated cities, and 30 port districts, as well as innumerable harbors, inlets, peninsulas, island coasts, and parks.
NHAs are designated by Congress as places where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form nationally important landscapes. NHAs can support historic preservation, economic development, environmental conservation, tourism, education, recreation, research, and more. The Maritime Washington NHA is the first and only National Heritage Area focused entirely on maritime heritage.
The Maritime Washington NHA is entirely nonregulatory, instead of building partnerships and increasing collaboration to support heritage tourism, strengthen maritime organizations, and provide a platform for the diverse water-based stories and culture along our shores. It is facilitated by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, a statewide nonprofit organization, with support and funding from the National Park Service. The planning process is being locally-led, with our coastal communities and maritime partners determining what the NHA will look like and how it will operate.
Over the next year, we’ll be working with local residents and organizations to turn our collective vision into a plan for the heritage area, and this map will help us do just that. If you want to learn more about planning for the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area—and share your thoughts on how this designation can be most valuable to the places and sites you care about—please visit our website.