Limited developments on the island are managed in partnership with Washington State Parks and volunteers with the nonprofit friends group Keeper of the Patos Light.

Beginning operation on November 30, 1893, the light was used as a navigational aid to steamships traveling to ports around Georgia Strait such as Vancouver, and up the Inside Passage to Alaska.

[11] Today, it has a modern lens which flashes a white light once every six seconds and has two red sectors marking dangerous shoals off the island.

Through federal funding from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the lighthouse was renovated in 2008 with a new roof, doors, windows, gutters and downspouts, and new paint inside and out.

[14] The lighthouse is the last remaining structure at this site; the U.S. Coast Guard demolished the original keepers' residence in 1958.