Clallam County flag (Images courtesy of Washington State Archives) The northern part of the Olympic Peninsula is a place where the spectacular Olympic Mountains meet the Strait of Juan de Fuca. For mountaineers trekking up the slopes of the Olympics, a bird’s eye view of Clallam County greets them at the summit. Past the borders of Clallam they may get a glimpse of Canada on a clear day, and to the south they can see the full expanse of the…
From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: Shortly after losing the status of Clallam County seat in an election in 1890, many in the town of New Dungeness picked up and moved across the river forming a community called, interestingly enough, Dungeness. This new hamlet even had an optimistic (although short-lived) newspaper: The Dungeness Beacon. The following item was found at random in the July 29, 1892 issue, reprinted from Port Townsend’s…
From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: Even when this randomly found article in the July 29, 1911 issue of The Irondale News was published, the Jefferson County town was already declining. In the 1880s-1890s Irondale seemed destined to become the steel center for the Pacific Northwest, but it was not to be. In between all the columns of news coverage about the metal industry, I found this odd little piece. It…
From Salt Creek looking north across the strait to Vancouver Island. Photo courtesy of Russ Veenema. Nearly 100 miles long, this waterway forms the international boundary between Canada’s Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula on the American side. The strait connects Puget Sound with the Pacific Ocean. Port Angeles is among the handful of towns located along its southern shore. According to “Washington State Place Names,” the strait was named in 1787 by English maritime fur trader Charles William Barkley…