Port Angeles, WA to Port Townsend, WA — INDEPENDENCE CHRONICLES

I am very happy to not have much to write about regarding our transit from Port Angeles to Port Townsend. We fueled up at the Marina, as the price of diesel was too good to pass. The morning departure was foggy but uneventful and we slid into our side-tie at the Port Townsend Boat Haven before noon (31NM). My searches online tell me that Port Townsend was founded in 1851 by European settlers and incorporated as a city in 1860. The city grew rapidly with shipping and commerce and as the Customs Port of Entry for Puget Sound. The early Native Americans were the Klallam Tribe that fished, hunted, foraged and traded here. The Klallam called the area Kah Tai but the British Captain George Vancouver named the area Port Townsend in 1792 and most of the indigenous persons were vanquished by the incoming human diseases they brought with them. The 1850’s was a time of great timber harvesting and subsequent shipping to San Francisco. Besides logging, there was agriculture and businesses that sprang up catering to the ‘maritime trade’…and yes…saloons and bordellos, but also Chandleries (ship part suppliers, think West Marine) and hotels. In the early 1900’s the military placed a defense here to prevent ‘a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett’. The forts never fired a hostile shot and most of the guns were removed during World War 1 for use in Europe. As the years moved on this town, like most we visit, have transitioned to tourism as their major economy.