- The first non-Indian families arrive at the new settlement of Port Townsend on February 23, 1852. (historylink.org)
On February 23, 1852, the families of Loren and Lucinda Hastings and Francis and Sophia Pettygrove arrive at the site of Port Townsend with another family and several single men. They are the first non-Indian families to settle in the new town that Hastings and Pettygrove, along with Alfred Plummer and Charles Bachelder, are founding on the Olympic Peninsula in what is now Jefferson County.
- S’Klallam and Chemakum Indian tribes on Olympic Peninsula when Jarman settled there in 1848-52 (skagitriverjournal.com)
We spun this story off from the William “Blanket Bill” Jarman biography in order to address the considerable confusion and contradiction in various accounts about the tribes present on the Olympic Peninsula when Jarman settled there temporarily, off and on, in the period 1848-52. The contradictions were present in both the contemporary U.S. Government documents of that time, private writing later in the century and books by various historians between then and now. In our review, we will also explain the genealogy of Alice, Jarman’s wife and companion for the next three decades. She and the Indians that Jarman met in that period helped shape both his life and the legends about him.
- Captain George Vancouver names Port Townsend on May 8, 1792. (historylink.org)
On May 8, 1792, British Royal Navy Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798) names an extensive bay at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula for the Marquis of Townshend, a British general. The “h” is later dropped and the bay is now called Port Townsend. The city of Port Townsend, now the county seat of Jefferson County, is founded in the 1850s at the mouth of the bay and adopts its name.
- Clallam County — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Clallam County occupies the northern portion of the Olympic Peninsula, extending nearly 100 miles along the Strait of Juan de Fuca on its north and more than 35 miles along the Pacific Coast on its west. On the east and the south it borders Jefferson County, out of which it was created in 1854. The county is composed of the traditional lands of the Klallam (for whom it is named), Makah, and Quileute peoples, who continue to play significant roles in county history…
- Olympic Peninsula (Wikipedia)
The Olympic Peninsula is a large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Hood Canal. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States, and Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point, are on the peninsula. Comprising about 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2), the Olympic Peninsula contained many of the last unexplored places in the contiguous United States. It remained largely unmapped until Arthur Dodwell and Theodore Rixon mapped most of its topography and timber resources between 1898 and 1900.
