- 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…
- Port Angeles, the county seat of Clallam County since 1890, is built on the site of two major Klallam villages, I’e’nis and Tse-whit-zen, on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. It sits on a natural harbor, named Puerto de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles by Spanish mariners, that is protected by the long sand spit of Ediz Hook jutting into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Founded in 1862, a few years after the first handful of American settlers took up residence among the Klallam villagers, Port Angeles grew slowly until the late 1880s, when the booming economy and the arrival of the utopian Puget Sound Co-operative Colony drew an influx of settlers. In 1890 the city incorporated and won the Clallam County seat, positioning it as the county’s civic, commercial, and industrial center.
