You can't go there.....

Port Gamble, Mill Manager's Home

Thursday June 25th -- slightly cloudy this morning! Armed with our trusty boater's guide books telling us that there is nowhere to land a dinghy near the quaint town of Port Gamble, we set about to find a spot to land. Just south of the old mill, which is now getting the final touches to clearing it off, we landed the new dinghy. Scrabbling up the tideline full of oysters and mussels, we made our way through the bramble and on to the mill yards. Quite sure that this was not allowed, we stood tall, shoulders back and pretended that we had every right to be walking through the debris, heavy equipment, bolders and old recovered logs -- right past the temporary office hut and up to the town.


Town Hall, Post Office

The effort was rewarded! Port Gamble was the oldest operating Mill in the USA. In 1853 two strong-willed and smart businessmen, Andrew Jackson Pope and Frederick Talbot ventured west from East Machias, Maine and landed on the shores of the Hood Canal. They found their home in "Teekalet", meaning brightness of the noonday sun". Modelled after their own New England hometown, Port Gamble still reflects this architectural style -- and the entire town on 120 acres is still owned by the Pope & Talbot Company. They lease the historic homes to merchants who have stores on the first floor of many of the homes and their residences on the second floor. Lot's of shops, boutiques, a bookstore, general store and a museum. Quite charming all in all!
One of the many stately old Mill town homes

On our visit to the museum we find that the mill started in 1853 and sawed it's last log in 1995. Originally the timber went primarily to San Fransisco as the city was being built, but during the course of the business it shipped timber to many overseas markets as well.

Our savvy young businessmen almost went bankrupt when their workers quit to join the Alaskan gold rush leaving them with few workers. The men made a trip back to Maine and offered a job to any man who was fit, married and had children or the prospect of them, transportation to their west coast mill, all the free timber they needed to build them homes in return for a lease payment of $1.00 per year for the land and steady work. The men built in the style they knew to shelter their families and that is why the town architecture is a New England delight.
The General Store, Port Gamble -- note Dad's spiffy boots -- necessary for crawling up and down tidewater flats....

-- and a matching pair inside the general store -- but my cap matches of course.