Port Gamble, Washington

Infobox_nrhp | name =Port Gamble Historic District
nrhp_type = nhld

---

caption = Water towers in Port Gamble.
location= Port Gamble, Washington
locmapin = Washington
area =
built =1852
architect= Unknown
architecture= Greek Revival, Late Victorian
designated=November 13, 1966cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=559&ResourceType=District
title=Pioneer Building, Pergola, and Totem Pole |accessdate=2008-06-26|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added = November 13, 1966
governing_body = Private
refnum=66000746cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

Port Gamble is an unincorporated community on the northwestern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is also a small, similarly-named bay, along which the community lies, near the entrance to Hood Canal. The unincorporated communities of Port Gamble and Little Boston, part of Kitsap County, lie on either side of the mouth of this bay. The Port Gamble Historic District is a U.S. National Historic Landmark"'.

The community of Port Gamble has a wide range of shops from antiques to a tea shop to an old-fashioned general store. It is a popular tourist destination, due to its location near Bremerton, Port Townsend, Bainbridge Island, and Seattle and its downtown. [cite web |url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/outdoors/2002450718_nwwportgamble25.html |title= Port Gamble: A town that finds its future in its past | publisher=Seattle Times |date= 2005-08-25] Port Gamble is also home to the grave of Gustave Englebrecht, the first U.S. Navy sailor to die in the Pacific. [cite web |url=http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=20862 |title= Gustave Englebrecht | publisher=findagrave.com |accessdate= 2008-03-20]

History

The body of water was named by the Wilkes Expedition in 1841 after U.S. Navy Lt. Robert Gamble. The community, originally known as Teekalet, was founded as a company town by Josiah Keller, William Talbot, and Andrew Pope's Puget Mill Company in 1853. [cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5486 |publisher=HistoryLink.org|title="Captain William Talbot establishes a steam sawmill at Port Gamble"]

In 1856, The "USS Massachusetts" was sent from Seattle to Port Gamble, Washington Territory on Puget Sound, where indigenous raiding parties from British and Russian territories had been raiding and enslaving local Native Americans. When the warriors refused to hand over those among them who had attacked the Puget Sound Native American communities , a battle ensued in which 26 natives and 1 soldier were killed. In the aftermath of this, Colonel Isaac Ebey, the first settler on Whidbey Island, was shot and beheaded on August 11, 1857 by a Haida raiding party in revenge for the killing of a native chief during similar raids the year before. British authorities demurred on pursuing or attacking the northern tribes as they passed northward through British waters off Victoria and Ebey's killers were never caught. [ [http://members.aol.com/Gibson0817/ebey.htm Beth Gibson, "Beheaded Pioneer", Laura Arksey, Columbia, Washington State Historical Society, Tacoma, Spring, 1988.] ] [Bancroft says they were Stikines, a Tlingit subgroup, and makes no mention of the Haida. [http://www.archive.org/details/washidahomont00bancrich "History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889", p.137 Hubert Howe Bancroft (1890)] ]

The first school in the county went up in 1859, and the community took its present name in 1868. In 1966, the town of Port Gamble was designated a National Historic Landmark District. [cite web |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=559&ResourceType=District |title=National Historic Landmarks Program |accessdate= 2008-02-27] In 1985, Pope & Talbot, the successor company to Puget Mill, split into Pope & Talbot and Pope Resources, the latter of which took over the site and the sawmill. In 1995, the mill shut down after 142 years, making it the longest operating sawmill in the country. [cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=5505|publisher=HistoryLink.org|title="Port Gamble - Thumbnail History"]

Events

The annual Old Mill Days festival takes place over the course of three days during late September and encompasses the entire downtown area. The event includes craft and food stands, a logging show, fireworks, and various other forms of entertainment. [cite web|url=http://www.oldmilldays.com/ |title="The Old Mill Days home page"]

ee also

*Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve
*Old Man House

References

External links

* [http://portgamble.com/ The official Port Gamble website]
* [http://visitkitsap.com/cities.asp?ID=3 Port Gamble - Kitsap Peninsula Visitor & Convention Bureau]