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AMES MATTER. In 1791, presumably storm -battered Span-
ish explorer Francisco de Eliza labeled the first safe -haven
port he encountered on the Strait of Juan de Fuca "El Puerto
de Neustra Senora de los Angeles"— a heaven-sent respite
from the roiling waters leading inland from the Pacific.
A couple centuries later, adventurers stumbling upon
modern-day Port Angeles might opt for something shorter,
and more appropriate. Like: "Cusp."
It's really a better fit. Take a gander from Google Earth: In the Northwest, a land defined
by rugged, natural beauty, Port Angeles is not just on the cusp of something; it's on the
.: cusp of everything — ground zero for the diverse natural splendors most of us love.
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Victoria, B.C.; can be
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The townsite, long occupied by native people, and
since 1862 occupied by white settlers, enjoys the
temperate climate that comes with an inland sea. Yet
it sits at the fracture line where the still -wild Olympic
Mountains break off and give way to the saltwater.
Upshot: It is a short drive from here to some of
the world's most postcard -worthy outdoor destina-
tions, most protected within the world biosphere
reserve known as Olympic National Park: a newly
freed Elwha River; thousands of miles of trails
leading to alpine meadows ripe with wildflowers,
,�' - t �F� s `%1✓ R.�... - ..i :� r'"�,;••
the ridgeline. The Clallarri
.e,. 'per i; �.yl. .5. M •. d, i ' FII; i`. d+i if.
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�/�: ,s• 3 �' �` y" .i'F,• .�1 f . p. .✓ // tr?.. i%i; !s
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struggled to ca italizb
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desti'nations" reputation,
(. 1 �, �.� p� 1 lit if ,y. -✓: •but city-booste'rs say txE .�
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wildlife and precious ice; auto destinations Hur-
ricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and the legendary ra
forests of the Sol Duc, Hoh, Bogachiel, Quinault
and Queets rivers; to the southwest, the last
stretch of undeveloped coastal oceanfront in the
Lower 48 states.
These treasures make PA a true Port of Angels for
outdoor lovers of all stripes. More than 3 million per
year venture onto national park lands; most of them
drive through — alas, often straight through — Port
Angeles on the way. ►
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THE POTENTIAL
OF PORT ANGELES
Thanks to this geographical
good fortune, PA keeps showing
up on those national `best places to
live" lists compiled by publications
catering to adventure junkies and
conservationists — those people
who subscribe to "Outside" and
wear Filson stuff more for the look
than the longevity.
"Pound for pound, Port Angeles
has the most diverse wilderness
access of any town in the U.S. and
is one of the only places where you
could easily surf and snowboard
(and possibly even kayak) in the
same day," raves the Matador Net-
work, listing Port Angeles as one of
the "20 Coolest Towns in the U.S."
Similar praise can be found on
a dozen other `best -town" lists,
the most -prominent of which was
published last year by Outside
Magazine (told you), the unof-
ficial literary journal of Patagonia
Fleece Nation. Outside turned its
best -town tourney into a popu-
larity contest, tossing preidenti-
fied "cool towns" into an online,
bracket -style elimination com-
petition. PA residents mounted a
furious get -out -the -vote campaign,
and wound up finishing second
to Chattanooga, Tenn., a town 10
times the size.
It was a shot of pride in the arm
for a small town still struggling,
three decades after the ax fell on
once -profitable logging of sur-
rounding state and federal lands, to
rejigger its economy into something
with family -wage -jobs staying
power.
Was it a sign, city boosters
wondered, that the town literally
surrounded by raw beauty was
finally on the cusp of long -sought
civic greatness equal to its natural
splendor? Might it be an omen that
Port Angeles was finally about to
become something more than, as a
local pub server put it recently, "a
somewhat nicer Forks?"
Maybe. A better question for
a town long struggling with low
household incomes, relatively
high unemployment and a popula-
tion that stubbornly clings below
20,000: Does it even want to be?
And if so, what does that thriving,
post -mill town look like?
14 PACIFICEM
Jacob Oppelt, co-
owner of the Next
Door Gastropub,
also co-owns the
old Lincoln Theater
in downtown Port
Angeles. He hopes
to remodel it and
bring a music scene
to town. Seattle's
Macklemore,
he says, should
consider himself
invited.
Artist Cory Ench created this mural of the Kalakala along North Laurel Street in Port Ange-
les as a tribute to the steel, art -deco ferry that served the Puget Sound from 1935 to 1967.
It's one of many murals adorning the walls in the town's historic central downtown area.
MANY PORT ANGELENOS have
their own ideas about this, and
not all of them are in sync. But
there is a master plan, of sorts. Local leaders
see PA in 20 years as a growing city with
legacy job providers — the still -chugging
single pulp mill, the Olympic, Peninsula's
pre-eminent hospital, an active Coast Guard
base, shipbuilding and marine trades —
supplemented by next -generation manu-
facturing companies. The latter, city leaders
hope, hope, hope, will be lured to PA's idyl-
lic location and increasingly idyllic low cost
of living, compared with the increasingly
unaffordable central Puget Sound region.
To avoid the fate of other Northwest post -
timber towns that have slipped to destitute
status, Port Angeles knows it can't sit idle.
4
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Shops along West First Street in downtown Port
are being filled by a new generation of business i
some of them returning to their hometown.
"It's an imperative — we need to grow," says Patri
PA's unapologetically boosterish mayor. "Not just in
need to grow our overall tax base. We need to grow
dents. If you're not growing, you're getting behind."
Many a U -Haul truck already is on its way, Downi
driven by people fleeing insane prices and mind -nu
in the Seattle area, or relocating from other places
and falling in love with the peninsula's natural other
"We're being discovered," Downie insists, noting
home sales are finally surging upward to match civi
ments. He makes a strong case for civic progress: Th
recently upgraded its pleasant waterfront promena
connects to the 68 -mile -long (and growing) Olympi
Trail, and was thrilled to receive two private gifts to
grand waterfront performing arts center.
"It's a game -changer," gushes Downie, 74, a longt
business owner who began his long tenure in town
Baskin-Robbins scoopery in 1974.
The city's educational bedrock, Peninsula College
up a $72 million capital facilities program that has
community college a modern look that seems refres
place in the graying old timber/maritime town. Ol
Center — with 1,200 employees, the largest local e
THE SEATTLE TIMES 001
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The visitor center at
Hurricane Ridge offers
stunning panoramic
views of Olympic
National Park, which
drew 3.2 million
visitors in 2015. The
Hurricane Hill Trail,
a 3.2 -mile moderate
hike, offers stunning
panoramas across
Olympic National Park
and views toward
Victoria and the Strait
of Juan de Fuca.
PACIFIC■W
Sunsets are
spectacular at Rialto
Beach in the Olympic
National Park, about a
90 -minute drive from
Port Angeles. Outdoor
lovers nationwide
regularly rank Port
Angeles among the
nation's "coolest
outdoor towns,"
thanks to its
proximity
to attractions
like this.
has expanded significantly to keep pace with all
those pacemakers taking up residence in nearby
retiree haven Sequim. PA is getting a new Navy
supply facility, and is even about to lure its own
semipro baseball team — a franchise relocating
from Kitsap County.
"People are seeing a future for us," Downie
says. "They see us moving forward."
(An aside: Seattle -area people have seen a
future in PA for a long time. The town founded
in 1862, in fact, really took off only after 400
disaffected Seattleites, presumably tired of sitting
on horses through the Mercer Mess, in 1887 fled
west to establish a utopian commune, the Puget
Sound Cooperative Community. Settling along
THE POTENTIAL OF PORT ANGELES
The Hall of Mosses in the Hoh Rain Forest is a short loop from the visitor center
in Olympic National Park, about two hours southwest of Port Angeles. It's one of
countless world-class natural attractions within day -trip reach of the town.
Emus Creek, the group, led by two Seattle attor-
neys virulently opposed to Chinese labor, built
the first sawmill and other landmarks adjacent to
a community of several hundred Klallam natives.
This "utopia," like most, collapsed after only a
few years, but modern PA grew in its footprint.)
No promises of utopia are made today. But
Downie believes Seattle -area people will take a
gander at a new website, visitportangeles.com,
fall in digital love and start crafting an exit plan.
How much longer, he wonders, can people stand
to sit in traffic and work 80 hours a week to keep
a roof overhead? (The median home price in
Seattle is about $585,000, or $500,000 in King
County. Eighty miles west in PA? A little more
than .$200,000.)
HIS OPTIMISM is shared, perhaps
not quite so exuberantly, by local
economic -development officials who
also acknowledge the accompanying challenges.
The same unfinished, out -there persona that
makes Port Angeles attractive to residents can
be a challenge to businesses that must operate in
something of an economic bubble.
"First of all, this is timber country — and for-
ever has been," says Bill Greenwood, a longtime
Seattleite and accomplished business executive
who now heads the PA -based Clallam County
Economic Development Corporation. Some locals
still cling to hope that logs will begin to flow once
more from local forests, once the endangered
marbled murrelet goes the way of the dodo bird.
Greenwood is not counting on that.
"What I'm naturally trying to do is to get an
economy that's more balanced. And a lot of good
things are starting to happen."
The city, for example, is becoming an attrac-
tive alternative for marine trades companies,
beyond existing Port of Port Angeles tenants
such as Westport Marine, which builds luxury
yachts, and Platypus Marine, which does large-
scale ship haul -out and repair, Greenwood says.
"We're a deep -water port," he notes. "There
are a lot of companies in and around Seattle
that either have run out of space on the water-
front, or their workers have been priced out of
homes, so they have to live an hour away from
where they re working. In Port Angeles, you can
work at a marine trades company and live five
minutes away."
Greenwood points to the town's successful
positioning as a center for composites manu-
facturing (Advanced Composite Technologies
employs 105, with plans to more than double
its workforce.). Local governments, along
with partners including Peninsula College and
Olympic College in Bremerton, have formed
a nonprofit Composite Technology Recycling
Center — an attempt to create and capitalize on
a market for reuse of "pre -impregnated" com-
posite materials.
The flexibility of the college allows Green-
wood to tell interested businesses: "They will
design a training program to your specs."
To date: numerous nibblers, few big biters.
But Greenwood is optimistic that the city will
grow with a boost in tourist -catching hot spots,
an influx of telecommuting refugees and new
light manufacturing. 0 -
THE
THE SEATTLE TIMES - OCTOBER 2, 2016
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