From a Port Townsend Leader article dated 9-5-1935: “These canoes were once quite common sights on Puget Sound, say old timers... this was an old time war canoe under sail, crossing the harbor headed for Scow Bay...” From the collections of the Jefferson County Historical Society [2005.78.20]

Louise Butler in her home, published Feb. 26, 1939. Photo courtesy of the Museum of History and Industry, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, Image # pi23826

Point Wilson is in Fort Worden. Fort Casey, Fort Worden and Fort Flagler together were known as the “Triangle of Fire,” a trio of strategically placed fortifications defending the entrance to the Puget Sound at the turn of the 20th Century.

This area was known in S’Klallam as čix^wəqsən or qám' qəm', or k'ɬ'mk'ɬ'm in Chemakum. kakåntu relates to the name of the woman who married a black fish, and the area around Point Wilson. Now the location of a lighthouse in Fort Worden State Park, the area was once the site of seasonal Chimacum and S’Klallam camps, and the location of a clamming beach (evidenced by shell middens discovered here). The currents off Point Wilson are still treacherous.

The Blackfish Story (from The Papers of John Peabody Harrington in the Smithsonian Institution, 1907-1957; vol. 1.), as told by Louise Adams (aka Webster, Butner, Butler, Bittner) and her daughter-in-law Emily Webster (Port Gamble S’Klallam):

There is a whirlpool on the side of this lighthouse point. Some people from Hadlock were over at K’l’w’l’’m, and a girl there met a monster (he was a shark and she did not know it). She fell so madly in love with him that she used to go down through that whirlpool to visit him. She used to come back at times to visit her folks at Hadlock. When she would come to visit her folks, she would bring home all varieties of food from the bottom of the bay; big swells would come ashore with her, and it wasn’t until kelp was growing on her forehead that her father told her not to come back any more. Before that, her folks had permitted her to come, for she had brought them food at times.

According to S’Klallam tradition, this woman continued to provide for her family in the form of large amounts of seafood stranded on the beach following high tides, which the Tribe would then gather.

Click the markers on the map above to visit the
trail site pages.

Trail Sign Locations:

1. Chetzemoka Park
   _{900 Jackson St. (main entrance)}
    
2. Hudson Beach/Big Heart
   _{103 Hudson St.}
    
3. Point Hudson
   _{103 Hudson St.}
    
4. Northwest Maritime Center
   _{Water St. & Monroe St.}
    
5. Village at Memorial Field
   _{Washington St.}
    
6. Fowler Building
   _{226 Adams St.}
    
7. Union Wharf/Indian Island
   _{Wharf on end of Taylor St.}
    
8. Port Townsend Ferry Overlook
   _{1200 Block of Washington St.}
    
9. Port Townsend Post Office
   _{1322 Washington St.}
    
10. qatáy Lagoon
    
     
11. Laurel Grove Cemetery
    _{24th St. & Discovery Rd.}
     
12. Swan School / Klallam language
    _{2345 Kuhn St.}
     
13. Sentinel Rock
    _{1948 Blaine St. (Golf Course)}
     
14. qatáy Prairie
    _{1948 Blaine St.}
     
15. Four Points
    _{Blaine St. & and VanBuren St.}
     
16. qatáy Valley
    _{Pacific Ave.& Milo St.}
     
17. North Beach
    _{End of Kuhn St.}
     
18. Point Wilson
    _{Fort Worden}
     

 

 

 

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North Beach