Port Angeles is on the northern shore of the Olympic Peninsula, approximately 27 km south across the Juan de Fuca Strait from Victoria. In 1791, Spanish explorer Juan Francisco de Eliza noted that the bay would make
an excellent harbour, which he named Peurto de Neustra Senora de Los Angeles.1 In 1792, the name was shortened and anglicized to Port Angeles by Captain George Vancouver.2
The town was permanently settled by Europeans in 1862, and its surrounding forest
supplied the building materials for Seattle and San Francisco.3 The sheltered harbour facilitated a thriving fishing industry, as well as lumber,
paper, and food-processing plants.4
1. Robert Hitchman, Place Names of Washington (Tacoma: Washington State Historical Society, 1985), 237.
2. Ibid.
3. History,Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.