PORT ANGELES — The city between the mountains and the sea was named Port Angeles 150 years ago, and townsfolk will celebrate that day Saturday and Tuesday.
“It was in 1862 that we became Port Angeles,” said Mayor Cherie Kidd, who is organizing sesquicentennial celebrations.
Tuesday is the actual anniversary.
It was in 1791 that the area, long settled by the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, was named Puerto de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles — Port of Our Lady of the Angels — by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza.
That name was shortened to Port Angeles 150 years ago — on June 19, 1862 — when President Abraham Lincoln ordered a reservation for military uses and a lighthouse on Ediz Hook, establishing Port Angeles as a town site.
Gains a name
A post office that had been established in 1860 gained its name with Lincoln’s order, Kidd said.
So Tuesday, the anniversary will be noted with a blast of musket fire, special hand-canceled envelopes at the Museum at the Carnegie at 207 S. Lincoln St. — which will be an official post office for two hours that day — and other events.
Before then, on Saturday, there will be a warm-up with ice cream, root beer and tours of buildings in the Port Angeles Civic Historic District on Lincoln Street.
Historic district
The historic district, which is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places, encompasses the art deco building at 215 S. Lincoln St. that served as the city’s first permanent fire station, jail and City Council chambers, and its neighbors: the Clallam County Courthouse, with its historic steps leading up from Lincoln Street, and the Museum at the Carnegie at 207 S. Lincoln St., as well as Veterans Park.
The free open house and ice-cream social will begin at noon Saturday on the steps of the courthouse and continue until 4 p.m.
Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty will speak on historical highlights of Port Angeles and will lead tours of the old portion of the county courthouse.
Tours of the Carnegie also are planned.
Joyce Stroeher, the newly elected regent of Port Angeles’ Michael Trebert Chapter of the Daughters of American Revolution, will talk about how Port Angeles got its name, Kidd said.
From 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., a free ice-cream social is scheduled at 215 S. Lincoln St.
Ed Bedford, owner of Northwest Soda Works of Port Angeles, is sponsoring the ice-cream social and will donate a special anniversary edition of his gourmet root beer, Kidd said.
He and Kidd, along with members of DAR, will serve root beer floats, she said.
Trees given away
Trees will be given away in memory of the late Jace Schmitz.
JACE The Real Estate Co. will continue its tradition of distributing free tree seedlings to the public during the festivities both Saturday and Tuesday, said owner Eileen Schmitz, who founded the firm with her late husband,.
She said 150 blue spruce trees will be given to the first 150 families attending the ice-cream social Saturday, while 150 cedar trees will be distributed on the sesquicentennial anniversary Tuesday.
“Giving trees was our way of adding life and beauty to the Peninsula, and I know Jace would love this sort of participation by the staff and agents at our company,” she said.
“Since Jace’s passing earlier this year, our family and our Realtors have looked for life-affirming ways to celebrate Jace’s life and our local community that he loved so dearly.”
Tuesday celebration
On Tuesday, four members of the Peninsula Long Rifle Association dressed as frontiersmen will provide a musket salute as a U.S. flag with 50 stars is lowered and one with 35 stars is raised, Kidd said.
Commander Norm Goodin of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1024 and Girl Scouts will raise and lower the flag, she said.
Ruby and Friends will sing.
The Museum at the Carnegie will become an official post office for two hours.
After Port Angeles Postmaster Lisa Jones opens the office at the Carnegie at noon, a postal employee will hand-cancel pre-printed envelopes with either a special sesquicentennial stamp or a graphic noting Lincoln’s action, Kidd said.
The hand-stamped envelopes will cost $1.
Inside the Carnegie, Chester Masters with the Strait Stamp Society will display Port Angeles philatelic covers and historic stamps, Kidd said.
The American Legion Riders plan to form a flag line at the Carnegie.
Kidd will read a proclamation.
Re-enactor
A re-enactor, Raymond Egan of Tacoma, will give an invocation as Father Luigi Rossi, who was the first clergyman on the North Olympic Peninsula, Kidd said.
After the invocation, Egan will mingle with visitors and tell stories, Kidd said.
Kidd urged school field trips to the Tuesday celebrations.
Each schoolchild who attends will receive a free stamped envelope, she said.
After Tuesday, the special envelopes will be available at the Port Angeles post office at 424 E. First St. for the next 30 days and will cost $2 each, Kidd said.
The 1962 centennial banner will be on display.
Sesquicentennial T-shirts and raffle tickets for the Port Angeles Sesquicentennial Quilt will be offered for sale, Kidd said, with all proceeds going toward signs for the newly designated historic district and restoration of the old fire station.
The quilt was made by members of the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club and can be seen at Elliott’s Antique Emporium at 135 E. First St.
Drawing for quilt
The drawing for the quilt will be Oct. 10 at the Port Angeles Senior Center.
Tickets also are on sale at the senior center, Captain T’s Shirt Shop, Necessities and Temptations gift shop, Odyssey Bookshop, Pen Print, the Port Angeles-Victoria Tourist Bureau and Port Book and News.
The town’s sesquicentennial is being celebrated all year, Kidd said.
Commemoration began with recognition of Melania Christine Burke, the first Port Angeles baby born in 2012, as the sesquicentennial baby.
The infant and her parents, Rebecca and James Burke, are invited to take part in many of the sesquicentennial events, including the Fourth of July parade, Kidd said.
During the 2012 Heritage Days festival Sept. 15-16, residents will be encouraged to dress up for the sesquicentennial.
