Get an inside look at Clallam County’s pioneering history at its 150th birthday celebration Sunday in Port Angeles.
The sesquicentennial event takes place from noon to 4:30 p.m. at the old Clallam County Courthouse, Lincoln and East Fourth streets, and will include elementary and middle school students’ History Day exhibits displayed in the old courthouse lobby.
The celebration is free to the public.
Other history displays have been put together by several elected county officials.
Capping off the event, which actually takes place a day before the county’s 150th anniversary on Monday, will be Clallam students exhibiting their history projects with themes such as ancestors, the railroad, Native Americans and logging history.
Carnegie Library closed
Previous plans to show the schoolchildren’s’ exhibits at the 85-year-old newly renovated Carnegie Library building north of the courthouse have been canceled because the contractor has not yet turned over the building to city, said June Robinson, Clallam County Historical Society member and Peninsula Daily News history columnist.
“Save the Carnegie for another day,” Robinson said Thursday.
A program is set to begin at 3:30 p.m., including presentation of territorial descendant certificates to local residents.
“The Heritage Advisory Board will present a framed copy of the document that created Clallam County,” said Robinson, adding that up to 80 people are expected to receive territorial descendant certificates.
Descendants to be recognized will include those of John Bell in Sequim; Benjamin F. Dean, founder of Blyn; the Wasankari family from Joyce-Port Crescent; the Sneckels from Port Crescent; and Fords from Forks.
Three tribal descendants from Clallam Bay and the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe have applied. They are Kathy Duncan from the Jamestown tribe and Bob and June Bolby of Clallam Bay.
County Commissioners Chairman Steve Tharinger will read a proclamation from his fellow Commissioners Mike Doherty and Mike Chapman, and talk about the county’s history, Robinson said.
Awards to students
Tharinger will also present awards to students participating in the history exhibits.
“We will probably continue the territorial certifications through Nov. 11, the anniversary of the establishment of the state of Washington and the end of territorial days,” said Robinson.
Doherty said County Assessor Linda Owings-Rosenburgh, Treasurer Ruth Gerdon and Assessor Cathleen McKeown will display old ledgers and county records, including marriage licenses and ballots from the 1890s.
Doherty will exhibit 1853 surveys from the county’s coastline that include Ediz Hook, which was then known as False Dungeness because mariners originally mistook it for Dungeness Spit.
