PORT ANGELES – On a wet and dreary day, one doesn’t have to venture outdoors to explore aspects of the history of the west side of the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Museum at the Carnegie in Port Angeles, operated by the Clallam County Historical Society, offers information on the history of the defunct railroads, the logging industry and the native tribes of the area.
“Strong People: Faces of Clallam County” – which is upstairs – is arranged topically rather than chronologically, and features the many groups who created and influenced early Clallam County.
The title alludes to the native word “Klallam,” which means “strong people.”
“Each of the tribes has a story about a big flood that washed over the area, and you can listen to it in each of their languages,” including Makah, Lower Elwha Klallam and Quileute, as well as English, said Lee Porterfield, a member of the Clallam County Historical Society Board who volunteers at the museum twice a week.
Historians figure the tales stem from a flood on Jan. 2, 1700, when a tsunami hit the North Olympic Peninsula, Porterfield said.
The cultural development of Clallam County is traced in several exhibits, offering such delights as the delicate, intricately painted china patterns of Minerva Troy and a painting by Esther Webster.
A display dedicated to Olympic National Park remembers the reservation of the land for the park by President Teddy Roosevelt.
People who lived in the park, such as Dok Ludden, also are remembered.
“Dok Ludden believed in being self-sufficient,” Porterfield said.
“He made his boots out of elk hide – not that he would have ever killed an elk himself. He would use the dead elks that other hunters would kill and take the teeth and leave the rest behind.”
