PORT TOWNSEND, at the entrance of Puget sound, is the county seat
and chief commercial center of the county. It has a population of
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about 6,000. It is the headquarters for many government institutions,
including the U. S. customs service, U. S. revenue cutter service,
marine hospital service, hydrographic service, quarantine service,
and U. S. artillery for the Puget sound district.
Three great forts; Worden, Flagler, and Casey, are located here,
forming the chief defense to Puget sound. Fort Worden joins the
city limits. The present garrison force is 2,000. The scenery from
the city is grand and beyond compare.
Its business interests are varied and extensive. Two canneries
for salmon and sardines are here located, boiler works, a machine
shop for building electric and gasoline engines, a shipyard, sash
and door factory, lumber mills, and shingle mills, a by-product
plant producing wood alcohol, turpentine, etc.
The city is substantially built and its homes are artistically created.
The harbor has twenty-five miles of waterfront and fine anchorage
of from nine to eighteen fathoms, and is an ideal refuge for all
seagoing craft.
The city has gas and electric lights, paid fire department, fine
churches, splendid schools, and a magnificent gravity water system
furnishes the town of Irondale, Hadlock and Forts Worden and Flagler,
having plenty of water to spare for thousands mote.
IRONDALE is practically a suburb of Port Townsend, having the only
pig iron plant in the state. It is an extensive and growing concern,
using bog iron from the vicinity and other ores from different
sources.
PORT LUDLOW, DUCKABUSH, BOGACHIEL, PORT DISCOVERY, QUILCENE, and
CHIMACUM are small villages scattered about the county and are
centers of agricultural activity.