The first white men to explore the Olympic Peninsula came by sea.
Spanish navigators venturing northward from Mexico may have coasted the
shoreline as early as the 16th century. Juan de Fuca, said to have been
a Greek pilot in the service of Spain, claimed to have entered the
strait, which bears his name, in 1592, but satisfactory proof of this
discovery is lacking.
Extensive exploration of the Northwest Coast did not begin, however,
until the latter part of the 18th century, when rumors that the Russians
were venturing southward from Alaska stirred the Spaniards to fresh
efforts. In 1774, during the first of these renewed voyages, Juan Perez
saw the present Mount Olympus and named it “Santa Rosalia.” He was the
first European to name a geographic feature in what is now the State of
Washington.
During the next 25 years the Northwest Coast, including that of the
Olympic Peninsula, was widely explored and mapped by Spaniards,
Englishmen, and Americans. The Spaniards were the first actually to set
foot on the Peninsula. During a voyage made by Bruno Heceta and Juan de
la Bodega y Quadra in 1775, Heceta landed at Point Grenville, near the
mouth of the Quinault River.
Capt. James Cook was the first of several English navigators to explore
the Northwest Coast. In 1778, during his search for the Northwest
Passage, he named Cape Flattery, in the northwest corner of the Olympic
Peninsula. While on the coast, some of Cook’s crewmen obtained furs from
the natives and later sold them in China for high prices. This event
turned the eyes of English and American businessmen toward the Pacific
Northwest, and thereafter exploration of this region was stimulated by
the fur trade.
In 1788, Capt. John Meares, an English trader, saw the mountain which
Perez had named 14 years earlier. Not knowing of the earlier discovery,
he christened the peak “Mount Olympus.”
[Illustration: THE INDIAN VILLAGE TRAIL THROUGH A SWAMP.]
Juan Francisco de Eliza, a Spanish captain, entered Juan de Fuca Strait
in 1791 and named the harbor, where present Port Angeles is situated,
“Puerto de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles,” which means “Port of Our Lady
of the Angels.” In the following year the Spaniards established a fort
and settlement at Neah Bay. The members of this colony, which existed
for only 5 months, were the first white settlers to touch the soil of
the Olympic Peninsula and, indeed, of the State of Washington.
In 1792, Capt. Robert Grey, an American trader, discovered the harbor at
the southern margin of the Olympic Peninsula which was later named in
his honor. Of all the explorers who came by sea, George Vancouver, the
English navigator, left the greatest mark in northwest Washington. He
explored Puget Sound waters in 1792 and named numerous geographic
features, including Port Townsend and Discovery Bay, on the Olympic
Peninsula.