Port Angeles ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the county, as well as the most populous city on the Olympic Peninsula. The population was estimated at 20,112 in 2024.
The city's harbor was dubbed (Port of Our Lady of the Angels) by Spanish explorer in 1791. By the mid-19th century, after settlement by English speakers from the United States, the name was shortened and partially anglicized to its current form, Port Angeles Harbor.
Port Angeles is home to Peninsula College. It is the birthplace of football hall of famer John Elway and residents include writers and other celebrities. The city is served by William R. Fairchild International Airport. Ferry service is provided across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on the MV Coho.
History
This area was long occupied by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. In 1791, the harbor was entered by Spanish explorer , who named it (Port of Our Lady of the Angels), claiming it for Spain. He was on an expedition from southern California. This name was shortened to the current one of Port Angeles.
It was not until the 19th century that European Americans began to settle here. A small whaling, fishing and shipping village developed, which traded with Victoria, British Columbia. In 1856–57, the first settlers arrived and were followed by the Cherbourg Land Company in 1859.
Soon afterwards the site caught the attention of Victor Smith. Smith, a protege of Salmon Chase, was Collector of Customs for the Puget Sound District. He quickly gained approval to relocate the U.S. Customs port of entry for Washington Territory from Port Townsend to Port Angeles. With Chase's support, he also succeeded in getting President Abraham Lincoln to designate at Port Angeles as a federal reserve for lighthouse, military and naval purposes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers platted a federal town site on the reserve land, laying out the street plan which still exists today. The fact that Washington, D.C., was the only other city officially laid out by the federal government led the U.S. Board of Trade in 1890 to dub Port Angeles the "Second National City." Settlers soon followed slowly, but Smith's death in the sinking of the Brother Jonathan led to the loss of interest in the area. The Port of Entry was returned to Port Townsend and the area sank into obscurity until the 1880s.
In 1884, a hotel was built and the trading post was expanded into the area's first general store. A wharf was soon built upon the site where the current ferry pier stands. A village of 300 in 1886, Port Angeles' population grew to 3,000 by 1890. Hundreds of its new residents were part of the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, which was established in 1887 and built several of the settlement's first permanent civic facilities, including a sawmill, church, office building, and opera house. The town was incorporated on June 11, 1890, and was named the county seat of Clallam County later that year. A depression a few years later was weathered and the town continued to grow into the new century. In 1914, large-scale logging began with construction of a large mill and a railway connecting the hinterlands to the mill. Other mills were soon built and the lumber and pulp mills supported the economy of the area until well into the century.
Tourism became increasingly important as the growing national affluence, and especially the 1961 opening of the Hood Canal Bridge that cut driving time from the populated central Puget Sound region, brought more visitors drawn by the mountains, rivers, and rainforest of Olympic National Park and by fishing and boating along the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The mills began to close in the 1970s and 1980s until only one pulp mill remained in operation; the Rayonier specialty pulp mill was shuttered in 1997.
In August 2003, a $275 million construction project known as the Graving Dock Project was started in Port Angeles near the water as part of the Hood Canal Bridge east-half replacement project. It was intended to construct an area for anchoring pontoons for the bridge.Review of Port Angeles Graving Dock Project , Report 06-8, June 30, 2006 During construction, human remains and artifacts were discovered. This site was found to be the "largest prehistoric Indian village and burial ground found in the United States," according to a senior archaeologist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle. The archeology site also included Native American burials of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Archeologists were called in to conduct a professional excavation. They found about 300 graves and 785 pieces of human bones, in addition to numerous ritual and ceremonial Indian artifacts of the former Tse-whit-zen village of the federally recognized Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. This site had appeared to have been continuously occupied for thousands of years; some of the remains date back at least 8,000 years. Because of the significance of the site for Native American history, in December 2004, the graving dock project was abandoned.
Many of the graves uncovered appeared to hold entire families, who seemed to have died suddenly. Archeologists speculate that this could have been the result of pandemics of smallpox and other infectious illnesses. These caused massive death tolls among Native American populations in 1780 and 1835, as they had no acquired immunity. Infectious diseases contracted from interactions with European fur traders are believed to have killed about 90 percent of the people living in the Northwest before European American settlement of the area.
In 2016, Port Angeles installed two street signs in English and Klallam to revitalize and preserve the area's Klallam culture.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
The city is situated on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Port Angeles features a long and narrow glacial moraine named Ediz Hook that projects northeasterly nearly three miles into the Strait. Ediz Hook creates a large, natural deep-water harbor shielded from the storms and swells that move predominantly eastward down the Strait from the Pacific Ocean. Coast Guard Air Station / Sector Field Office (SFO) Port Angeles is situated on the end of Ediz Hook. The harbor is deep enough to provide anchorage for large ocean-going ships such as tankers and cruise ships. The south shore of Vancouver Island and the city of Victoria, British Columbia are visible across the Strait to the north.
Port Angeles is located in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, which means the city gets significantly less rain than other areas of western Washington. The average annual precipitation total is approximately , compared to Seattle's or Forks' . Temperatures are moderated by the maritime location, with winter lows rarely below and summer highs rarely above . However, in the winter, the city can be vulnerable to windstorms and Arctic cold fronts that sweep across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Port Angeles receives about of snow each year, but it rarely stays on the ground for long.
Port Angeles is also the location of the headquarters of Olympic National Park, which encompasses most of the Olympic Mountains. This park was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938, during the Great Depression.
Climate Port Angeles has a warm summer mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb). It is heavily moderated by the Pacific Ocean, resulting in cool summers and mild winters for its latitude. Summers are far cooler than those of nearby Seattle. On June 27, 2021, Port Angeles set a new all-time record high of , breaking the city's previous all-time record high of . Port Angeles is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, resulting in much lower precipitation (only per year) than locations to the west outside of the rain shadow.
Demographics
As of the 2022 American Community Survey, there are 9,087 estimated households in Port Angeles with an average of 2.15 persons per household. The city has a median household income of $60,212. Approximately 11.0% of the city's population lives at or below the poverty line. Port Angeles has an estimated 55.2% employment rate, with 30.7% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 92.9% holding a high school diploma.
The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (93.4%), Spanish (4.3%), Indo-European (1.1%), Asian and Pacific Islander (1.1%), and Other (0.1%).
The median age in the city was 41.3 years.
Racial and ethnic composition +Port Angeles, Washington – racial and ethnic composition Race / ethnicity (NH = non-Hispanic) Pop. 2000 Pop. 2010 % 2000 % 2010 White alone (NH) 16,572 16,45616,092 90.08% 86.44%80.62% Black or African American alone (NH) 123 153155 0.67% 0.80%0.78% Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 562 578595 3.05% 3.04%2.98% Asian alone (NH) 238 329416 1.29% 1.73%2.08% Pacific Islander alone (NH) 32 3039 0.17% 0.16%0.20% Other race alone (NH) 9 2691 0.05% 0.14%0.46% Mixed race or multiracial (NH) 431 6991,457 2.34% 3.67%7.30% Hispanic or Latino (any race) 430 7671,115 2.34% 4.03%5.59% Total 18,397 19,03819,960 100.00% 100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, there were 19,960 people, 8,883 households, and 4,955 families residing in the city, giving a population density of . There were 9,567 housing units at an average density of .
The median age was 42.7 years; 19.0% of residents were under the age of 18 and 23.1% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.2 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 94.0 males age 18 and over.
According to the decennial Demographic and Housing Characteristics data, 99.3% of residents lived in urban areas while 0.7% lived in rural areas.
There were 8,883 households in Port Angeles, of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 38.3% were married-couple households, 21.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 31.4% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 9,567 housing units, of which 7.1% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0% and the rental vacancy rate was 5.4%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 16,512 82.7% Black or African American 168 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native 660 3.3% Asian 430 2.2% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 41 0.2% Some other race 285 1.4% Two or more races 1,864 9.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 1,115 5.6%
The ancestry of Port Angeles was 15.3% German, 15.1% English, 13.2% Irish, 5.5% Norwegian, 3.3% Italian, 3.2% French, 2.9% Scottish, 2.3% Polish, and 0.1% Sub-Saharan African.
The median household income was $53,690, with families having $65,994, married couples having $79,727, and non-families having $30,368. A total of 11.5% of the population were in poverty, with 13.4% of people under 18, 11.5% of people between the ages of 18 and 64, and 10% of people over 65 being in poverty.
2010 census As of the 2010 census, there were 19,038 people, 8,459 households, and 4,808 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 9,272 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.86% White, 0.83% African American, 3.20% Native American, 1.75% Asian, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 0.90% from some other races and 4.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 4.03% of the population.