Early Cabin

Early Cabin. Hidden History. , What did Port Townsend look like in the 1860s?, You are standing near the site of Port Townsend's first settler cabin. The area was often flooded with seawater. Alfred A. Plummer, age 29, arrived in 1851 with Charles Bachelder and erected the first non-Native dwelling. The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 brought thousands of white settlers into Washington and Oregon Territories. Nearly 7,500 land patents were granted under the law, which expired in 1855., The early settlers who built homes and businesses near the waterfront struggled constantly with flooding. Entrepreneurs knew they couldn't build their "Key City" on a tide flat. When the city carved dirt from the bluff separating Uptown from Downtown with blasting and water hoses, they hauled the dirt down to the waterfront for fill. Our downtown buildings still sit on sand!, For more information about the original inhabitants of this land and the S'Klallam Village of qatáy, explore the čičməhán Trail, a walking and biking trail throughout Port Townsend., "The new town was a partnership made up of Pettygrove, Plummer, Hastings and Bachelder... should any of the partners become incapacitated through drink, he should forfeit his interest and quit the company." , - James McCurdy, [Photo captions, top to bottom, read] , . Port Townsend, circa 1870., . Blasting the bluff to make way for Uptown and Downtown Port Townsend, circa 1915.