Chimacum, Washington

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Chimacum, Washington
Chimacum Corner.JPG
Chimacum farmer's market
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Chimacum
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Chimacum
Coordinates: 48°1′N122°46′W / 48.017°N 122.767°W / 48.017; -122.767
Country United States
State Washington
County Jefferson
Time zone UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-7 (PDT)
Area code 360

Chimacum is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Washington, United States, located in the center of the primary agricultural area of the eastern Olympic Peninsula. [1]

Contents

History

Olympic Mountains from the Chimacum Valley Chimacum Range.JPG
Olympic Mountains from the Chimacum Valley

The community was named after the Chimakum (also spelled Chemakum or Chimacum) group of Indigenous Americans that lived there until the late 19th century but are now extinct as a distinct cultural group. [2] Chimacum Creek is named after the Chimakum, a Native American people known to themselves as Aqokúlo, who lived on the northeastern portion of the Olympic Peninsula through the mid-19th century and whose economy, culture and religion were based on salmon fishing. Their primary settlements were on Port Townsend Bay, on the Quimper Peninsula, and Port Ludlow Bay to the south. According to tradition, the Chimakum were a remnant of a Quileute band who had been carried away in their canoes by a great flood through a passageway in the Olympic Mountains and deposited on the other side of the peninsula. In 1855 the Twana and Chimakum, along with the Klallam, signed the Point No Point Treaty, which established a reservation at the mouth of the Skokomish River near the southern end of Hood Canal. One of the Chimakum signatories of the treaty was Chief Kulkakhan, also known as General Pierce. After this, most Chimakum people merged into the S’Klallam and Skokomish tribes, where their descendants still live today. [3]

Economy

A Chimacum localvore eatery. Farm's Reach Cafe.jpg
A Chimacum localvore eatery.

The Chimacum Valley remains and maintains an identity as a progressive agricultural area with many small locally owned farmsteads, a full-service farmstand grocer carrying locally produced goods, and a community farmers' market held from June to October each Sunday from 10 AM to 2 PM. The area is also served by a local branch of The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2018.

In May 2014 the Jefferson County Land Trust in collaboration with Washington State University have designated over 15 acres of undeveloped agricultural land in central Chimacum to be reserved as incubator farms and called the Chimacum Commons. This project envisions an educational and trade hub offering both affordable, clustered local housing and a workspace for agricultural and horticultural science students and small-scale farming professionals to develop, grow, and master their crafts. [4]

Education

Chimacum is the home of Chimacum Schools' main campus, which serves the unincorporated communities of east Jefferson County to the south of Port Townsend and north of Quilcene, including Chimacum itself, Port Hadlock, Irondale, Marrowstone Island, Oak Bay, Paradise Bay, Port Ludlow, and Shine.

Media

Rustic Folk Art Chimacum Rustic Folk Art.JPG
Rustic Folk Art

Betty MacDonald's book The Egg and I , upon which the Ma and Pa Kettle films were based, described the author's experiences on a chicken farm on the road that became Egg & I Rd, Chimacum.

Linda Perhacs's 1970 album Parallelograms contains the song "Chimacum Rain," a work inspired by Chimacum's natural environment.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jefferson County, Washington</span> County in Washington, United States

Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,977. The county seat and only incorporated city is Port Townsend. The county is named for Thomas Jefferson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Hadlock-Irondale, Washington</span> Census-designated place in Washington, United States

Port Hadlock-Irondale is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 3,983 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Townsend, Washington</span> City in Washington, United States

Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,148 at the 2020 United States Census. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quilcene, Washington</span> Census-designated place in Washington, United States

Quilcene is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 598 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quinault people</span> Native American peoples

The Quinault are a group of Native American peoples from western Washington in the United States. They are a Southwestern Coast Salish people and are enrolled in the federally recognized Quinault Tribe of the Quinault Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skokomish people</span> North American tribe

The Skokomish are one of nine tribes of the Twana, a Native American people of western Washington state in the United States. The tribe lives along Hood Canal, a fjord-like inlet on the west side of the Kitsap Peninsula and the Puget Sound basin. Historically the Twana were hunters, fishers, and gatherers who had a nomadic lifestyle during the warmer months, while living in more permanent homes during the winter months.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Klallam people</span> Coast Salish ethnic group

The Klallam are a Coast Salish people Indigenous to the northern Olympic Peninsula. The language of the Klallam is the Klallam language, a language closely related to the North Straits Salish languages. The Klallam are today citizens of four recognized bands: Three federally-recognized tribes in the United States and one band government in Canada. Two Klallam tribes, the Jamestown S'Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam, live on the Olympic Peninsula, and one, the Port Gamble S'Klallam, on the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington state. In Canada, the Scia'new First Nation is based at Becher Bay on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olympic Peninsula</span> Peninsula in Washington, United States

The Olympic Peninsula is a large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Hood Canal. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States, and Cape Flattery, the northwesternmost point, are on the peninsula. Comprising about 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2), the Olympic Peninsula contained many of the last unexplored places in the contiguous United States. It remained largely unmapped until Arthur Dodwell and Theodore Rixon mapped most of its topography and timber resources between 1898 and 1900.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skokomish River</span> River in the United States

The Skokomish River is a river in Mason County, Washington, United States. It is the largest river flowing into Hood Canal, a western arm of Puget Sound. From its source at the confluence of the North and South Forks the main stem Skokomish River is approximately 9 miles (14 km) long. The longer South Fork Skokomish River is 40 miles (64 km), making the length of the whole river via its longest tributary about 49 miles (79 km). The North Fork Skokomish River is approximately 34 miles (55 km) long. A significant part of the Skokomish River's watershed is within Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chimakum</span> Near-extinct ethnic group of Washington state, US

The Chimakum, also spelled Chemakum and Chimacum Native American people, were a group of Native Americans who lived in the northeastern portion of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, between Hood Canal and Discovery Bay until their virtual extinction in 1902. Their primary settlements were on Port Townsend Bay, on the Quimper Peninsula, and Port Ludlow Bay to the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discovery Bay, Washington</span> Community in Jefferson County, Washington

Discovery Bay is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Washington. The community of Discovery Bay is an area near the intersection of U.S. Route 101 and State Route 20, at the foot of Discovery Bay – roughly midway between the larger communities of Port Townsend to the northeast and Sequim to the northwest. It is a mix of residential areas and commercial enterprises, including crabbing, oystering, clamming, timbering, security training and gravel extraction. A few restaurants and stores on US 101 near SR 20 primarily serve drivers and truckers along US 101.

Gardiner is an unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. Additionally, part of Clallam County, located along the Jefferson County line adjacent to Gardiner is often referred to as being part of Gardiner.

Little Boston is a community in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located on the east side of Port Gamble, an inlet or bay of Hood Canal, and is direct across the bay from the unincorporated community of Port Gamble. Little Boston is within the Port Gamble Indian Reservation, which houses the Port Gamble band of the S'Klallam tribe.

The Point No Point Treaty was signed on January 26, 1855, at Point No Point, on the northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula. Governor of Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens, convened the treaty council on January 25, with the S'Klallam, the Chimakum, and the Skokomish tribes. Under the terms of the treaty, the original inhabitants of northern Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Peninsula ceded ownership of their land in exchange for small reservations along Hood Canal and a payment of $60,000 from the federal government. The treaty required the natives to trade only with the United States, to free all their slaves, and to not acquire any new slaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington State Route 19</span> State highway in Jefferson County, Washington, US

State Route 19 (SR 19) is a 14.09-mile-long (22.68 km) state highway serving rural Jefferson County on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington. The highway travels from SR 104 south of Port Ludlow and travels north through Chimacum and Port Hadlock-Irondale, intersecting SR 116, to end at SR 20 southwest of Port Townsend near the Jefferson County International Airport. SR 19 was established in 1991 on a roadway that had been built in the 1950s and paved in the 1960s.

The Quimper Peninsula is a narrow peninsula forming the most northeastern extent of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state in the northwestern United States of America.

The Twana language, also known as Skokomish, is a Coast Salish language of the Salishan language family, spoken by the Twana, the Indigenous people of Hood Canal, in Washington. It is believed by some elders within the Skokomish community that the language branched off from Lushootseed because of the region-wide tradition of not speaking the name of someone who died for a year after their death. Substitute words were found in their place and often became normalizing in the community, generating differences from one community to the next. Subiyay speculated that this process increased the drift rate between languages and separated Twana firmly from Lushootseed.

The Port Townsend Ship Canal is a 4,800-foot (1,500 m) canal connecting Port Townsend Bay and Oak Bay in Jefferson County, Washington. Built in 1915, the canal separates Indian Island from the Quimper Peninsula of mainland Washington. State Route 116 crosses the only bridge over the canal. There are no locks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington State Route 116</span> State highway in Jefferson County, Washington, US

State Route 116 (SR 116) is a 9.83-mile-long (15.82 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, serving Indian and Marrowstone islands in Jefferson County. The two-lane highway travels east from SR 19 in Port Hadlock-Irondale across the Portage Canal to Indian Island and Marrowstone Island, turning north and ending at the entrance to Fort Flagler State Park. SR 116 was created in 1991 and follows the route of Flagler Road, built and paved in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tamanowas Rock</span> Geographical feature in Washington, United States

Tamanowas Rock, also called Chimacum Rock, is a 150-foot (46 m) high rock with caves and crevices that lies in a forest adjacent to Anderson Lake State Park, near Port Townsend, Washington. It is a sacred site to the Coast Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest and a pilgrimage site. The rock was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

References

  1. "Chimacum". Geographic Names Information System . United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 101. ISBN   978-0-8061-3598-4 . Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  3. Ruby, Robert H.; John Arthur, Brown (1992). A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 22–23, 28. ISBN   978-0-8061-2479-7.
  4. "An Exciting Vision for Chimacum Commons - Jefferson Land Trust". Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2015.