PORT LUDLOW – In the late 1800s, Port Townsend’s dream of becoming the New York of the West collapsed, leaving the city caught in a time warp.
But outside of town, other ways of making a living began to fill the void.
“Once commerce began to falter, fishing, forestry and farming began to take more and more precedence,” Bill Roney says.
Roney is the new manager of the Olympic Peninsula Gateway Visitors Center, a log cabin-type structure on state Highway 19 near the Highway 104 intersection a few miles west of the Hood Canal Bridge.
Now under the management of the Jefferson County Historical Society, the center is getting ready to dispense history along with travel advice.
“It’s a great match,” Roney says.
“We are disseminating information for today and also giving the historical background – the story behind the story.”
