July 22, 2015  Port Townsend, Washington

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An interesting little town.  In the late 1800’s this was the port the where the China Clippers docked.  It was THE northwest trading center for the U.S. This was a thriving Victorian town until steam power replaced the sailing ships. This allowed ships to navigate Puget Sound under power.  At about the same time (turn of the century) the railroads finally made their way to the west coast.  Now large amounts of agriculture products and manufactured goods from America’s midwest could be brought to the new Pacific port of Seattle.  Port Townsend essentially became a ghost town overnight.  It was so quickly abandoned that the town could not afford to modernize and, therefore, didn’t tear down any of the buildings.

Today it is a tourist town with a downtown full of REAL Victorian buildings.  It is caught in a time warp. I read somewhere it was called the “Paris” of the US…….I don’t think I would go that far.

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