Martin Luther King Day
January 20 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Reverend King visited our state only once, on November 8, 1961, and at that time he was still regarded by many as a radical. When his original speaking venue in Seattle was suddenly canceled, local supporters led by Mt. Zion pastor Sam McKinney scrambled to find alternative platforms for King's message of social and racial justice. At UW he received a standing ovation, and he also spoke at Temple de Hirsch, Garfield High School, and Eagles Auditorium, now ACT Theatre.
On April 7, 1968, a National Day of Mourning was held three days after his assassination in Memphis, Tennessee. In Tacoma, more than 1,000 people marched downtown, singing hymns and protest songs. In Spokane, mourners filled the Calvary Baptist Church to capacity, while more crowded inside the basement listening to the memorial service on a loudspeaker. In Seattle, Mayor Dorm Braman declared April 8 a day of civic mourning and remembrance, and thousands marched to Seattle Center, where Governor Dan Evans spoke at Memorial Stadium.
In 1986 Ron Sims, then the first African American member of the King County Council, led the effort to "rename" King County for the modern martyr. The county was originally named for U.S. Senator William Rufus Devane King, an Alabama slave owner who died days after being sworn in as vice president in 1853. The 1986 County resolution redesignated its eponym as Reverend King, but it would be nearly two decades before the change was affirmed by the Washington State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire. In 2007 King County's official logo was redesigned with an image of Dr. King.
Named After Its Bay
On January 16, 1860, the Washington Territorial Legislature passed an act incorporating the city of Port Townsend, making it the fourth settlement in Washington to receive such a charter. The city traces its roots to 1851, when Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder became the first non-Natives to settle in the area. The town would eventually take its name from the Bay of Port Townsend, which was named in 1792 by British explorer Captain George Vancouver in honor of the Marquis of Townshend, an English general.
Less than a year after Plummer and Bachelder staked their claims, others arrived, and in 1854 the town became the U.S. Customs Port of Entry for Washington Territory. That honor was briefly – and forcibly – taken away from Port Townsend in the 1860s, but the town later regained its customs status and was once again welcoming ships and their sometimes exotic cargo. In 1924, Jefferson County voters approved the creation of the Port of Port Townsend, which encompasses the whole county but has a history very much entwined with that of the city.
Port Townsend was home to James Swan, Northwest Renaissance man, and over the years the city has counted many other noteworthy individuals among its citizens. Among them are Catholic missionaries Father Francis Xavier Prefontaine and Father Louis Rossi, architect Elmer Fisher, guitar-maker Otto Anderson, vaudeville singer Linnie Love, Native American political leaders Thomas and William Bishop, politician Morris Frost, maritime magnate Horace McCurdy, journalist Dolly Connelly, and noted author Frank Herbert. One of Port Townsend's more infamous residents was "Crimper King" Maxwell Levy, known for shanghaiing many a drunken sailor onto the high seas.
Today, one of Port Townsend's largest employers is the paper industry, but in its early days the city had a stronger military presence and became part of Puget Sound's "Triangle of Fire" – composed of artillery batteries at Fort Flagler, Fort Casey, and nearby Fort Worden. These forts are now state parks, and film buffs may recognize Fort Worden – as well as other locations in Port Townsend – from the movie An Officer and a Gentleman.
