The “Sawdust Saga” in the Pacific Northwest had its start in June, 1853, when the schooner Junius Pringle, after sailing all the way from Maine, discovered an oval-shaped harbor about two miles long with a narrow entrance to protect it against winter gales. The captain of the Pringle, a William Talbot, was searching for the “perfect” location to build a large sawmill. He found it and named it Port Gamble after a Robert Gamble, a naval officer wounded in the War of 1812. The Talbot family was not new to the business of cutting trees and shipping lumber being in the business in East Machias, Maine, as early as 1767. The Talbot mill was not the first in the area. There were several other sawmills here and there, all small operations, the Talbot mill at Port Gamble being the real start of the Sawdust Saga in the Pacific Northwest. 1879 saw Port Gamble as the largest sawmill town in the county. There is much to see at Port Gamble, much as it was at the turn of the century. Submitted by Henry Chenoweth.

http://www.ptgamble.com/