Jamestown, WA

Jamestown is an unincorporated census-designated place on the Strait of Juan de Fuca in northeastern Clallam County, a few miles north of Sequim and southeast of Dungeness. Its name belongs to the Jamestown S'Klallam community. In 1874, S'Klallam families led by Tulsmetum, also known as Lord James Balch, pooled five hundred dollars in gold and bought 210 acres along the Strait. That purchase created the place called Jamestown and gave the community a home after settlers had pushed S'Klallam families away from their Dungeness lands.

The treaty history matters here. S'Klallam leaders signed the Treaty of Point No Point in 1855, continued fishing, hunting, farming, and dairy work, and later fought for recognition of treaty rights; the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe regained federal recognition in 1981. Today the tribe works across health care, education, cultural preservation, arts, and partnerships around the Olympic Peninsula. The census boundary is small, but the local map reaches from the shoreline and original 210-acre purchase to Sequim, Dungeness, and the community's continuing tribal government.