The Town That Faded With the Mill
When the lumber mill burned at Port Crescent, the town simply emptied out, leaving only a half-finished harbor project behind.
John E. Lutz, of Port Crescent, is a guest at the Arlington. He is in the city arriving at a settlement with the insurance companies over the loss of his lumber mill which burned several days ago. 'The loss on the mill,' said he, 'was about $10,000, of which we had about $5,000 covered by insurance. In consequence of the destruction of our mill, the town of Port Crescent has temporarily gone under a cloud. It derived its principal support from the operations of our mill and logging camp, and since the fire most of the people have moved away. When we first started to make a town at Port Crescent people laughed at the idea of making a harbor there by building a breakwater, but we have gone ahead, and in time we will have one of the best small harbors in the state.'
“In consequence of the destruction of our mill the town of Port Crescent has temporarily gone under a cloud. It derived its principal support from the operations of our mill and logging camp, and since the fire most of the people have moved away.”
Port Crescent was a classic example of a 'company town' that ceased to exist when the industry left. Today, little remains of this once-ambitious harbor settlement on the Olympic Peninsula, serving as a reminder of the fragility of frontier town-building.
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