Love Where You Live
Olympic National Park had about 3.6 million visits in 2025. ONP visitors spent nearly $300 million in the local economy. People come to Clallam County and Port Angeles every year just to get a small taste of what we get to experience every day. That is pretty incredible when you stop and think about it. A LOT of people save money, plan vacations, book hotels, rent cars, and spend their limited time off work just to be here for a few days. We get to call this place home.
But for me, the best part of living here is not just the scenery. It is the people. This community shows up. When the Dream Playground was destroyed, people did not just complain about it. They rebuilt it. When people wanted a pump track, the community made that happen too. When our schools started falling apart, voters stepped up.
Nobody is saying everything is perfect. But the fact that people argue so passionately about this place is also evidence that people care. Apathy does not look like heated public meetings, long Reddit threads, volunteer boards, nonprofit fundraisers, school campaigns, park projects, and people giving up their weekends to build something for kids they may never even meet. This is a community where people give their time, their money, their labor, their opinions, and their energy because they want this place to be better.
There are plenty of beautiful places in the world. What makes a place a home is whether people care enough to make it better. Port Angeles has that.
