Underground Port Angeles

Port Angeles Underground tour is the best tourist event I have experienced so far. The town has one of the deepest harbors in the country, so in the early part of the 20th century, its citizens salvaged it from constant flooding by raising the level of the streets by as much as 16 feet in some places.  Some pre-existing buildings were moved and raised to the higher ground. Some buildings went up during the construction project, and the lowest level built at the old street level then opened into the underground after the project was finished. The town was crisscrossed with underground streets until a fire broke out in one of the buildings. The underground tunnel acted like a flue, shooting a huge fireball across the length of the street. Today there is a section of one street left, which is open for tours.

One of the buildings used to be a theater, and although most of the interior has been redone for the present store--an antique and collectibles shop--upstairs is the original projection room. Looking out of the windows where the cameras shone into the theater, you can see the original multi-colored ceiling.

Another old building is the shoe store, owned by the same family for generations, still in business. The children's shoes were in the back, with a fabulous circus scene painted on the wall, and long wooden benches with animal heads separating the seats. In the corner was a real collector's item: an x-ray machine for shoe stores, into which children would place their feet to see if the new shoes fit.

It was quite a fancy store for a frontier town, especially when we saw what was upstairs. A separate entrance in the back led you up narrow stairs to a set of 18 small rooms where girls entertained sailors arriving in the port. The store downstairs collected rent, but had no idea what was going on upstairs--if you can believe that story.   Police routinely raided the illegal operation, but never managed to catch a single girl or sailor.

When we passed a Chinese restaurant, a boy about 10 years old emerged with a bowl and passed out fortune cookies for us. The tour guide praised the food, and on his recommendation, we had dinner there. It was good, but not great.

The tour guide's relationship with everyone in town was a major reason for the tour's success. He had gleaned many stories from his interactions with the townspeople, especially the oldest ones. Definitely the best tour I've ever taken.