Indian Canoes at Fort Warden.

Several hundred Indians captured Fort Warden while I was visiting Chimacum. The Fort was built to keep the Japanese from capturing Seattle with naval forces. We had not considerd Indians in canoes! The Indians landed on the beach and set up an Indian village on the Fort parade grounds in front of Officers Row. In the third pic you can see a row of quaint Indian porta potties. In the bottom pic a canoe is backing in to the beach.

Every year the Indians of the Puget Sound area stage a mass canoe outing. The Indians row for about a week (20 to 30 miles per day) to a common point and pow wow for a week. This year they met at Meeks Bay at the mouth of the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. Several hundred canoes and many Indians are involved.

The group of Indians at Fort Warden had rowed from Port Gamble just prior to taking Fort Warden and were going to row to Sequim the next day.

Fort Warden is on the edge of Port Townsend. Fort Warden is where the movie "Officer and a Gentleman" was filmed.