Sequim, WA Real Estate
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Sequim is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. The 2010 census counted a population of 6,606. With the surrounding area, the population is about 28,000. The population served by the Sequim School District population was close to 29,000 in 2018. Sequim is located along the Dungeness River near the base of the Olympic Mountains.
Sequim lies within the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and receives on average less than 16 inches (410 mm) of rain per year – about the same as Los Angeles, California – leading it to give itself the nickname of Sunny Sequim. However, the city is relatively close to some of the wettest temperate rainforests of the contiguous United States. This climate anomaly is sometimes called the “Blue Hole of Sequim”.
Fogs and cool breezes from the Juan de Fuca Strait make Sequim’s climate more humid than would be expected from the low average annual precipitation. Some places have surprisingly luxuriant forests dominated by Douglas-fir and western red cedar. Black cottonwood, red alder, bigleaf maple, Pacific madrone, lodgepole pine, and Garry oak can also be large. Historically, much of the area was an open oak-studded prairie supported by somewhat excessively drained gravelly sandy loam soil, though agriculture and development of the Dungeness valley have changed this ecosystem. Most soils under Sequim have been placed in a series that is named after the city. This “Sequim series” is one of the few Mollisols in western Washington and its high base saturation, a characteristic of the Mollisol order, is attributed to the minimal leaching of bases caused by low annual rainfall.
Living in Sequim
The city and the surrounding area are particularly known for the commercial cultivation of lavender, supported by the unique climate. It makes Sequim the “Lavender Capital of North America”, rivaled only in France. The area is also known for its Dungeness crab.
Sequim is pronounced as one syllable, with the e elided: “skwim”. The name developed from the Klallam language.
History
Aboriginal inhabitants
Fossils discovered in the late 1970s at a dig near Sequim – by Carl Gustafson, an archaeologist at Washington State University – known as the Manis Mastodon Site included a mastodon bone with an embedded bone point, evidencing the presence of hunters in the area about 14,000 years ago. According to Michael R. Waters, an archaeologist at Texas A&M University, this is the first hunting weapon found that dates to the pre-Clovis period.
The S’Klallam tribe had inhabited the region prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. S’Klallam means “the strong people”. The band of S’Klallam Indians disbanded into their own individual federally recognized tribes in the early 1900s. The local tribe is the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, named after one of their early leaders, Lord James Balch. According to other tales, the town Sequim in S’Klallam means “a place for going to shoot”, which represents the abundance of game and wildlife of the area.
Settlement
Manuel Quimper and George Vancouver explored the region’s coast in the 1790s. The first European settlers arrived in the Dungeness Valley in the 1850s, settling nearby Dungeness, Washington. While the lands along the river became fertile farmlands, the remainder of the area remained arid prairie, known as “the desert”. Irrigation canals first brought water to the prairie in the 1890s, allowing the expansion of farmlands.
Sequim was officially incorporated on October 31, 1913. For many decades small farms, mostly dairy farms, dotted the area around the small town. Near the end of World War I, Sequim became a stop for a railway that passed through from Port Angeles to Port Townsend, built primarily to carry wood products from the forests of the western Olympic Peninsula.
Culture
Sequim holds an Irrigation Festival every May. As of 2019, it is the longest continually running festival in the state and is in its 124th year.
Tourist attractions
- Sequim is home to a herd of Roosevelt elk. The herd occasionally crosses US 101 just to the southeast of the town. Radio collars on some members of the herd trigger warning lights for motorists.
- Over the past two decades, Sequim has become known for growing lavender and holds the annual Sequim Lavender Weekend (the third weekend in July).
- The Museum and Arts Center features both natural and cultural exhibits, including a mastodon mural mounted with the remaining mastodon bones, artifacts, and a video on the excavation.
- The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is located just north of the city, near the mouth of the Dungeness River. It includes the Dungeness Spit and a five-mile (8 km) hike to the New Dungeness Lighthouse at the end of the spit.
- To the east along Highway 101 is Sequim Bay, a 4-mile (6.5 km) long inlet from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Along the western stretch is the Sequim Bay State Park. The inlet is a popular birdwatching area.
Education
The Sequim School District is home to the following schools:
- Sequim High School
- Sequim Middle School
- Sequim Community School
- Olympic Peninsula Academy
- Helen Haller Elementary
- Greywolf Elementary
Media
The local news publications consist of the community newspaper Sequim Gazette and the Peninsula Daily News.
Sequim is served by several radio stations. KSQM, FM 91.5 is a non-commercial station staffed by community volunteers featuring a variety of music. Z-104.9 FM, KZQM is a commercial station featuring classic hits.
Newsradio KONP also provides local news, talk and sports programming on 1450 AM and 101.3 FM.
Sister city
Sequim’s sister city is Shiso, Hyōgo, Japan. Sequim and Shiso have an exchange student program set up through Sequim High School and Sequim Middle School.
Sequim Schools
Buying a Sequim Home
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