Sequim

History

Fossils discovered in the late 1970s – at a dig near Sequim known as the Manis Mastodon site, by Carl Gustafson, an archaeologist at Washington State University – 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. Archeological excavation during construction of the U.S. Route 101 bypass in the 1990s found artifacts that were dated between 6000 to 8000 years before present. 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…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The forests around Sequim are dominated by Douglas-fir and western red cedar. Other trees growing in the area include black cottonwood, red alder, bigleaf maple, Pacific madrone, lodgepole pine and Garry oak, all of which can grow to a significant size. Historically, much of the area was an open, oak-studded prairie, supported by somewhat excessively-drained gravelly and sandy loam soil; 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. Sequim is home to a herd of Roosevelt elk. The herd occasionally crosses U.S. Route 101 just to the southeast of the town. Radio collars on some members of the herd trigger warning lights for motorists. Sequim experiences a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb), sometimes classified as an oceanic climate owing to the relatively cool temperatures. Sequim is in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains, so annual precipitation is the lowest in the western portion of the state at only 16 inches. Winters are mostly mild with very little snowfall. Many years there is no snow at all. The highest temperature recorded in Sequim was on July 16, 1941, and the lowest on January 19, 1935 and February 4, 1989.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  25,106
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  24,709
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  22,821
• Anna's Hummingbird

  Calypte anna (R.Lesson, 1829) · Aves
  22,377
• Spotted Towhee

  Pipilo maculatus Swainson, 1827 · Aves
  21,888
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  21,428
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  20,833
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  17,731

Largest nearby schools

• Sequim Senior High
  High · Sequim · 794 students · 19.9:1 ratio
• Sequim Middle School
  Middle · Sequim · 568 students · 18.9:1 ratio
• Helen Haller Elementary School
  Elementary · Sequim · 541 students · 15:1 ratio
• Greywolf Elementary School
  Elementary · Sequim · 524 students · 15.9:1 ratio
• Olympic Peninsula Academy
  Other · Sequim · 94 students · 11.8:1 ratio
• Dungeness Virtual School
  Other · Sequim · 81 students

Most recent

• M 2.56 — 2026-09-12
  2 km E of Mount Vernon, Washington
• M 2.51 — 2026-08-09
  11 km SSW of River Road, Washington
• M 3.8 — 2026-07-02
  2 km E of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.87 — 2026-06-08
  2 km ESE of Oak Harbor, Washington
• M 2.56 — 2026-05-29
  7 km ENE of Ferndale, Washington
• M 2.84 — 2026-05-27
  4 km W of Wauna, Washington