Introduction
45 miles S of Seattle, 30 miles S of Bremerton, 45 miles N of Olympia
On the far side of the two Tacoma Narrows bridges from Tacoma is the quaint waterfront town of Gig Harbor. With its interesting little shops, art galleries, seafood restaurants, fleet of commercial fishing boats, and marinas full of private pleasure craft, this town is the quintessential Puget Sound fishing village. Framing this picture of Puget Sound's past is the snowcapped bulk of Mount Rainier, which lends a near storybook quality.
Long the site of a Native American village, Gig Harbor was not discovered by Euro-Americans until 1841, when sailors from an exploratory expedition who were charting the area from a gig (a small boat that had been launched from the expedition's main ship) rowed into the bay. Settlers arrived here in 1867 and soon Gig Harbor was a thriving fishing village of Scandinavians and Croatians.
