Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Port Angeles, WA

Port Angeles is a city in and the county seat of Clallam County, Washington, sitting on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The city's harbor was named Puerto de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles (Port of Our Lady of the Angels) by Spanish explorer Francisco de Eliza in 1791, a name later shortened and anglicized to Port Angeles.

In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln designated 3,520 acres at Port Angeles as a federal reserve, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers platted the townsite — leading the U.S. Board of Trade in 1890 to dub it the "Second National City," since Washington, D.C. was the only other city officially laid out by the federal government.

Port Angeles was incorporated on June 11, 1890, and was named the county seat of Clallam County later that same year.

The population of Port Angeles was 19,960 at the 2020 census, making it the most populous city in Clallam County and the largest city on the Olympic Peninsula.

Census Bureau survey estimates for 2020–2024 counted about 9,287 households in Port Angeles, averaging 2.11 persons per household.

Ediz Hook, a long, narrow glacial sand spit, projects nearly three miles into the Strait of Juan de Fuca and shelters one of the deepest natural harbors on the West Coast; a U.S. Coast Guard air station sits at its tip.

Port Angeles lies in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and averages only about 25 inches of precipitation a year, compared with roughly 100 inches in Forks on the peninsula's west side.

The city hosts the headquarters of Olympic National Park, established in 1938, and serves as the park's main northern gateway, with the road to Hurricane Ridge beginning here.

Peninsula College, a public community college founded in 1961 with its first classes held on the Port Angeles High School campus, now occupies a 75-acre campus and built the first Longhouse on a community college campus in the United States.