Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Quilcene, WA

Quilcene is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, nicknamed the "Pearl of the Peninsula."

It sits at the head of Quilcene Bay, an arm of Dabob Bay on Hood Canal, on the eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula.

The name comes from a Twana word the Wilkes Expedition charted as "Kwil-sid" in 1841; the Quilcene, whose name means "salt-water people," were a band of the Twana people who lived along Hood Canal.

Hampden Cottle, a logger from Maine, and several other families settled Quilcene in 1860; the early town stood on the banks of the Quilcene River before moving to higher ground, and farming and logging supported its 53 residents by 1880.

Boosters once predicted Quilcene would become a smelting center for Olympic Mountain ores — an idea promoted by the Tubal Cain Mining Company in 1902 — but little ore was ever discovered.

The Quilcene National Fish Hatchery has operated since 1911 where the Big Quilcene River meets Penny Creek; there the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raises coho salmon and provides eggs and fingerlings for tribal programs.

Quilcene lends its name to the Quilcene oyster, and a commercial shellfish hatchery on Quilcene Bay produces oyster, clam and mussel seed.

The 2020 census counted 598 people in Quilcene, nearly unchanged across two decades — 596 people in 312 households in 2010, and 591 in 2000.

Mount Walker, 2,804 feet high and about two miles southwest of town, is the only Puget Sound-facing peak with a road to its summit, offering views of Mount Rainier, Puget Sound and Seattle.

The Olympic Music Festival made its home on a turn-of-the-century Quilcene dairy farm for 32 years, from its founding in 1984 until it moved to Fort Worden in 2016.