Port Gamble, WA

BUENA VISTA CEMETERY, Port Gamble, Kitsap County, Washington
T27N R2E Section 6

Transcribed by Yvette LeBlanc Ivey and Rachael Ash, July 2000.

     The historic town of Port Gamble was established in 1851 by three 
men from East Machias, Maine, named Pope, Talbot, and Walker.  The town 
has always been a company town of the Pope and Talbot Company or its 
subsidiaries, with no public or private land except in company 
ownership.  The town is a nearly exact replica of the Maine seaport 
of its founders.  Most original homes and structures are still 
standing and in everyday use.  Port Gamble, originally known also by 
its Indian name Teeklalet, was home to what for decades was the world's 
largest lumber mill, the Puget Mill Company of the Pope and Talbot 
Companies.  Until its recent closure this mill dating from 1851 was 
the oldest continuously operating lumber mill in the world.
     The Buena Vista Cemetery dates from the early 1850's, and 
contains numerous unmarked graves in addition to the surviving stones 
shown below.  The cemetery, as well as the entire town, is listed 
on the National Register of Historic Places, and is very well 
preserved and maintained by the company.  Besides the remarkable 
beauty of its surroundings, which include a 270 degree breathtaking 
view of Puget Sound and Hood Canal, the cemetery is well known for 
another reason.  It is the final resting place of the first US Navy 
man ever lost in enemy action in the Pacific Ocean.
     Coxwain Gustave Engelbrecht was a crewman on the USS Massachusetts,
the single American warship (actually a small gunboat) stationed in 
these waters, which had been US territory for only ten years.  In 
November of 1856 the Massachusetts responded to an urgent call for 
help from the town of Port Gamble, where residents and local Indians 
were under heavy attack by a large war party of Haida Indians.
     The Haida (sometimes called "the Vikings of the Pacific") were
a fierce, warlike people from a thousand miles to the north, roughly 
the coastal area where the Russian possessions (Alaska) met the 
English possessions (British Columbia, Canada).  They used huge 
sea-going canoes holding dozens of men to attack once or twice a year 
in large raids of hundreds of men seeking slaves and plunder, and 
their coming literally terrorized the local native population.
     The USS Massachusetts arrived at Port Gamble to find the town 
besieged and the battle underway.  In the Battle of Port Gamble, the 
little vessel was able to drive off the Haida with heavy losses, 
including the death of their principal chief and several other 
headmen.  The Massachusetts sustained fairly light casualties,
but they included the US Navy's first man to die in combat in the 
Pacific, Gustave Engelbrecht, whose grave is honored in the center 
and highest point of Buena Vista Cemetery.

Above historical notes by Kevin Fraley, © 2001.