Sequim ( ) is a city in Clallam County, Washington, United States. It is located on the north side of the Olympic Peninsula between the Dungeness River and Sequim Bay. The city is south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and north of the Olympic Mountains. The population was 8,024 as of the 2020 census; the estimated population in 2023 was 8,203. Sequim is connected to nearby Port Angeles by U.S. Route 101, which runs south of the city's downtown.

The city lies within the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and receives, on average, less than of rain per year – about the same as Los Angeles – giving rise to the region's local nickname of Sunny Sequim. However, the city is relatively close to some of the wettest temperate rainforests of the contiguous United States. This climate anomaly is sometimes called the "Blue Hole of Sequim". Fogs and cool breezes from the Strait of Juan de Fuca make Sequim's climate more humid than would be expected from the low average rate of annual precipitation.

Sequim and the surrounding area are particularly known for the commercial cultivation of lavender, supported by the unique climate. The city is nicknamed the "Lavender Capital of North America". The area is also known for its Dungeness crab, named for the nearby Dungeness Spit.

Etymology

The name Sequim is derived from the Klallam word sxʷčkʷíyəŋ, which means "hunting ground" or "place for going to shoot". It was adopted as the name of the settlement in 1879, with the spelling replacing the earlier "Seguim". The historic translation of "quiet waters" was disproven in 2010 by linguist Timothy Montler, who had researched the Klallam language and interviewed elders of the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe. Sequim is pronounced as one syllable, with the e elided: "skwim"; a common mispronounciation is "see-kwim".

History

Indigenous inhabitants 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.

Settlement 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 Townsend, built primarily to carry wood products from the forests of the western Olympic Peninsula.

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.

Climate 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.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Sequim had a population of 8,024 people. The median age was 63.7 years; 12.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 47.6% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 78.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 74.2 males age 18 and over.

There were 4,063 households in Sequim, of which 14.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 38.0% were married-couple households, 16.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 39.4% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 42.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 30.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 4,369 housing units, of which 7.0% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.0% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.8%.

98.5% of residents lived in urban areas, while 1.5% lived in rural areas.

+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 6,766 84.3% Black or African American 61 0.8% American Indian and Alaska Native 168 2.1% Asian 210 2.6% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 19 0.2% Some other race 214 2.7% Two or more races 586 7.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 501 6.2%

[Note: The Sequim School District serves a total district population of around 34,119 people, with student enrollment typically hovering around 2,600-2,700 across its six schools.]

2010 census As of the 2010 census, there were 6,606 people, 3,340 households, and 1,626 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,767 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 91.3% White, 0.4% African American, 1.2% Native American, 1.9% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.7% from other races, and 3.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 4.8% of the population.

There were 3,340 households, of which 17.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.5% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 2.8% had a male householder with no wife present, and 51.3% were non-families. 45.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 29.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.87 and the average family size was 2.57.

The median age in the city was 57.9 years. 15.2% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.3% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 15.9% were from 25 to 44; 22.1% were from 45 to 64; and 40.4% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 44.4% male and 55.6% female.

Economy

The U.S. Department of Energy maintains a marine laboratory on Sequim Bay that is operated by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Mervin Manufacturing, a producer of snowboards, has a factory in Sequim that opened in 1995.

Tourism

The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is located just north of the city, near the mouth of the Dungeness River. It includes the Dungeness Spit and a five-mile (8 km) hike to the New Dungeness Lighthouse at the end of the spit. To the east along U.S. Route 101 is Sequim Bay, a 4-mile (6.5 km) long inlet from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Along the western stretch is the Sequim Bay State Park. The inlet is a popular birdwatching area.

The Museum and Arts Center features both natural and cultural exhibits, including a mastodon mural mounted with the remaining mastodon bones, artifacts, and a video on the excavation.

Government

Sequim has had a council–manager government since a 1995 referendum was approved by city residents. The city council has seven members who each serve a four-year term and are elected at-large. The city council appoints a ceremonial mayor to preside over meetings during a two-year term and approves the hiring of a city manager as head of the municipal government's departments. Councilmember Brandon Janisse was elected as mayor in January 2024. Matt Huish has been the city manager since his hiring in November 2021.

At the federal level, the city lies within the 6th congressional district, which encompasses the entire Olympic Peninsula, the neighboring Kitsap Peninsula, and part of Tacoma. Sequim is part of the state's 24th legislative district, which includes most of the Olympic Peninsula except for Mason County. The city is represented in the Clallam County Commission as part of the 1st district, which includes most areas east of the Dungeness River.

Arts and culture

Festivals and events

Sequim holds its annual Irrigation Festival in early May. It was first held on May 1, 1896, to commemorate the first anniversary of an irrigation system on the Dungeness River and is the longest continually running festival in the state, reaching its 130th edition in 2025. The festival includes a street parade, concerts, live entertainment and performances, arts and crafts, a car show, and a fashion show for clothing made with recycled materials.

Other annual festivals include the Sunshine Festival, which began in 2020 and is held in March, and the Sequim Lavender Weekend, held in July since 1997.

Library

The city is part of the North Olympic Library System (NOLS), which serves Clallam County. Sequim had its own library that was established in the 1910s and moved into the Clyde Rhodefer Memorial Library in 1936. The new library, named for the first Clallam County casualty in World War I, was opened in November 1936 and was constructed by the federal Public Works Administration. The Clallam County Rural Library District, the predecessor to NOLS, acquired the branch in 1947. It was replaced with a modern building near Sequim High School in 1983. The Sequim branch later became too small for the growing city and was proposed for replacement in a 2001 study; it was renovated in 2009 and a replacement was to be funded by a bond measure in 2018 that failed to pass with the required supermajority. The state government awarded a grant in 2020 for the replacement library project, which broke ground in 2024. It is scheduled to open in 2025 and cost $10.6million; funding from the state government was supplemented by private donations.

Education