Poulsbo - “Little Norway On The Fjord”
Poulsbo's strong Norwegian heritage began in the 1880s. The Suquamish Indians were the first occupants of this area where the City of Poulsbo would finally call home. The Suquamish used the bay for fishing and gathering shellfish. The tribe had seceded the land on which Poulsbo sits in the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, but they retained the use of their traditional hunting, fishing and gathering sites. It was not long after the treaty that the first logging crews came to the bay. Henry Eley in 1860 set up camp where downtown is today. Paul Wahl operated his logging operation beginning in 1862 and Blakely Mill Company established themselves nearby in 1872.

Ole Stubb (born Ole Anderson Stubbhaug in Norway) and his family arrive in 1875 by way of South Dakota. Ole felt this place held a great future for Norwegians moving out west. It did, however, take seven years before a fellow Norwegian arrived. Jorgen Eliason and Peter Olson rowed a boat from Seattle to Dog Fish Bay in search of land. Jorgen, his sister Rakel, and his six-year old son, E.J., came to Poulsbo from Fordefjord, Norway, by way of Michigan in 1882. A month later the Moe family join them settling in Paul Wahl’s abandoned shacks on the waterfront. The Iver B. Moe and his sons had journeyed from Minneapolis west working for the Northern Pacific Railroad providing cordwood for a gold mine, and road horses over the Rocky Mountains in 1882 and 1883. The Moe family was the first party to cross Snoqualmie Pass with wagons, and their search for land lead them to Dog Fish Bay.

Joining the Eliasons who were focusing on clearing land for farming, the Moes immediately jumped into various business ventures. Starting in 1884, they logged the peninsula and sold the logs to the large mills at Port Madison and Port Blakely. Iver Moe’s efforts to do business with the Port Gamble mill were suffering due to lack of roadway so he blazed a trail there in three days. Iver Moe and his sons built 30 miles of standard gauge railroad, and were the first to use a steam donkey, to haul logs to the loading site. The Moes would later invest in the Pacific Coast Codfish Company and run the steamer Dauntless for passenger service. Many more Norwegian and Scandinavian Immigrants who likened the landscape to their beautiful Norway soon settled Poulsbo.

For many years, Norwegian was the only language spoken by citizens of Poulsbo. In 1886, Iver B. Moe felt there were enough people on Dogfish Bay (later renamed Liberty Bay) to warrant a post office. He made an application and called the new town Paulsbo. The Postmaster General misread Moe's handwriting and listed the new office as Poulsbo.

Transportation in Poulsbo's early years was by boat, horseback, and foot. Commercial fishing, boat building, and farming were the three facets of Poulsbo’s economy. Boat trips to Seattle's Pike Place Market were lucrative for those dealing in fish and produce. Fisherman used the large processing plant for their catch and lutefisk became very popular with the Norwegian people. A "mosquito fleet" of steamers sailed from Seattle to Poulsbo for some 60 years, carrying passengers and freight. During the war years, the defense industry workers moved into the 300-unit Sunset Park Housing Project and these residents worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Keyport. Military and civilian personnel increased the population from 675 to over 2,000 during these years.

Commercial fishing continued until 1970 and slowly boatbuilding gave way to the pleasure craft we see filling the marina slips today. In the last half of the twentieth century Poulsbo’s population boomed, especially with the opening of the Naval Submarine Base at Bangor in 1981. The population fluctuated until the 1940 when Poulsbo’s accessibility by road, bridge, and ferry allowed it to grow to the almost 9,000 people we have today.

Today many businesses have changed the landscape but the Scandinavian influence remains. Many descendants of the original settlers, and the members of the Sons of Norway who continue to teach the language, heritage and the music, perpetuate the traditions and dancing that reflects the culture of Poulsbo.

Click Here to Visit the Poulsbo Historical Society Web Page.