By the mid-19th century, after settlement by English speakers from the United States, the name was shortened and partially anglicized to its current form,[8] Port Angeles Harbor.

It is the birthplace of football hall of famer John Elway and residents include writers and other celebrities.

Ferry service is provided across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada on the MV Coho.

A small whaling, fishing and shipping village developed, which traded with Victoria, British Columbia.

Smith, a protege of Salmon Chase, was Collector of Customs for the Puget Sound District.

With Chase's support, he also succeeded in getting President Abraham Lincoln to designate 3,520 acres (1,424 ha) at Port Angeles as a federal reserve for lighthouse, military and naval purposes.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers platted a federal town site on the reserve land, laying out the street plan which still exists today.

Settlers soon followed slowly, but Smith's death in the sinking of the Brother Jonathan led to the loss of interest in the area.

Hundreds of its new residents were part of the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, which was established in 1887 and built several of the settlement's first permanent civic facilities, including a sawmill, church, office building, and opera house.

[citation needed] Tourism became increasingly important as the growing national affluence, and especially the 1961 opening of the Hood Canal Bridge that cut driving time from the populated central Puget Sound region, brought more visitors drawn by the mountains, rivers, and rainforest of Olympic National Park and by fishing and boating along the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The archeology site also included Native American burials of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

They found about 300 graves and 785 pieces of human bones, in addition to numerous ritual and ceremonial Indian artifacts of the former Tse-whit-zen village of the federally recognized Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.

[14] Because of the significance of the site for Native American history, in December 2004, the graving dock project was abandoned.

[2] The city is situated on the northern edge of the Olympic Peninsula along the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Port Angeles features a long and narrow glacial moraine named Ediz Hook that projects northeasterly nearly three miles into the Strait.

Ediz Hook creates a large, natural deep-water harbor shielded from the storms and swells that move predominantly eastward down the Strait from the Pacific Ocean.

Coast Guard Air Station / Sector Field Office (SFO) Port Angeles is situated on the end of Ediz Hook.

The south shore of Vancouver Island and the city of Victoria, British Columbia are visible across the Strait to the north.

However, in the winter, the city can be vulnerable to windstorms and Arctic cold fronts that sweep across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Port Angeles receives about 4 in (10 cm) of snow each year, but it rarely stays on the ground for long.

It is heavily moderated by the Pacific Ocean, resulting in cool summers and mild winters for its latitude.

The ancestry of Port Angeles was 15.3% German, 15.1% English, 13.2% Irish, 5.5% Norwegian, 3.3% Italian, 3.2% French, 2.9% Scottish, 2.3% Polish, and 0.1% Sub-Saharan African.

[28] Newsradio 1450 KONP is a local radio station offering news, sports, information and talk programming on AM 1450.

The cities have an exchange student program set up through the Port Angeles School District.