The unincorporated communities of Port Gamble and Little Boston, part of Kitsap County, lie on the west and the east side, respectively, of the mouth of this bay.

It is a popular tourist destination, due to its location near Bremerton, Port Townsend, Bainbridge Island, and Seattle.

[6] In 1856, USS Massachusetts was sent from Seattle to Port Gamble on the Puget Sound, where indigenous raiding parties from British and Russian territories had been enslaving local Native Americans.

Pope and Talbot quickly realized that the lumber shipments from New England were not enough to meet the growing demand for building materials in the West.

After hearing about the dense forests in the Oregon Territory, Talbot and Pope, along with partners Josiah Keller and Charles Foster, formed the Puget Mill Company to harvest the much-needed lumber for the expanding West.

As houses were constructed for workers' and company executives' families, the design reflected their desire to feel at home, as the architecture looked like that which could be found in a New England city.

[16] The Puget Mill Company, now known as Pope & Talbot, Inc., soon followed suit, forming the Hood Canal Tree Farm in 1946 and having 75,000 acres (30,000 ha) in it by 1953.

The constant flow of settlers into the frontier and expanding economic influence demanded a high level of resources to maintain stability and growth.

When William Talbot, Andrew Pope, and Josiah Keller washed up on the sandy shores of the Hood Canal they discovered the fortune of timber along the Olympic Peninsula.

The characteristics of the two men drove them through the ups and downs of global economic woes and stiff competition, especially their eventual counterparts in the Oregon Territory.

After the founding of Port Gamble, these three men established the longest-working lumber mill on the North American continent.

[13] By 1862, the Puget Mill Company owned a fleet of ten vessels and was shipping almost 19 million board feet of lumber to foreign outlets.

Captain Keller took hold of the shipment plans for the Pope and Talbot Lumber Company and created routes along the Pacific Coast to help supply the large demands of the California Gold Rush.

[18] A little over a year earlier in May 1924, William Talbot had already reached his own decision regarding the future of the Port Gamble mill.

This, combined with inefficient operations, outdated equipment, and increasingly dilapidated facilities, became too much of a burden for William Talbot.

The National Park Service has cited Port Gamble as "the finest example of a nineteenth century Pacific Coast logging community.

"[17] The Port Gamble Historical Museum tells the history of the town and how the Pope and Talbot mill impacted the community.

The general store was the "first building [that] was constructed in 1853 on the mill site, a 'rough structure' built of lumber shipped from Maine and shingled with cedar split cut nearby.

The store sold coffee, pickles, boots, crockery, brooms, windows, toys, gloves, tools and other goods to employees, settlers, sailors, loggers, and the S'kallam tribe.

The preservation of the town of Port Gamble began in the mid-1960s, when Pope & Talbot rebuilt and restored thirty houses and buildings, located utilities underground, and installed gas street lamps.

Author Gregg Olsen made Port Gamble the setting for his "Empty Coffin" series of books, which include Betrayal and Envy.