Utility line marking Poulsbo, Washington

Modern-day downtown Poulsbo maintains a Scandinavian theme to honor its early immigrant history and is a popular regional tourist destination. One of its local products, Poulsbo Bread, is made locally at Sluys Bakery and used to be sold internationally. Many visitors arrive by boat; there are three marinas near the town, and the town's harbor is an excellent anchorage. The Suquamish people have inhabited the surrounding area, called č̓uʔč̓uɬac in Lushootseed, for millennia. After the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, many were moved to the Port Madison Indian Reservation. Poulsbo was then founded in the 1880s by Norwegian immigrant Jørgen Eliason, who was joined by other Scandinavians who relocated from the Midwestern states. They were drawn here by the availability of land, by the area's rich resources, and by a landscape similar to their native home. The settlement was connected by boats to other areas of the region, including the Puget Sound mosquito fleet, which was eventually usurped by highways built in the early 20th century. Poulsbo (/ˈpɔːlzboʊ/ PAWLZ-boh) is a city on Liberty Bay in Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is the smallest of the four cities in Kitsap County. The population was 11,970 at the 2020 census^[5] and an estimated 10,927 in 2018.^[6]

About Poulsbo, Washington

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The Suquamish people have inhabited Liberty Bay for millennia, hunting in local forests and floodplains, fishing in bays and streams, and harvesting shellfish along the shoreline. The site upon which the modern city is built is called č̓uʔč̓uɬac, meaning "maple trees". The Suquamish had a winter village nearby, at the head of Liberty Bay, anglicized variously as "Ho-Cheeb" and "Xoyacid," which consisted of two large houses and four smaller houses. It existed until the late 1800's until settlers began populating the area. After the signing of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, most of the Suquamish people living in the area were relocated to the Port Madison Indian Reservation. Founded by Norwegian immigrant Jørgen Eliason in the 1880s, Poulsbo was settled in its early years by a large number of Norwegian and other Scandinavian immigrants because of its similarities to their native countries. In 1886, Iver Brynildsen Moe, one of the early Norwegian settlers, suggested that the community should have a post office. Moe suggested the town be named "Paulsbo", his hometown in Halden, Norway. The community's petition for a post office was granted and Moe became the first postmaster, but authorities in Washington, D.C. misspelled the town's name, likely misreading Moe's handwriting,[citation needed] and the community became known as "Poulsbo" thereafter. Poulsbo was incorporated on December 18, 1907. Until World War II, many Poulsbo residents retained Norwegian as a primary language. However, during World War II, the military constructed about 300 residential units to provide housing for workers at the nearby Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton. The population of Poulsbo almost tripled over three years, and the diversification of the population led to the dominance of English as the primary language. On October 22, 1975, King Olav V of Norway visited Poulsbo as part of the celebration of 150 years of Norwegian immigration to the United States. His son, Harald, visited 20 years later.