A big broad beach and campground at the Sekiu River is 2.9 miles west of the Ozette turnoff. About five miles west is the mouth of the Hoko River where archaeologists.excavated deposits from a 3,000-year-old Indian fishing village in the 1980s. These artifacts are found in the Makah Museum in Neah Bay.

A lovely, but narrow, winding road leads along the Strait of Juan de Fuca for 14.3 miles to Neah Bay. This stretch of highway is noted for the number of bald eagles often seen here.

The Chito Beach Resort, eight miles west of Sekiu on the beach

in a private bay, has been remodeled by new owners Robert and Patricia Ness. Open year 'round, the resort has two, clean and cozy one-bedroom units and an A frame cabin with complete kitchens. They will also be opening a bunk house this summer which sleeps 8-10 people.

This is a peaceful and romantic place to kayak, scuba dive, watch eagles, otters and whales with miles of beaches for walking, bonfires and barbecues and beautiful sunrises and-sunsets.

One mile further west is Tretteviks RV Park with a spectacular view across the strait of Juan de Fuca and sandy beaches for beach combing, strolling, romance, campfires and bird watching.

Just before entering the reservation is the Snow Creek Resort with fishing and whale watching tours available as well as RV sites.

Neah Bay now has a protected harbor. A new $8 million 1,700-foot breakwater and a 190-boat marina that opened last year.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, the bay was the center of a thriving fish and fur trade. The feared seagoing Makahs were proficient in hunting whales and they traded whale and dogfish oil, and seal, otter and bear pelts, to other tribes.

In 1790, the Spanish captains Eliza and Quimper took possession of the area and called it Bahia de Nunuz Gaona. Two years later Spanish lieutenant Salvador Fidalgo was sent here to fortify the place, but was ejected by the lndians.That same year, Captain George Vancouver charted the bay and called it Poverty Bay. It was called Poverty Cove by American ,traders and the Wilkes ,Expedition in 1841 named it Scarborough Harbor. The word Neah appeared first on the Wilkes chart, but he applied it to present Waadah Island. The present name for the bay was given in 1847 by Henry Kellett and he spelled it Neeah Bay for Makah chief Dee-ah.

The area was opened to trade by Samuel Hancock in 1850, who built a blockhouse there. In 1857, Henry Webster, William and Charles Windsor, J.A. Jenkins and Charles L. Strong established a trading post across from the tip of Waadah Island.

In 1852, the government survey selected Tatoosh Island, off the tip of Cape Flattery, the northwestern most point of the contiguous United States, to be the location of an 85-foot lighthouse.

A smallpox epidemic decimated the tribe in 1853.

The 27,000 acre Makah Reservation was established,by treaty in 1855, by Territorial Governor Issac Stevens. By 1865, there was a trader's store, agent's house, carpenter shop, Indian village and a newly completed Makah Reservation school with James G. Swan as

teacher.

For many years, Neah Bay was accessible only by water.The first road reached here in 1931.Until that time steamers brought in all freight and passengers. To accommodate them, the Washburn family built a dock in 1912.

The Makah Fish hatchery and a former air base are two-and-ahalf miles south of town. The air base is the site of the Makah Tribal Headquarters.

Nearby Hobuck Beach is a wide sandy crescent offering an opportunity for whale watching and beach combing, and Waatch Beach west of the Cape Flattery Tribal Center. Access to TsooYas Beach is allowed by paying a parking fee to private landowners.

Check with the Makah Tribe for rules and regulations and maps, fishing permits and information.

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