From the interview with Marcella Younce of Port Townsend conducted by Mona Lou Stefflre on July 15, 2002 at the Fort Worden History Center. Mrs. Younce grew up in Port Townsend and married Jack Younce, the son of a noncommissioned officer stationed at Fort Worden in the 1930’s:

“I know why you’ve got all the rabbits around Fort Worden…My husband Jack and his good friend Howard Petrie… decided they would make some money one summer and raise rabbits and sell them. …at first the families were buying some rabbits from them for their Sunday dinners and everything seemed to be going fine. Then the rabbits started multiplying so fast, they didn’t know which were the boys and which were the girls. They didn’t know how to separate them and they just multiplied so fast that Jack and Howard couldn’t get cages built for them, then they realized that even when they started school again they had to get up early and cut hay and get food for these rabbits…People weren’t buying as many as the boys were raising, so they were just overwhelmed. They decided one day ‘to heck with it’ and they just opened the gates and let these rabbits out. So, they’ve been multiplying up in the woods ever since, and that’s where all these rabbits came from.”