From the interview with Lucille Reinen of Port Townsend conducted by Carter Huth at the Fort Worden History Center on August 19, 2004. Since moving to Port Townsend, Ms. Reinen has participated in many Centrum and Port Townsend Marine Science Center programs. Here she discusses what led her to settle here:

“It was Washington State itself. My dad was in the military, in the Reserves, and we had come here many times. I fell in love with the undergrowth in the forest, the ferns were so beautiful and that’s what attracted me. Both my mother and father had part of family in the area and that’s why I remembered Washington.

I arrived in Seattle in the end of September 1988. I had no idea where to go. I had to do my laundry, so I went to the laundromat. While I was sitting there, a woman came and sat down beside me. She said,’What do you want to do?’ I said,’Well, I want to move.’ ‘What are your interests?’ She was from the University of Washington. She told me about Port Townsend and I came here. I stayed one night, then went back to get my bearings and think about it and came back over here. I’ve lived here ever since.. There are so many things to do here as an artist and a writer.

Fort Worden is so similar to Fort Warren, near Cheyenne, Wyoming where I lived when I was 16. To me it is so beautiful that it has been transformed away from the military base into a recreational and educational area. I’m excited that Peninsula College is here.”