This cozy community is relaxed and likes it that way

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Nick Jerkovich Jr.'s family has been fishing out of Gig Harbor since early this century -- fighting bad weather, struggling with decreasing stocks of fish, competing with other fishermen.

Jerkovich, 46, learned the purse-seining trade from his father, who learned the trade from his father before him. It's probably too soon to tell whether 17-year-old Nick Jerkovich III will follow in his dad's footsteps. But don't bet against it.

Things have a way of pretty much staying the same in this cozy community nestled in an uncommonly beautiful northwest corner of Pierce County.

Sure, the fishing has changed.

The salmon aren't as easy to come by, says Jerkovich, who lives in the 65-year-old house once owned by his grandfather. The patriarch chose Gig Harbor as the place he wanted to carve out a new life after emigrating from Yugoslavia.

"My dad and grandfather did almost all of their fishing in Washington and around the San Juan Islands," says Jerkovich. "Now we roam everywhere from San Diego to Dutch Harbor, Alaska. We spend very little fishing time in the state of Washington."

Gig Harbor's purse-seiners have had to diversify, too. Salmon no longer are their exclusive prey. They go after halibut, herring, tuna, cod, mackerel and other species.

"We're down to about 16 or 17 boats. It has been as high as 25 in my lifetime," says Jerkovich, who spends about 180 days a year fishing on his 58-foot Pacific Raider.

But those differences aside, things haven't changed all that much in Gig Harbor since fishermen Sam Jerisich, Peter Goldsmith and John Farrago left their homes in Dalmatia and Portugal and became the community's first white settlers in 1867.

There has been significant growth, but Gig Harbor still has the look, feel and fresh salt-air smell of a small fishing village.

And residents still enjoy one of the finest views in the Puget Sound area. The calm waters of their tiny harbor, with Mount Rainier towering in the background, have inspired hundreds of thousands of photographs and postcards over the years.

The people who live in Gig Harbor and the surrounding area are doing what residents of few other Puget Sound communities have been able to do: They are winning the war against urban sprawl.

Continued:

• City is growing, but it's still a small town at heart
• Town is safe and increasing in diversity