Town has always drawn pilgrims of one sort or another

By JOHN MARSHALL
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

More pilgrims of one kind or another are sure to come to Port Townsend, as they always have.

They came a century ago, when the city's crucial location at the entrance to Puget Sound seemed to promise that it would be the "Key City" of the region. The impressive brick buildings downtown and the Victorian homes in the genteel neighborhood uptown invited comparisons to Boston and Quebec. But then the promised railroad wasn't built this far and the city reeled from a near-death blow.

They are still coming a century later. The impressive buildings remain a huge draw -- what newspaper co-publisher Scott Wilson describes as "our historic accident of fate." As is the modest 16 inches of rain a year, thanks to its location in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains.

And lately, there's been a "woo-woo" influx, jokes Catherine Formusa, a local massage therapist.

Suddenly, there are many people who speak openly about an "energy vortex" here, as has long been said about Sedona, Ariz. Sales of crystals and other New Age items seem to be growing here -- or at least the chance to buy them. Phoenix Rising, the city's first such store, is constructing a large building downtown and Mind Over Matter, a healing center and retail complex, opened last November in a huge space uptown, to the amazement of many.

There are now often-repeated fears that Port Townsend will be transformed into a tourism stage set, much like Carmel, Calif., or Aspen, Colo., or some other alluring small place overrun by visitors. But even with the tourists, the energy vortex and the conservative council, one thing remains the same.

"It is a magical place," says real estate agent Barbara Bogart. "No doubt about it."