Inquiring minds still wonder, why is town called Shqueen?

Published 2:27 pm Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Cliff Brehan, of Sequim, and Chester Masters, a postal historian from Carlsborg, have tried to answer this question. They dug up many facts but some mystery still remains.

From Aug. 13, 1879, to Sept. 21, 1907, our town and post office were Seguin. Even during that period many other spellings appear on old maps for both the town and for Sequim Bay, including Shqueen in 1881, Sequin, Squim, Saguin and Segun.

Why so much confusion on the spelling?

Probably the "G" and the "Q" and also the "M" and the "N" are easy to misread, especially when written out by hand.

And there are a lot of phonetic variations in those names.

Local historian June Robinson thought the Sequim spelling in 1907 came from a postal clerk error, and that is very possible.

But Brehan found a 1905 Washington Postal Route Map with the spelling

Sequim. Is it possible there was a typo on the map and that maybe in 1907 a postal official looked at that flawed map to get the "correct" spelling?

Another theory holds that Texas had a Seguin and we had to change. Brehan thinks this is very unlikely, as states duplicate each other in city names all the time.

After nearly 30 years as Seguin, wouldn’t the citizens protest a name change?

Did local or Port Angeles newspapers published near the Sept. 21, 1907, change date explain why a town changed its name?