While resident Native Americans routinely hunted and gathered plants within the mountainous core of the Peninsula, settlement by Euramericans did not occur until the 1880s. Early commercial activities consisted of subsistence farming, fishing, logging, and some mining. The isolation, wet weather, dense forests and steep terrain of the Peninsula have slowed development and buffered the area from the urbanization of the Puget Sound region. Nearly 95 percent of Olympic is designated wilderness. Olympic National Park is the primary travel objective on the Peninsula, receiving over 4.6 million visits in 1995 and having one of the highest overnight use rates of all parks in the country.
People travel to the Peninsula for other reasons as well.
The natural resources draw many visitors to the area for recreational hunting and fishing. Although visitation occurs throughout the year, the vast majority of people arrive in the drier months of summer and early fall. Other lands are managed by the state Department of Natural Re sources and private interests. Concentrations of privately owned tracts occur in the Lake Crescent area, along the north shore of Lake Quinault and at Oil City, near the coast. All timber company tracts within the park and a planned reservoir site have been acquired.