A schoolhouse in the Quinault Valley was built for the children of local homesteads.

From approximately 70 miles of wild Pacific coast and islands through densely forested lowlands to the glacier-crowned Olympic Mountains, the park protects several distinctively different and relatively pristine ecosystems. These places shelter a unique array of habitats and life forms resulting from thousands of years of geographic isolation. Olympic National Park is a place unmatched in the world.

Interwoven throughout the outstanding and diverse landscape of Olympic National Park is an array of cultural and historical sites that tell the human story of the park. More than 650 archaeological sites document 10,000 years of human occupation in the park's lands. Historic sites reveal clues about the 200-year history of exploration, homesteading, and community development in the Pacific Northwest, as well as the continuing evolution of the federal preservation ethic.