Port Hadlock is a census-designated place in Jefferson County, Washington, on the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula. It lies along Port Townsend Bay, a protected arm of Puget Sound's Admiralty Inlet, and is paired administratively with the adjacent community of Irondale as the Port Hadlock-Irondale CDP, which recorded 3,983 residents at the 2020 census. The community's name recalls Samuel Hadlock, an early settler and businessman whose ventures helped shape this stretch of shoreline, and its growth was driven by the sawmills, foundries, and maritime industries that once lined the waterfront. Port Hadlock functions today as the commercial core of what locals call the "Tri-Area," a grouping that also includes Irondale and the farming community of Chimacum to the south. It is the place where residents of this rural corner of the county come for groceries, hardware, marine services, and everyday needs, giving it a more developed commercial character than its neighbors while remaining far smaller than the Victorian seaport of Port Townsend to the north. The working waterfront, with its marinas and boatyards, reflects a continuing connection to boat building and marine trades, a tradition that the broader Port Townsend region has carried forward into a nationally recognized wooden-boat and maritime culture. The community is served by the Chimacum School District, whose schools anchor family life across the Tri-Area. Port Hadlock's location between the Salish Sea shoreline and the farmlands and forests of the interior gives residents a setting that balances practical convenience with the quiet beauty of the Olympic Peninsula. For those who live there, Port Hadlock offers a community-focused home base with access to services, schools, and outdoor recreation, all within a short drive of the historic attractions, ferry connections, and cultural life of Port Townsend and the broader Pacific Northwest.