Port Gamble Bay is located just south of the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the north end of the Kitsap Peninsula and covers more than two square miles of intertidal and subtidal habitat. The bay is bounded by Admiralty Bay and Hood Canal to the north as they come off the strait and by the Kitsap Peninsula to the east, south, and west. Port Gamble Bay is generally shallow with depths up to 60 feet. Port Gamble Bay has steep banks, emergent marshes, and eelgrass beds in the intertidal (Zostera japonica) and intertidal/subtidal (Zostera marina) zones, and hardened reef structures. There are a number of marine species that occur throughout the area, including commercially important finfish and shellfish species. Port Gamble Bay and the waters north of Teekalet Bluff represent migratory waters for both adult and juvenile salmon from streams in northern and southern Hood Canal. Salmonids that frequent Port Gamble Bay waters include the Hood Canal Summer and Fall Chum, Coho, Summer/Fall Chinook, Pink salmon, and coastal cutthroat trout.

Native Americans in the Puget Sound inhabited this area long before the arrival of Euro-Americans. The S’Klallam, Chimakum, Skokomish, Suquamish, and other tribes on Puget Sound have traditionally used the bay for commercial, ceremonial, and subsistence harvesting as part of their “usual and accustomed” fishing and shellfish grounds. Federally-recognized tribes with Treaty-reserved fishing rights within Port Gamble Bay include the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, the Skokomish Tribe, and the Suquamish Tribe.

Pope and Talbot operated the mill site from 1853 to 1995. Two chip mills operated at the mill site on the northern and southern edge of the point from 1928 to 1995 and 1974 to 1995, respectively. Log rafting activities have been documented to occur in the 1920s and may even have occurred earlier. The former log transfer facility (FLTF) sort yard operated from 1970 to 1995 and consisted of a ramp, pilings, and access road. In addition to using the FLTF, Pope and Talbot leased an additional 72 acres of the bay from Washington Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) from 1970 to 2001 for additional log transfer and sorting. The FLTF and former leased area (FLA) are located off the western shore of the bay. From the 1940s to the 1980s, Pope and Talbot used three landfills on the western shore (Landfills 2, 3, and 4) for municipal, industrial building, and mill waste. Numerous creosote-treated pilings have been present throughout the bay to support these activities. Historical photos show activities leading to fate and transport of chemicals into the bay and surrounding land.