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Clallam County residents apologize in newspaper ad to Spokane family

Cars travel through morning fog along Highway 101 on the Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011. A family of four from Spokane told sheriff’s deputies they were followed along the highway on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, by armed locals who accused them of being left-wing extremists. (CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON)
From staff reports

A group of Clallam County residents are making a public apology to a Spokane family that  was reportedly terrorized earlier this month while they were on a camping trip.

An ad on the front page of The Spokesman-Review’s print edition on Thursday contained a letter signed “from hundreds of Clallam County families.”

“We are saddened and disgusted by the threats and violence that your family encountered while trying to enjoy the beauty of our home out on the Olympic Peninsula,” the letter said.

Some residents of Clallam County issued an apology in a front page ad in Wednesday's Spokesman-Review to a Spokane family that was harassed while on a camping trip last week near Forks, Washington. (Jonathan Brunt / The Spokesman-Review)
Some residents of Clallam County issued an apology in a front page ad in Wednesday’s Spokesman-Review to a Spokane family that was harassed while on a camping trip last week near Forks, Washington. (Jonathan Brunt / The Spokesman-Review)

The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office reported last week that armed locals harassed a Spokane family in the town of Forks, accused them of being left-wing extremists, followed their bus along a forest road and cut down trees to prevent them from leaving the woods.

Deputies and other local law enforcement officers responded to a call for help from the stranded campers on June 3  near Forks, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The sheriff’s office did not identify the campers but described them as a multiracial family from Spokane consisting of a husband and wife, their 16-year-old daughter and the husband’s mother.

The apology letter acknowledged that the family may never want to come back to Clallam County.

“However, if you did return one day, we would be honored to break bread with you and make amends.”