About the Port Townsend Carousel Association

Photo above shows the Carousel of the Olympic Sea operating in 1994 at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival.  As the carousel was completed by various classes at the Port Townsend High School, the P.T.C.A. exhibited it at the festivals in 1994-95-97-98-99. In 2000 the P.T.C.A. operated the Sausalito Carousel, a sister carousel to the Carousel of the Olympic Sea, in Port Townsend's Pope Marine Park.

Established in 1984, the Port Townsend Carousel Association is a Washington State non-profit corporation and a federally recognized 501c-3 non-profit corporation* dedicated to carousel history and the appreciation, construction and operation of a carousel made in Port Townsend. The local carousel we have created is called "The Carousel of the Olympic Sea". The construction of the carousel has been a broad ranged school project under close supervision guidance from William H. Dentzel involving all grades of the Port Townsend Public Schools. The P.T.C.A.'s relationship with the school district came about over a period of years with classroom programs beginning in October of 1991. All funding for the carousel has been by private donation. Many hundreds of volunteer hours have been contributed as well as in-kind donations of materials.

Bill Dentzel
President, PTCA

*Washington State since 1984, U.S. (federal) 501(c)(3) since 1986.

Carousel Finds a Home!

The Carousel of the Olympic Sea, offered up for adoption recently, has found a home.  The Port Townsend Carousel Association is proud to announce that the city of Waveland, Mississippi will become its new owner and provide a home for the Carousel of the Olympic Sea.  They have met all of the criteria to be the recipients of this wonderful classic "flying horses" menagerie carousel. 

Waveland was hit hard by the eye of hurricane Katrina.  The carousel will be installed as part of  the downtown reconstruction project.  The Port Townsend community relief effort to Katrina victims developed a relationship with Bay Saint Louis, next door to Waveland.  Through this connection the proper authorities were contacted  to realize this exchange.  The president of the PTCA, Bill Dentzel, was one of the drivers with the first bus caravan from Port Townsend to the Gulf Coast transporting food, supplies, and dislocated people immediately after the hurricane hit.

As a permanent site was never secured in Port Townsend the Carousel of the Olympic Sea went into storage for seven years.  Donating the carousel to Waveland (and the transportation to deliver it there) will be a very happy ending to a quest which took thousands of donated dollars and over twenty years to accomplish.  There will be many happy children in the Waveland area who can ride the carousel and catch a brass ring.  Visitors from Port Townsend will always be able to recognize the animals, chariots, and painting on the carousel, also all of the names of the sponsors and participants will be preserved by the new owners as part of the carousel's history.  Your help is still needed for us to realize this goal, please donate or sponsor a piece on the carousel.