The Key Peninsula ("The KP" or "The Key" to some locals) is a finger of land in

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is approximately long and extends south from the

Kitsap Peninsula The Kitsap Peninsula () lies west of Seattle across Puget Sound, in Washington state in the Pacific Northwest. Hood Canal separates the peninsula from the Olympic Peninsula on its west side. The peninsula, a.k.a. "Kitsap", encompasses all of Kit ...

. It is part of Pierce County, Washington. Some of its towns include: Wauna, Key Center, Vaughn, Home, Lakebay, and Longbranch. Its name is derived from the key-like shape of the peninsula. The Key Peninsula is in the

Peninsula School District The Peninsula School District is the main school district for the city of Gig Harbor, Washington, USA and the unincorporated areas around Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula. These areas include Artondale, Arletta, Rosedale, Purdy, Wollochet, ...

; Elementary school is provided by a number of small schools up and down the peninsula while middle school is provided by Key Peninsula Middle School. High school age children attend Peninsula High School (PHS) on the Gig Harbor Peninsula in Purdy. The Key Peninsula is home to two

State Parks State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

: Penrose Point State Park and Joemma Beach State Park. From the 1870s to the 1920s, transportation needs for communities on the western side of the Key Peninsula along Case Inlet were once served by a small flotilla of steamboats.Findlay, Jean Cammon and Paterson, Robin, ''Mosquito Fleet of Southern Puget Sound'', (2008) Arcadia Publishing , at pages 10-11, 18, 27 and 35. The local newspaper is the monthly community nonprofit Key Peninsula News, founded in 1974 and based in Vaughn: http://www.keypennews.com. More information can be found at the Key Peninsula Historical Societ

and in "Early Days of the Key Peninsula" by R.T. Arledge and "The Woodpecker Menace" by Ted Olinger.

References

External links

Key Peninsula News
{{Coord, 47, 17, 29, N, 122, 46, 31, W, display=title Peninsulas of Washington (state) Landforms of Pierce County, Washington Seattle metropolitan area Landforms of Puget Sound