In The Stranger‘s recent New to Town issue, we included a guide to local proper nouns called “You’re Pronouncing It Wrong.” We tried to choose words that confuse newcomers. One of the items read: “Kalaloch (clay-LOCK): A beautiful beach near the hometown of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.” A commenter on our website named Zander wrote in response: “Ahem. It is not Clay-Lock. It is Cal-lay-lock. You damn dirty apes!” Another commenter, Gnossos, wrote: “I’ve always heard it as: ka-lay-lock. But it’s most def NOT clay-lock. Sheesh.” Although it is true Stranger writers are descended from apes, and true that we are dirty, we take journalism seriously, so we called the Kalaloch Lodge at Olympic National Park to get to the bottom of this. What is the correct way to pronounce Kalaloch? “‘Clay’ like the mud clay, and then ‘lock’ like the locksmith,” said an employee. Two syllables. Got that, you damn dirty apes? Ahem. Most def. Sheesh.
Editor’s Note
We received some corrections on how to pronounce “Kalaloch.”
