Tacoma, Washington

:This page is about the city in Washington. You may be looking for Takoma or Tacoma class frigate.

History

Tacoma was inhabited for thousands of years by Native American people, predominantly the Puyallup people. It was visited by European and American explorers, including George Vancouver and Charles Wilkes, who named many of the coastal landmarks.

Related Topics:
Puyallup - George Vancouver - Charles Wilkes

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The town was originally settled by pioneer and postmaster Job Carr, a Civil War veteran and land speculator who hoped to profit from the selection of Commencement Bay as the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. (A replica of Job Carr's cabin, which also served as Tacoma's first post office, was erected in "Old Town" in 2000 near the original site.)

Related Topics:
Job Carr - 2000

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Tacoma was officially incorporated on November 12, 1875. Its early hopes to live to be the "City of Destiny" were frustrated in the late 19th century, when the discovery of gold in the Klondike turned Seattle into a boom town, eclipsing Tacoma's early lead.

Related Topics:
November 12 - 1875

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George Francis Train was a resident of Tacoma for a few years in the late 1800s, and was an early civic booster. In 1880, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city's centrality. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish point.

Related Topics:
George Francis Train - 1880

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What came to be known as "the Tacoma method" was used in November 1885 to expel several hundred Chinese peaceably living in the city. To quote from the account prepared by the Chinese Reconciliation Project: On the morning of Nov. 3, 1885, "several hundred men, led by the mayor and other city officials, evicted the Chinese from their homes, corralled them at 7th Street and Pacific Avenue, marched them to the railway station at Lakeview, and forced them aboard the morning train to Portland, Oregon. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground."

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Tacoma was named after Mount Rainier, whose original name was Tahoma, which derived from the Puyallup tacobet, or "mother of waters."

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