Tenacious Tacoma Tacoma has suffered a bad rap over the years. In the early days, its constant vying with Seattle for notoriety and prosperity was taxing, and a slew of bad luck pinned Tacoma up against a less than stellar reputation. Perceptions change though, as do systems, landscapes, points of view, and even beliefs—and Tacoma has worked hard over the years to remediate the things that have ailed it. Before any of these modern woes that all cities face at some point in their histories, the land that Tacoma now occupies was the unceded territory of the Puyallup Tribe. These hunting, gathering, fishing, and trading Indigenous peoples stewarded the land and waterways since time immemorial. Their sacred waters of the Puyallup River originated atop Mount Rainier or təqʷuʔmaʔ/təqʷuʔbəd in Lushootseed, and in English, their word for the mountain translates to Mount Tacoma or Mount Tahoma. The City of Tacoma’s founders took note of this and named the new city in honor of the Lushootseed name for the majestic mountain. Like all other American Indian or Alaska Native peoples, the Puyallup Tribe was forced onto a reservation. After the signing of the Medicine Creek Treaty, The Puyallup Indian Reservation was created in 1854, and today the reservation is one of the most urban Native American Reservations in the United States, encompassing parts of Tacoma and a total of seven communities throughout the Tacoma metropolitan area. The first white settler in the region was Nicolas Delin, a Swede who built the region’s first, and all-important water-powered sawmill in 1852. A small community formed around the mill but left at the start of the Indian Wars that came after the signing of the Treaty. By 1864, Morton McCarver and Job Carr moved to the region, and it was McCarver who began to attract the attention of the very thing that helped Tacoma grow into the city it is today. We’ll give you one guess what it was… The Railroad In 1873, Tacoma won the ultimate prize of the era. The Northern Pacific Railroad chose Tacoma as the terminus of its transcontinental line. It was a huge gain for the Pacific Northwest region, virtually unlocking an area that was long considered to be extremely remote and hard to reach by wagon. Because of this, Tacoma’s population exploded, and in 1880 was around 1,098, and by 1889, the year Washington achieved statehood, Tacoma had ballooned to an impressive 36,006 residents. In the first part of the 1900s, residents were focused on public utilities and voted to create a public shipping port and a water and light utility department. The Port of Tacoma was the capstone in cementing Tacoma’s place as a powerhouse in the Puget Sound region, because what good is a railway to the water if there is nowhere to ship the goods from? Tacoma Aroma Although Tacoma had been experiencing massive growth for the better part of a century, the 1930s and 40s weren’t kind to the city. In the 30s the Tacoma Aroma stigma began to penetrate the region, and the town got a reputation for being dirty and stinky. (Spoiler alert: it’s neither.) But at the time, there was an acrid, sulphuric aroma wafting from the tide flats where much of the industrial activity was taking place. Simpson Tacoma Kraft, a pulp mill and paper manufacturing plant that produced pulpwood and linerboard, (some of the products that would be used to manufacture Tacoma mobile homes) was the suspected culprit. But, it could have been any one of a myriad of things from the oil refinery located on the tide flats, or even the tide flats themselves, because as anyone who has ever spent time near a wharf knows, tidal areas are naturally stinky. The 1990s were quick to solve the problem, however, when the Simpson company applied advances in technology to their pulp production, cutting emissions by 90% and eliminating the majority of the smell. That doesn’t mean that the stigma disappeared overnight though, and the Tacoma Aroma was said to have depressed real estate prices, even Tacoma mobile home prices, for decades. Galloping Gertie Today in Tacoma you’ll find two beautiful side-by-side cable suspension bridges spanning the Tacoma Narrows in the Puget Sound. But their predecessor, a bridge that opened on July 1, 1940, collapsed in a windstorm on November 7 of that same year. Miraculously, no lives were lost, save for a dog that is now a Tacoma legend, but the bridge collapse quickly became a case study for bridge engineers all over the world. Gertie still lies beneath the waves, and the remains of the original bridge are now the largest man-made reef in the world.

Point Your Compass at Point Defiance
Tacoma is undeniably a waterfront city. So much of the town was built up and around the waterways. Western Washington is a watery region to begin with, and the coastlines have provided food, supplies, recreation, and ceremony since the First Peoples lived in harmony off the land, and until today.

Tacoma’s waterfronts have largely been preserved for all to enjoy. The Ruston Way Waterfront is a great example with its two miles of paved trails that parallel the road. There are surreys to rent, movie theaters to duck into, Pacific Northwest regional fare to dine on, and even waterfront hotels to sleep in. Point Ruston is growing rapidly, but the most prolific point in Tacoma is Point Defiance.

Point Defiance was established in 1888 by President Grover Cleveland. It is the largest park west of the Mississippi River measuring 760-acres. Its size, amenities, and beauty rival those of Central Park, and it is sometimes called the Central Park of the west.

Point Defiance has pavilions, a pagoda, a historic groundskeeper’s home (far fancier than a Tacoma mobile home to be certain), and is home to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.

Fort Nisqually, a living history museum is also located within park boundaries, and the outpost is a replica of the Fort that once stood as part of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Columbia Division.

Though it was relocated from its original location in nearby DuPont, the site showcases the Factor’s House, an original building, and the Fort Nisqually Granary, which was built in 1843 and is the oldest building in Washington State. The Granary is also on the United States National Register of Historic Places.

The real star of Point Defiance though is its natural beauty. Fern-drenched conifers line its many hiking trails, forests, and vistas, and Owen Beach is a public shoreline that has been enjoyed by Tacoma residents for nearly 135 years.

From here you can watch the ferry ebb and flow under the backdrop of prominent Mount Rainier, and don’t skip 5-Mile Drive, the park’s inland access that is the best scenic drive you’ll find in the city.