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Diablo Dam incline railway climbing Sourdough Mountain, 1930. Courtesy Seattle Municipal Archives, 2306.
Children waving to ferry, 1950. Courtesy Museum of History and Industry.
Loggers in the Northwest woods. Courtesy Washington State Digital Archives.
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11/6/2025
Tacoma's Sesquicentennial
One hundred and fifty years ago this week, on November 12, 1875, the Territorial legislative assembly incorporated Tacoma. This was the second time in two years that Tacoma had been incorporated, but the first by direct action of the legislature. The story doesn't end there, and it includes some confusion and competition by neighboring communities over naming rights. Will the real Tacoma please stand up?
To understand this complicated path taken by the city we know today, we begin in 1864, when Job Carr arrived on Commencement Bay during a fishing expedition. From the water, Carr spotted a small lagoon fed by two creeks, and shouted "Eureka! Eureka!" He filed a claim and moved onto it with a yellow cat named Tom, hoping to build the city of Eureka.
Carr's hope and vision came to pass in 1868, with the arrival of developer Morton Matthew McCarver. After seeing the sheltered bay with its majestic view of the mountain known in the Salish language as Takhoma or Tahoma, McCarver purchased most of Carr's land and invited other investors to file nearby claims. He platted a town he called Commencement City, but decided to change the name to Tacoma. Unfortunately for McCarver, Carr's son Anthony had already chosen that name for his own townsite plat, so McCarver chose the name Tacoma City instead.
Tacoma City grew, and within five years McCarver helped convince the Northern Pacific Railroad to choose Commencement Bay as its western terminus. The railroad platted a new town south of Tacoma City, named New Tacoma, and many started referring to Tacoma City as Old Tacoma. Both communities operated separately until they were merged into a single "Tacoma" by the territorial assembly in 1884 – Eureka! – and the "Old Town" now refers to the neighborhood that was once Tacoma City.
Veterans Day
When World War I ended on November 11, 1918, many hoped it would end all war and secure democracy around the globe. When America entered the three-year-old European conflict on April 6, 1917, some 50,000 Seattleites showed their support with an impromptu parade. One local veteran of the Civil War even tried to enlist. Thousands of knitters made clothing for the troops, citizens in the San Juan Islands and elsewhere around the state also pitched in to aid the war effort, and William Boeing scrambled to win his first defense contract.
As the nation celebrated its first Armistice Day in 1919, World War I veterans in the new American Legion decided to evict the Industrial Workers of the World from their office in Centralia. The Wobblies got word and were ready, and four attackers were killed in the gun battle that followed. An irate mob later hauled a Wobbly, Wesley Everest, from the town jail and lynched him from a bridge over the Chehalis River. The "Centralia Massacre" is remembered today by a monument to the fallen legionnaires in a city park – not far from a newer mural celebrating Everest and the IWW.
On the third Armistice Day in 1921, the Seattle Garden Club planted the first 25 elm trees that line Des Moines Memorial Way. Other communities held their own commemorations, and many have monuments and parades in honor of those who fought in service of their country. In 1938, Armistice Day was officially made a legal public holiday. After so many more men and women served in World War II and the Korean War, the name was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor veterans of all wars.
On November 11, 1875, Columbia County was formed out of Walla Walla County with Dayton as the county seat. Dayton officially became a city in 1877, but the incorporation was later nullified by a lawsuit over taxation. The city reincorporated on November 10, 1881.
It had taken 36 years for Washington to make the transition from territory to statehood when it was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889. Territorial voters had originally requested entry in 1878, but Congress declined their request.
On November 10, 1923, Mercer Island became a little less remote with the opening of the East Channel Bridge, which connected the small community to Bellevue and the Eastside. The opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940 completed the connection to Seattle and led to major changes in the island's development.
One hundred years ago this week, on November 6, 1925, a fire destroyed the Great Northern Railway's grain and ore terminal at Smith Cove in Seattle. This week also marks the anniversary of the first ship to load at the Port of Seattle's Pier 86 grain terminal, when the vessel arrived on November 10, 1970.
Revered today as a national icon, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was still regarded as a radical at the time of his sole trip to Seattle on November 8, 1961. When King's original speaking venue was suddenly canceled, local supporters led by Mt. Zion pastor Sam McKinney scrambled to find alternative platforms for King's message of social and racial justice. In 2005 the eponym of King County was officially changed to honor Martin Luther King Jr.
Fifty years ago this week, on November 7, 1975, Bishop Blanchet stunned Garfield in four overtimes in the high school football "game of the century." And on November 10, 2019, the Seattle Sounders FC won their second MLS Cup, three years after winning their first Major League Soccer championship.
On November 11, 1957, a giant sinkhole opened up in Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood.
"I continue to be interested in new things that seem old and old things that seem new."
--Jaquelin T. Robertson
