Fort George Wright was an army post in Spokane. Congress authorized its construction in 1896 and work began in 1897. The post was named for General George Wright (1803-1865), who had commanded the 9th...
During the 1890s Seattle, to boost its economy, actively sought an army post. The War Department also desired an army presence and encouraged the City to provide free land. The land was conveyed in 18...
North Fort Lewis was a 1,000-building cantonment constructed near Fort Lewis in Pierce County to house the 41st Infantry Division, a unit of the Pacific Northwest National Guard. Named in honor of exp...
The U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Division was first formed during World War I. It saw action in World War II and Vietnam, and over the years was inactivated and reactivated as the needs of the military ch...
During World War I, the American Red Cross built and operated a convalescent house at Camp Lewis (and another at Vancouver Barracks), maintaining the center for about a year, until the wounded war vet...
In 1929 General Joseph Castner, using troop labor and army engineers, laid out the first Fort Lewis golf course on prairie land west of the fort. In 1938-1940, a professionally designed Work Projects ...
Aviation came early to Camp Lewis with flights in October 1921 from Sand Point, Seattle, to the camp's sod runway. In 1922 the first hangar went up. Soon after that a dirigible Mooring Mast was erecte...
The Mount Rainier Ordnance Depot served the United States Army between 1942 and 1963 as a primary vehicle-, arms-, and missile-repair facility. This depot provided ordnance equipment to the Pacific ar...
Fort Lewis, since 2010 part of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, opened in 1917 as Camp Lewis on the Nisqually Plain in southern Pierce County. Part 1 of this two-part history tells the story of Camp Lewis fr...
The permanent Fort Lewis went up between 1927 and 1939 with the construction of stately brick buildings in an attractive layout. In 1939 the permanent construction program ended and temporary wood bui...
The Fort Lewis Pet Cemetery, located on Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Pierce County, was established in 1918 as a mascot cemetery. The U.S. Army's Camp Lewis, forerunner to JBLM, had opened the y...
During World War II, Fort Lewis in Pierce County held about 4,000 German prisoners of war. The POWs were confined there between 1942 and 1946. A few died from illness or from their war wounds, but mos...
The Red Shield Inn, located on present-day Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Mile 119 on interstate 5 (Pierce County), opened in December 1919. Camp Lewis had opened in September 1917 and soon was home to...
Fort Lewis authorities attempting to combat juvenile delinquency established a Youth Activity Center in 1951 on the large army base in Pierce County south of Tacoma. The center initially had limited a...
Fort Okanogan was the first American outpost in what is now the state of Washington. Established in 1811 by representatives of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company, the "fort" was a modest affair, i...
Fort Steilacoom, located in south Puget Sound near Lake Steilacoom, was established by the United States Army in 1849. Protection of settlers in the area had become an issue. As well, the United State...
There were no fewer than four outposts named Fort Walla Walla, but the last and most enduring was established as a cavalry post on March 18, 1858. This military reservation housed soldiers who would f...
Anna Clark Fortescue was an early resident of the Inglewood community, in what is today the northern part of the city of Sammamish (King County). Her parents arrived in Inglewood in 1906, and in 1908 ...
The era of the treaty wars in Washington Territory lasted from 1855-1856.Territorial Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) ordered the building of forts and blockhous...
A rowboat rental service founded in Tacoma by Thea Foss in 1889 and developed by her husband and relatives over the next hundred years became Foss Maritime, the largest tug and towing operation on the...
Washington state has fossils ranging in age from 12,000 years old to more than 500 million years old. People have made use of them for thousands of years, but not until non-Native people arrived were ...
The great-grandson of Oregon Trail emigrants, Donald Isle Foster hailed from a solid line of Pacific Northwest pioneers. He first came to prominence in the business community as the Director of Exhibi...
Robert J. "Bobby" Foster (1946-1979) refurbished the Central Tavern in Seattle's Pioneer Square in the early 1970s and organized the area's first Mardi Gras-style "Fat Tuesday" in 1977.