Author: Sunny Pepin

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738558202

Named for the Schtaileqawem native people, the idyllic town of Steilacoom is located on the southeastern shores of Washingtonas Puget Sound. The year 1841 marked the first official American exploration of Puget Sound by Lt. Charles Wilkes and the U.S. Navy. Although the area had a U.S. Army post at Fort Steilacoom, with the Hudsonas Bay Company at Fort Nisqually and pioneers scattered between, it wasnat until January 1851 that Capt. Lafayette Balch founded Port Steilacoom. Just south of the new port, John B. Chapman established Steilacoom City in June of that same year. The settlements merged to form the Town of Steilacoom in 1854; it became the first incorporated town in the Washington Territory. Steilacoomas story is one of transformation from bustling city to scenic small town. With a commanding view of the Narrows Bridge, the Olympic Mountains, Key Peninsula, and South Sound islands, Steilacoom is now proudly known as the aTown of Firsts.a