TACOMA'S HERITAGE
Settlement Clearcut
“When outsiders first entered of what is now known as Puget Sound, they marveled at the immense old growth forests that blanketed the shorelines and inland valleys.” (From ‘Brief History of the South Sound Country’ by Edward Echtle.) Imagine being British Captain George Vancouver when he first entered Puget Sound in 1792, sailing among the islands in sight of the Olympic Mountains, only to seek the land further south leading to a magnificent peak he sighted on May 8th, known to local tribes as Mount Tahoma. He sent Peter Puget to explore the area and penned the mountain as Mount Rainier, after his friend, Rear Admiral Peter Rainier.
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For 13 thousand years this richly forested land had been habited and preserved by native tribes who lived off the abundant salmon in the creeks, protected from the weather by dense forests, and rewarded by the sun with meadows of wildflowers and native flowering rhododendrons in the spring. Dominant in the area were the SpuyalÉ™pabš, a peaceful group of native Americans, who in their own Lushootseed language, were and are still known as the puyalapabs.
After welcoming the new settlers and peacefully helping them survive, the Puyallup Tribe was officially named in1854 when forced onto one of three reservations by the US Government. Three tough years of war followed as they tried to defend their heritage, and the Puyallup Tribe was overwhelmed and forced back onto their reservation. This also marked the beginning of clearcutting by the settlers, as the booming young town of Tacoma became the logging and pulp mill center of the northwest.
Tacoma (1870): The Clearcut Has Begun
By the time Washington became the Evergreen State in 1889, Tacoma homeowners were beginning to plant trees to replace the ones that had been clear cut to create their neighborhoods. These are the trees, as exemplified in Wright Park, that represent the base of our canopy today, and the trees we must protect for our future.
These are the only trees we can offer the Puyallup Tribe as tribute to the thousands of years they stewarded the original growth timber that forms the structure of many of the homes built on their land between 1880 and 1930 that we still live in today.
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Tacoma (1890) - The Tree Canopy Is Gone
For the next 100 years, except for those few trees replanted by the settlers in the city’s north end, the people of Tacoma have lived without the benefit of a tree canopy. Tacoma’s current urban forest is essentially limited to uninhabited Point Defiance, Wright Park, and a few gulches. We are left with a few streets like North Union and North 30th in the Proctor area, and a few others in the Stadium and North Slope Districts as examples of what we now seek throughout the rest of Tacoma. It is our challenge to replace the trees cut down by settlers 150 years ago.
Invest Now For Our Grandchildren In 50 Years.
Our heritage lives with the Puyallup Tribe, some of whom can still remember the fear and frustration of their grandparents who watched their life-supporting forest disappear. Our challenge is to join forces with our native Americans to restore our forest to its intended life-supporting purpose as stewarded before we clearcut “the immense old growth forests that blanketed the shorelines and inland valleys” of Puget Sound.
