Tacoma Public Library - Washington Place Names

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About The Database

About | Conditions of Use | Copyright | Help on Searching | Linking to this Database | Privacy Statement | Requirements | Early Washington Maps: a digital collection at WSU | Coordinate Mapping to Google Maps
About the Washington Place Names Index

An informal timeline by way of an introduction to the database:
When the first European explorers came to Puget Sound they found a number of small Indian tribes occupying the shorelines and waterways of the Sound. The Indians were few in number and spoke a number of dialects. Names given to locations by one tribe often had no meaning to another.
The Chinook Jargon was developed which served as a language for trade among the tribes containing Indian words as well as words from English and French. Many Indian names of locations in the region are from the Chinook Jargon while others are from any of the several Indian languages spoken by local Indians.
THE VANCOUVER EXPEDITION
In l792 a British Naval flotilla commanded by George Vancouver visited the Pacific Northwest.In connection with their detailed charting and mapping work supplied a number of geographic names to features, generally major ones such as Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, and Admiralty inlet.
Of Vancouver's work Edmond S. Meany in his book Vancouver's Discovery of Puget Sound wrote:
In the region covered by this work he bestowed a total of seventy-five names. Of these forty-three were for people at home in England [of which] twenty were humble friends who have since disappeared from the records of time. Nine of the names were for members of his own crews, who were participating in the work of discovery and exploration.
The two ships account for two of the names, and one name New Dungeness--was given because of its resemblance to Dungeness on the English Channel.Because he celebrated Restoration Day gave rise to Restoration Point, and because he took possession of the land for his King caused the christening of Possession Sound.
This accounts for all but eighteen of the names, and these we find were given for natural objects or conditions..."
THE U.S.EXPLORING EXPEDITION
In 184l the U.S. Exploring Expedition under the command of Charles Wilkes conducted detailed surveys of Puget Sound naming many inlets, harbors, and points of land. Commencement Bay, McNeil Island, Anderson Island, and Gig Harbor received their names from Wilkes.
In many cases names appeared on the Wilkes Charts without an explanation. Writers of name origins lists have searched the Wilkes crew list and assigned name origins to specific crew members, in some cases perhaps in error or at least without "proof."
Locations with Indian names are in many cases given without origins attached. These include such places as Solo Point, Tatsolo Point, Qualam Point,etc.
One technique used by Wilkes was to name locations near each other for connected events or persons. In Pierce County, for instance, Fox Island was named for J. L. Fox, a surgeon and the smaller nearby island was named Days for his hospital steward. (Meany, p. 64).
Of the Wilkes expedition, the writers of the Smithsonian's publication entitled Magnificient Voyagers wrote that the work on Puget Sound was the "...expeditions most significant geopolitical undertaking..." for it was a "...comprehensive survey of the Oregon territory which resulted in a superb representation of Oregon Territory at a critical juncture in its border negotiations with Great Britain. (Smithsonian, p. l62).
THE INSKIP SURVEY

Robert A. Inskip, a civilian working for the Royal Navy, surveyed Puget Sound in 1846. Admiralty Charts prepared by him give a number of names to locations in the south Sound region. Generally the names given by Inskip have been ignored but some remain.
During the summer of 1846 he conducted a midshipman's school at the Nisqually Station of the Royal Navy, the first "professional school" in Pacific Northwest History. A special building was constructed for the school which the locals called the Castle of Indolence.
Of his efforts Inskip wrote:
As there were no names, to any of the Islands, etc, I thought that I could not go wrong in calling them after those young gentlemen and others who were most forward in assisting me in the work.
Duntze's, Rosarios', Gertrudes' and Enriqueta's Islands are named from respect to the Captain, his wife and daughters, and should the survey be of any value, and you think proper to retain any of the names, I would beg the favor of your allowing these in particular to remain." (Wood, p. 32-33).
THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY
When the Hudson's Bay Company established its first post on Puget Sound it took the simplistic approach to name origins. The name of the post, Nisqually House or Fort Nisqually, came because it was located near the Nisqually River. The local creek was called The Coe because it meant "water" in the local Indian language.
As the influence of the Company and its subsidiary, the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, grew and establishments expanded many names were added. Some referred to locations, others were temporary by design and still others honored company officers and officials.
Since most of the land claim of the two British companies became part of the United States Military Reservation at Fort Lewis few of the names assigned by them remain as the United States Army assigned their names to locations.
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK
Because of its prominence as the "Great Mountain" Rainier was one of the first features named by early explorers. The center of a National Park since 1899 nearly every prominent feature around the mountain has received a name.
In 1919 Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Roger Toll wrote about names in the National Park.
The park service is interested in having names applied to the various...scenic points that are now unnamed....the most desirable names...are the original Indian names, or, if these are too long and unpronounceable their English equivalents are often very good.
If no original name can be found, and a name is to be supplied, the Indian names may be drawn upon with advantage, but this should be done by an expert...Descriptive names are good. The only thing most difficult to avoid is the indiscriminate naming of scenic features after persons."
While name origins have been found for many locations within the National Park there are a number of places for which origins are missing, especially on the northern side of the mountain. In l9l6 Edmond S. Meany wrote about Mount Rainier. He listed many places for which he could not find a name origin. In l932 the writers of the Encyclopedia of Information on Mount Rainier National Park made an extensive list of locations on the mountain and recorded that they were unable to supply origins for many of them.
Books on mountain climbing record names for locations that are more extensive than usual for they name each part of a particular feature as it is climbed as destination point. On December 9,1977, the Washington Board of Geographic Names approved a series of proposals developed by Dee Molenaar and others which provided names for a large number of locations on the Gibraltar route to the summit of Mount Rainier. Locations such as Little Africa, Moon Rocks, and Kautz Ice Fall have been officially entered into name origin literature.
U.S. MILITARY RESERVATION
Very few of the place names on the Military Reservation at Fort Lewis follow the pattern for other locations in the county. The early names supplied by the Hudson's Bay Company, the Puget's Sound Agricultural Company and the early settlers were ignored by map makers after the Military Reservation was created during World War One.
It was concluded that there was a connection between present place names on Fort Lewis and those of men who trained at the post during World War One. The major unit trained there was the 9lst Division. One of the large plains or parks in the southern part of the post is named the 9lst Division Prairie. The 9lst Division participated in battles in France during the war in the Argonne Forest which is the name of one of the large forested areas on the Reservation.
Casualty lists of the division were consulted and of the more than one hundred thirty named locations on the Military Reservation most had names the same as men who were killed during World War One while serving with the Division. In many cases these names were relatively uncommon such as Crosslard, Cohn, Monette,etc. Men who received the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously in many cases had hills or other geographical features named for them.
There are a number of larger features at Fort Lewis that are named for units of the United States Army.In most cases these units had a connection with the Pacific Northwest in the between Wars period.
LATER NAMING
As settlers arrived in Pierce County, other geographic names began to be given to even minor locations. Usually places were named for nearby land owners and in some cases prominent persons were honored. Some locations have been given more than one name and there is no pattern established for which names were retained and which were ignored. The official name "giving" organizations have worked to place final and official names on locations but since place names change and are changed work continues.
The Nisqually Journals kept by Hudson's Bay Company officials at Fort Nisqually often named locations for the individual assigned by them to work at such sites. The Journal discusses activities, for instance, at Cowies Plain because the Hudson's Bay Company servant Cowie was in charge of the herds of catle and flocks of sheep on the plain. When Cowie moved elsewhere the name was eventually dropped.
Some locations have been subject to more formal changes. Black Carbon, Morristown and Spiketown are at almost the same location but as nearby coal mines changed hands the name of the community was changed officially. Steilacoom Bay has been known as Heath Bay, Chambers Bay and Fisgardita Cove at various times since the first European surveyors arrived.
Other places are named in obvious error such as Ketron Island for William Kittson of the Hudson's Bay Company. Often early map makers made the names of locations in the possessive case such as McNeil's Island rather than McNeil Island. Most of the time the possessive case has been dropped.
There are many locations in the county for which name origins have not yet been found. They range from Dash Point, Dalco Passage, Solo Point on the Sound, to Fremont Peak and August Peak in the National Park. Some places such as Glennis, Lake Tapps, Dobbs Mountain, Haller Pass, etc. have names for which no origin has been found.
Some writers have contended that the later explorers "changed" previous designations. Vancouver, for instance, did not have access to Spanish charts and merely added names and did no changing. Inskip did not have access to the Wilkes charts and was not aware that any of the smaller locations on Puget Sound had already been named.
Many of the early explorers and map makers were persons in the Army or Navy of the United States or Great Britain. There has always been confusion as to the actual rank of these men. Peter Rainier was not an Admiral when the mountain was named for him but he is usually referred to as Admiral Rainier. Both Wilkes and Vancouver had low ranks in their respective navies but generally these men have been given the rank of Captain when mentioned by writers.
In some cases no final or even "best" name origin has been found. Tacoma, for instance, has been a controversial name almost from when it was first assigned as a geographic point. In some cases places with multiple origins have several listed with no "judgment" given.
The purpose of this work has been to first locate places in the county and then as far as possible give name origins to them. Much work must still be done and with some further study other name origins will be found.
Washington Place Names was written by Gary Fuller Reese, while Managing Librarian for the Tacoma Public Library's Northwest Room and Special Collections. Mr. Reese spent more than 25 years reviewing the literature, searching documents and maps, and visiting every place below 6,000 feet to insure the accuracy of this database, updating the work of such pioneer writers as Edmund S. Meany and Robert Hitchman.
If you have additions, corrections or comments please mail:

Tacoma Public Library
Attn: NWR/Washington Place Names
1102 Tacoma Avenue South
Tacoma, WA 98402.
Help on Searching

Search Methods Available:
Place Name:
Look at an alphabetical list of Washington Place Names starting with your word or phrase. Enter some or all of the place name you are looking for. Enter at least two letters of the last name. If you are unsure of the spelling please enter the portion you are sure of, then look through the resulting records. In any case try to enter the place name exactly as spelled, such as "O'brien" or "O'Hare".
Punctuation is important, but capitalization is not.
Keyword in Place Name:
Search the Place Name for a specific word or phrase. You are searching only the Place Name itself, not the description of the place. For example, enter "Creek" to see an alphabetical list of Place Names that include the word Creek. Enter "Geldern" to find "Von Geldern Cove". Each word you enter in this search field is checked individually rather than as a phrase, and each word is truncated to retrieve the most results. Word order is not important, nor is capitalization. Thus "john creek" or "creek john" will retrieve "Johns Creek", "Johnson Creek" and "Johnny Creek" entered as a keyword search, but fail to find any results in an alphabetical Place Name search.
Description Keyword:
Search the Description of the Place Name for a specific word or phrase. You are searching only the descriptive paragraphs about the Place Name, not the Place Name itself. For example, enter "broughton" to see an alphabetical list of Place Names whose description includes the word "broughton", which should list all the features named by Lieutenant Broughton of the Vancouver Expedition.
The WSU Historic Maps Collection
This database links (via the place name) to the Early Washington Maps project of the Washington state University.
Where available, after each Washington Place Name enty will appear a link to the WSU Early Maps database. Clicking on this link will open a new browser window with the results of a search in the maps collection database. In some cases there will be no matching maps in the WSU database. You will be able to return to the maps home page and enter a variant search, or close this new browser window and continue searching in the Washington Place Names database.
Township-Range-Section Coordinates
This database links (via the Township, Range and Section information) to the Google Maps web site.
In the right hand column of most Washington Place Name entries will appear a set of coordinates consisting of the Township, Range and Section. These can be used to locate each place name on the appropriate maps. Some of these coordinates will appear as a clickable link to Google Maps. Clicking on this link, if present, will open a new browser window with the results of a search in the Google maps database. You will be able to return to the Google maps home page and enter a variant search, or close the browser window and continue searching in the Washington Place Names database.
The Google Maps link is based on converting the Township, Range and Section information to a latitude and longitude. This conversion is not precise, and in general there is an uncertainty in the resulting point identified in Google maps of as much as 1/4 mile in any direction. More if the coordinates indicate a range of Sections for large or extended geographic features. However, this link will drop you into the "neighborhood", so to speak, and is useful for locating the entry and checking terrain and surrounding geographic features. Datum used for the conversion is NAD27. The routines used for this conversion are part of the TRS2LL software developed by Marty Wefald, who has kindly made his program available for this project. At this time scanned images of the Township-Range-Section maps are not available for display.
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Tacoma Public Library
Attn: Lare Mischo
1102 Tacoma Avenue South
Tacoma, WA 98402
Phone: 253-591-5654
Fax: 253-591-5470
Email: lmischo@tpl.lib.wa.us

To file a notice of infringment with us, you must fulfill the requirements specified in Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. The text of this statute can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office Web Site, http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/.
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