A Brief History of Tacoma, Washington

In 1852 a Swede named Nicolas Delin constructed a sawmill powered by water on a creek near the head of Commencement Bay. A small settlement grew up around it, but was abandoned during the Indian War of 1855-1856.

Job Carr was a Civil War veteran and land speculator who hoped to profit from the selection of Commencement Bay as the terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1864, Carr built a cabin, and later sold most of his claim to developer Morton McCarver, who named his project Tacoma City. (A replica of Job Carr's cabin, which also served as Tacoma's first post office, was erected in "Old Town" in 2000 near the original site). The name Tacoma City  derived from the indigenous name for Mount Rainier, deriving from the Puyallup tacobet, "mother of waters". Tacoma was officially incorporated on November 12, 1875.