Pierce County Timeline ~ Heritage League of Pierce County

1792...British explorer George Vancouver and officers Peter Puget and Joseph Whidbey began charting Puget Sound
1833...Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Nisqually, the first white settlement on Puget Sound
1836...The Beaver, Puget Sound’s first steamship, sailed from Fort Vancouver
1841...Wilkes Expedition began first American survey of Puget Sound -- the Voyage of Discovery; named most of the waterways in the south sound
1846...Britain ceded claims to the Pacific Northwest
1848...Congress created Territory of Oregon
1849...US Army’s Fort Steilacoom established; First criminal trial in future Washington Territory convenes
1852...Nicolas Delin began operating a sawmill on Commencement Bay; Oregon Legislature created Pierce County;
first settlement established on Commencement Bay; Ezra Meeker arrived with his family
1853...Washington Territory established
1854...Steilacoom is the first territorial town incorporated; Medicine Creek Treaty signed
1855...Indian wars began
1858...Chief Leschi hanged
1862...Homestead Act passed
1868...City of Tacoma founded
1870...McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary (oldest in nation) is founded
1873...Northern Pacific Railroad picked Tacoma for Western terminus
1889...Washington became a state
1899...US Congress created Mount Rainier National Park
1918...Pierce County voters created Port of Tacoma
1940...Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed
1950...Second Narrows Bridge opens connecting the Kitsap Peninsula with Tacoma
1951...Washington State Ferries began operations