Kalama, Washington
| Kalama | |
|---|---|
| City | |
| Kalama, Washington | |
Downtown Kalama
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 Location of Kalama, Washington |
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| Coordinates: 46°0′31″N 122°50′33″W / 46.00861°N 122.84250°WCoordinates: 46°0′31″N 122°50′33″W / 46.00861°N 122.84250°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Washington |
| County | Cowlitz |
| Area | |
| • Total | 3.5 sq mi (9 km2) |
| • Land | 3.5 sq mi (9 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 39 ft (12 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 2,344 |
| • Estimate (2015) | 2,398 |
| • Density | 846.2/sq mi (326.7/km2) |
| Time zone | Pacific (PST) (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 98625 |
| Area code | 360 |
| FIPS code | 53-34645 |
| Website | City of Kalama |
Kalama is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is part of the 'Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area'. The population was 2,500, according to the Washington State Office of Financial Management.
The story endorsed by the city Kalama is that the city was named after the nearby Kalama River which took its name from a Native Hawaiian named John Kalama. An alternate story, from James W. Phillips Washington State Place Names states, "General J.W. Sprague of the Northern Pacific Railroad named the town in 1871 for the Indian word calama, meaning "pretty maiden.". There is an additional story. Gabriel Franchere in 1811 wrote of the Indian village at the mouth of the Kalama River, and he said it was called Thlakalamah (This story predates all of the others)
Kalama was first settled by Native Americans, particularly members of the Cowlitz Indian Tribes. The first white settler recorded was in 1853. That first settler was Ezra Meeker and his family. Only one year later, Meeker moved to north Puyallup, Washington, but he sold his Donation Land Claim to a Mr. Davenport, who, with a few others, permanently settled in the Kalama area. In early 1870, Northern Pacific Railway scouts came to Cowlitz County to find an ideal terminus along the Columbia River. After a failed negotiation for a Donation Land Claim in Martin’s Bluff, four miles south of Kalama, Northern Pacific officials purchased 700 acres in Kalama for the terminus of the new railroad as well as a new headquarters. The population swelled with employees of the Northern Pacific Railway.
Kalama was entirely a Northern Pacific railroad creation. It was unofficially born in May 1870 when the Northern Pacific railroad turned the first shovel of dirt. Northern Pacific built a dock, a sawmill, a car shop, a roundhouse, a turntable, hotels, a hospital, stores, homes. In just a few months in 1870, the working population exploded to approximately 3500 and the town had added tents, saloons, a brewery, and a gambling hall. Soon the town had a motto: "Rail Meets Sail". Recruiters went to San Francisco and recruited Chinese labor, who moved to their own Chinatown in a part of Kalama now called China Gardens. The population of Kalama peaked at 5,000 people, but in early 1874, the railroad moved its headquarters to Tacoma, and by 1877, only 700 people remained in Kalama.
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Wikipedia