Why Fort Steilacoom Disappeared Between 1868 and 1978

What Your Parents Knew About Local History Was Likely Wrong
By Walter Neary

Across the nation, many museums honor the U.S. Army while addressing the challenging history of westward expansion. However, Fort Steilacoom Museum didn’t emerge until 1980. Here we are more than 40 years later. It’s common to meet people who have never heard of Fort Steilacoom.

Why did Fort Steilacoom seemingly vanish from public memory for so long?

The answer lies in how people choose to remember history. Hint: History can be changed. 

Fort Steilacoom faded into obscurity until the late 20th century because efforts to honor American pioneers were directed elsewhere. Older generations grew up believing that another fort, a perfectly American one, had already fulfilled this role. This article is deeply indebted to historian Steve Anderson, who has shed light on how Fort Nisqually came to dominate the narrative.

In the early 1900s, there was a nationwide belief that U.S. pioneers were heroic figures, and communities celebrated their achievements. But in Puget Sound, that celebration took an interesting turn. Instead of recognizing the U.S. Army’s role at Fort Steilacoom, attention shifted toward the idea of building a replica of Fort Nisqually—a British trading post—to honor pioneers.

Fort Nisqually as American fort

By 1908, newspapers like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer were suggesting that a Fort Nisqually replica should be built for the Alaska-Yukon Exposition. Though this plan never came to fruition, it indicated that Fort Nisqually was viewed as central to Washington’s pioneer history.

It’s important to note that Fort Nisqually, located in DuPont, was a British, not American, fort. But two events helped elevate its prominence. First, historian William Bonney announced that the factor’s house at Fort Nisqually was the oldest building around. It was the first white settlement, and that rendered the whole British and American distinction unimportant. 

Second, with the invention of the automobile, the scenic drive from Seattle and Tacoma to DuPont became a popular outing.

Fort Nisqually at its original location in DuPont was on the map!

By 1921, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was calling Fort Nisqually “the site of the first American home built in the Puget Sound District.” The Tacoma Daily Ledger even went so far as to refer to it as “the cradle of American civilization in the Pacific Northwest.”

It became quite a thing to visit the old buildings, as is shown in this front page display in the Oct. 30, 1927 issue of the Tacoma Daily Ledger:

Meanwhile, Fort Steilacoom, which had become the grounds of Western State Hospital, was fading into obscurity. Few people took scenic drives to an asylum, and there was a stigma attached to the hospital. Many patients were buried in unmarked graves, and even the history of the fort became intertwined with the hospital, to the point that a 1950 newspaper article claimed, “Fort Steilacoom became Western State Hospital.”

A group of young Tacoma businessmen donned costumes appropriate for a John Wayne movie and pretended to take hostages among American pioneers, just like what NEVER happened at Fort Nisqually. Photo Source of this and the adjacent photo, Tacoma Northwest Room

In the public imagination, there was no need for Fort Steilacoom because Fort Nisqually had been re-created in Point Defiance Park in 1934. The dedication ceremony for the replica fort was quite the spectacle, with a band playing patriotic tunes, U.S. Navy planes performing stunts, and the American flag raised as onlookers stood at attention.

“Red men” so wrong in so many ways

But this Americanization of Fort Nisqually, a British fort, was misleading. Even worse, the ceremony included a wildly offensive performance in which actors dressed as “red men” and pretended to take settlers hostage—an event that never actually happened.

But you can’t blame people for thinking that. The Tacoma Daily Ledger called it “the old fort that once protected the settlers of Pierce County from attacks by raiding Indians.”

So there was no need for Fort Steilacoom. Washington had the American fort, Fort Nisqually to remember the pioneers.

How did these non-existent American hostages from a non-existent fort get rescued? “A company of (US) national guardsmen scheduled to appear on the scene and rescue the officials failed to show and it fell the duty of a German band supplied by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Tacoma police and state patrolmen to repulse the attack and return the officials to safety.”

An American flag is displayed during the Fort Nisqually dedication, just as it never was during actual history.

So it’s no wonder nobody in Tacoma or Lakewood ever heard of Fort Steilacoom. It didn’t exist. Newspapers, such as the Seattle Daily Tribune of June 11, 1939, refer to Fort Nisqually as part of “the history of US military defense”  in Puget Sound

With Fort Nisqually celebrated as a symbol of American pioneers, Fort Steilacoom was forgotten. Even the U.S. Postal Service contributed to the confusion. In 1978, it issued a stamp called “New Nation Building Westward,” which featured Fort Nisqually’s tower. (You can see the stamp in the upper left of this page) The stamp was interpreted as celebrating U.S. settlement, despite Fort Nisqually being a British outpost.

Tacoma businessmen who portrayed ‘red men’ show up again – in 1978

Just to help emphasize the inaccuracy, guess who showed up for the event? One of the “red men” from 1934 who you can see in the lower left of the newspaper clip below. He could tell the story of how for the original Fort Nisqually dedication they had emphasized how that American fort protected American settlers.

British fort? American fort? No difference really, in 1978 – which at least for some of us seems like modern times.

It is easy for us to read this wide-eyed and in disbelief. Today, here in 2024, we are aware there is a difference between Great Britain and the United States.

And yet. We should not be smug.

Put yourself in the place of someone who did know the history correctly in 1934 and 1978. We must ask ourselves: If you had been there in 1934 – if you had been there in 1978 – would you have stood up and said, “Excuse me, excuse me; we’re in the wrong place. We need to take this event to the grounds of the mental hospital! Who is ready to drive to Western State Hospital and have a big public party?”

No. Most of us probably would not have done that.

Looking ahead – at accuracy

It’s no surprise, then, that many people today are unaware of Fort Steilacoom’s history. Their parents likely believed that Fort Nisqually was the American fort. However, thanks to the efforts of historians like Cy and Rita Happy, who successfully nominated Fort Steilacoom for the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, the fort’s true history is being preserved.

Volunteers restored the remaining buildings at Fort Steilacoom in the 1980s, and since then, our association volunteers have worked to tell the fort’s story.  It’s understandable that people are confused when they first learn about Fort Steilacoom. After all, for decades, Fort Nisqually was presented as the American fort in Puget Sound.

We are asking people to unlearn something. And one might argue that is even tougher than teaching something new to someone.

Today, we’re fortunate to have a vibrant living history museum that tells the true story of Fort Nisqually’s British roots. We would all be poorer without it. Fort Nisqually is blessed with wonderful staff and volunteers and programs. 

The small, all-volunteer army at Fort Steilacoom will continue sharing the fort’s history. And while Washington never created a U.S. military museum for Puget Sound, Fort Steilacoom’s story is finally being told.