Step back in time and experience Christmas as it was celebrated in 1861! Join Historic Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, from 4:30 to 8 p.m., as living historians bring the holiday season to life in the same buildings where it was celebrated 164 years ago. Visitors will walk through candlelit scenes […]
Fort Steilacoom Museum Annual Meeting & Guest Speaker: John Halliday We’re honored to welcome John Halliday, a Muckleshoot Tribal member of Duwamish ancestry, as the featured speaker at our 2025 annual meeting. He will present on the topic of, “What is a Chief? How Native Values Can Teach Resilience.” Halliday became legally blind at age […]
Fort Steilacoom’s 3rd annual Old-fashioned Independence Day Celebration and free open house will be noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, 2025. This is a free, family-oriented event. View our historic U.S. Army post and see four of the oldest buildings still standing in Washington. You’ll find: Re-enactors Demonstrations Hands-on activities You can see […]
When researching the history of Fort Steilacoom, you meet a lot of interesting characters. My new favorite is Lt. Theodore Talbot. Talbot might seem like an odd choice. He was the original lieutenant for Company L, the military unit that stayed in Vancouver while Company M founded Fort Steilacoom. But he left both a journal […]
Lakewood, WA – History buffs, reenactors, and collectors take note! The Fort Steilacoom Living History Swap Meet returns on Saturday, March 29, 2025, from 10 AM to 2 PM at Historic Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood. This unique event brings together vendors offering historic clothing, military gear, period accessories, books, crafting supplies, and more. Whether you’re […]
The future Washington state was settled, discovered and claimed by a host of peoples and countries for various reasons. The Pacific Northwest is often viewed as being on “the far side of the world” — but it was really the center in some ways, since it was “discovered” by countries from both sides. Some narratives […]
Step back in time and experience Christmas as it was celebrated in 1861! Join Historic Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024, from 4:30 to 8 p.m., as living historians bring the holiday season to life in the same buildings where it was celebrated 163 years ago. Visitors will walk through candlelit scenes […]
Here are two opportunities to learn a lot about Lakewood’s early history as part of the United States. One is online, and one is in person. They cover a big part of our community’s history as the first US military presence in all of Puget Sound. 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17: Learn about the military […]
HFSA board president Walter Neary marked the 175th anniversary of Fort Steilacoom’s founding with a talk at Lakewood’s Coffee With the Mayor on Aug. 21. The event took place in a building in Fort Steilacoom Park, which had been part of the original post and is across Steilacoom Boulevard from the museum. The talk was […]
By Walter Neary The following is from the September 2024 issue of the Historic Fort Steilacoom journal. Serving as president of the board at Historic Fort Steilacoom both 20 years ago and again today has given me a unique point of view. One, I’m grateful anyone wanted me back, and two, the time away has […]