Kalama () is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,959 as of the 2020 census.
Etymology
James W. Phillips' Washington State Place Names states, "General John 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: The name "Kalama" was first mentioned in 1806 in the Lewis and Clark Journals ("Cath la haws Creek", "CalamsRiver", and "Calamas") in their reference to what is now known as the Kalama River (this story predates all of the others). Gabriel Franchère, in 1811, wrote of the Indian village at the mouth of the Kalama River, adding that it was called "Thlakalamah" .
Others maintain that the town name is associated with John Kalama (), John Kalama married a Nisqually tribe woman, Mary Martin, and worked on a farm repairing fish barrels, among other jobs. Mary died early and John remarried; he had a daughter about whom little is known and a son called Peter (1864–1947).
History
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. John Davenport, The town also received many Hawaiians who worked under the service of the Hudson's Bay Company and also intermarried with local indigenous peoples like the Nisqually during this time; descendants of such unions still living on Nisqually Reservation to this day. 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.
Kalama originated with a stake driven by Gen. John W. Sprague of the Northern Pacific Railway who in March 1870 selected a spot near the mouth of the Kalama river to mark the beginning point of Northern Pacific's Pacific Division. From that stake, the Northern Pacific began building north to Puget Sound, ultimately reaching Commencement Bay at what was to become Tacoma before going bankrupt. Construction began in April 1871 with a crew of 800 men, with the official 'first spike' being driven in May 1871 about the same time that the ceremonial spike was driven at a site west of Helena, Montana to mark the completion of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railroad in the fall of 1883. The following year in October 1884, a 3 track, long railroad ferry, Tacoma, marked the beginning of about 25 years of ferry service across the Columbia River. was located near the south end of Sandy Island about a mile south of Goble. However the crossing times were excessive when the Tacoma had to work against the tide, and the ferry slip was soon moved to Goble at the north end of Sandy Island and directly across from Kalama. The ferry could handle 12 passenger cars or 27 freight cars.
Located in Southwest Washington, Kalama is the fourth-largest city in Cowlitz County. According to Cowlitz County GIS data, the total incorporated area for the city of Kalama is 3.83 square miles (9.9 km2). The elevation ranges from 2ft (0.6m) to 1125ft (343m), with an average elevation of 227ft (69m). Longview, the largest city in the county, is 10mi (16km) to the north. Kalama sits along the Interstate 5 (I-5) corridor between the Seattle metropolitan area, 113 mi (182 km) to the north, and the Portland metropolitan area, 35 mi (56 km) to the south.
Highway access to Kalama is provided by Exit 27, Exit 30, and Exit 32 from I-5.
Kalama sits along the final stretch of the Columbia River, after the last major confluence, approximately 75 river miles (121km) from the Pacific Ocean. Based on the nearest USGS gauge, typical discharge in the Columbia River near Kalama is on the order of hundreds of thousands of cubic feet per second (tens of thousands of cubic meters per second), with seasonal highs in spring and lows in late summer. In 2023, average monthly discharge peaked in May at approximately 408,000 CFS (11,560 m³/s) and declined to about 92,900 CFS (2,630 m³/s) in September, representing a more than fourfold difference between seasonal high and low flows. Discharge in the Columbia River near Kalama is comparable in magnitude to major North American rivers such as the Ohio River and exceeds that of the Yukon River. A small fraction of this flow is contributed by the Kalama River, a 45mi (72 km) tributary that originates in the Cascade Range just south of Mount St. Helens and joins the Columbia River just outside of Kalama city limits.
The Port of Kalama is a significant maritime terminal on the Columbia River, handling millions of tons of dry bulk cargo annually. Over 100,000 rail cars arrive at the port each year, bringing soybeans, corn, and wheat from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for export to international markets. From their terminal at the Port of Kalama, TEMCO LLC loads over 125 oceangoing vessels annually, with their top destinations being China, Southeast Asia, Central America, and the Middle East. By tonnage, the Port of Kalama ranked 37th in the country in 2022, with 50x more exported than imported by weight. The man made Lower Columbia River Channel extends 106.5mi (171km) from the Pacific Ocean to Vancouver, passing by and serving the Port of Kalama. It has been incrementally expanded, most recently updated to 600ft (183m) wide and 43ft (13m) deep to accommodate modern bulk cargo and container vessels.
Climate
This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Kalama has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.