Steilacoom ( ) is a town in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 6,727 at the 2020 census. Steilacoom incorporated in 1854 and became the first incorporated town in what later became the state of Washington. It has also become a bedroom community for service members stationed at Joint Base Lewis–McChord, aka McChord AFB and Fort Lewis.
Based on per capita income, Steilacoom ranks 61st of 522 areas ranked in the state of Washington.
Name
The origin of the name "Steilacoom" is unclear. According to the Legacy Washington program, the town's name is derived from a Native American word meaning "little pink flower". Another possibility is that it was named by fur traders with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and is an adaptation of Tail-a-Koom, the name of a Native American chief. In 1824, chief factor John Work called the town "Chilacoom". Another early spelling was "Chelakom". The Town of Steilacoom says it was named after the Steilacoom tribe, especially their main village in the Tacoma area, located on Chambers Bay. Robert Hitchman noted in Place Names of Washington that Steilacoom Creek, which feeds into Chambers Creek, held the name before the town.
History
left|thumb|Town hall
The Steilacoom people, a Coast Salish tribe, lived in what became the city of Steilacoom. Their main village was called Scht’ləqʷəm, later anglicized as Steilacoom. William Bright says the name comes from the Southern Coast Salish subgroup /č'tílqʷəbš/, anglicized as "Steilacoom".
The United States Army established Fort Steilacoom in August 1849 following attacks on Fort Nisqually. European-American settlement at Steilacoom began with Lafayette Balch, a sea captain from Maine who arrived in 1851. The following year, Balch opened a sawmill to process and export lumber to San Francisco and named the settlement "Port Steilacoom". An adjacent settlement, Steilacoom City, was founded in June 1851 by John B. Chapman. The two settlements were merged into Steilacoom, which was named the county seat of Pierce County on December 12, 1852, and incorporated on April 22, 1854. Steilacoom was the first town in Washington Territory to be incorporated.
left|thumb|187x187px|First Protestant Church North of the Columbia Monument
Steilacoom had the first jail in Washington and the first sawmill. It has four individual buildings and sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the oldest Catholic Church in the state, the first Protestant Church north of the Columbia River, as well as the Steilacoom Historic District, with 68 contributing properties. The town remained prominent in the region until the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway, which opened in 1873 with a terminus in Tacoma. The county seat was moved from Steilacoom to Tacoma in 1880; an interurban streetcar was built in 1891 to connect the two cities. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.
Transportation
There are no state highways in Steilacoom. Drivers can access Interstate 5 or State Route 512 by driving through the adjacent city of Lakewood.
BNSF operates a railroad running along Steilacoom's shoreline, with the Union Pacific Railroad having trackage rights on this line as well. However, there is no active station in the city and passenger trains do not stop there. Passenger service to the city ended in 1971. With the November 18, 2021 opening of the Point Defiance bypass route, Amtrak passenger service is now on an inland line from Tacoma through South Tacoma, Lakewood and DuPont, essentially parallel to Interstate 5. With this new route in operation, Steilacoom's rail line is now for freight only.
Pierce County maintains a Steilacoom-Anderson Island Ferry which departs from Steilacoom and serves Anderson and Ketron islands.
Education
Public schools are operated by the Steilacoom Historical School District #1, which was first established in 1854.
Steilacoom High School is the district's comprehensive high school.