The Puget Sound Area
Battle of Seattle (M) The Indian confederacy's desperate attempt to drive off the white man in January, 1856, is commemorated by bronze tablets on the corner of Occidental and South Main in downtown Seattle. This was also the location of two blockhouses and a stockade built during the war.
Blockhouses and Skirmishes (B, M) The settlers, volunteers, and regulars fought several skirmishes in the area during 1855-56 along the rivers and many prairies in the area, some of these sites are marked, others are not. During the winter and spring of 1856, the civilians, volunteers, and regulars built nearly 50 blockhouses, most of them in the Puget Sound area. Marked sites include: Fort Eaton (south of Lacy off of State Hwy 510), Fort Maloney (north of the bridge over the Pullayup River from downtown Pullayup, which is located on the site of Lemmons Prairie the scene of several skirmishes during the war), Fort Slaughter (located 7 miles south of Auburn on State Hwy 164), and Fort Henness (at the Grand Mounds cemetery off of U.S. Hwy 12, 3 miles west of the turn off From Interstate 5). One of the few remaining blockhouses today is Fort Borst, which was built in 1856 to guard a river crossing on the Skookemchuck River. Much later it was moved to a large park next to I-5 in Centralia. (The park is one block south of the Harrison Street exit and on the west side of the freeway.) A more complete listing of the Washington blockhouses and their sites can be found in Herbert Hart's Tour Guide to Western Forts.
Connell's Prairie (M) A lone monument is all that stands at the strategic center of the Puget Sound area hostilities of 1855-1856. Most of the battles of this theater were fought within a ten-mile radius of this prairie. The fighting started here with the deaths of two volunteers on October 27, 1855 and ended here on March 10, 1856 with the climatic Battle of Connell's Prairie fought between the Washington Volunteers and Indians under the leadership of the Nisqually chief, Leschi. The Indian defeat here shattered the hostile alliance in the western half of the territory. The volunteers erected a blockhouse on this site in 1856. The prairie is located 10 miles east of Sumner, north of State Hwy 410 and off of the old Sumner-Buckley Hwy. (From Hwy 410 turn north on 214th Ave. E. (also known as Vandermark Road) proceed 1.5 miles to Connell's Prairie Road and east on this road 1 mile to intersection and marker.)
Fort Bellingham (B) One of two posts established at the close of hostilities in 1856 to watch over the Puget Sound Indian reservations. The post was short lived, inactivated in 1860. Only one officers' quarters remains, once occupied by the future confederate general of Gettysburg fame, Lieutenant George Pickett. The quarters are located on Bancroft Street, north of downtown Bellingham.
Fort Nisqually (B, I, P, M) Fort Nisqually was established in 1833 to administer the farms of the Puget Sound Agriculture Company, a subsidiary of the Hudson's Bay Company. It was originally built on the Nisqually River delta, but was moved in 1843 to a site a few miles to the north near the present location of the DuPont Company plant. Only a plaque marks the site there, which is about 15 miles south of Tacoma off of I-5. However, in the 1930s, the two remaining original buildings of the fort were moved to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma and the rest of the post was reconstructed. The park is located off of State Hwy 16 in Tacoma at the north end of Pearl Street. A small museum and interpretive center is open there.
Fort Steilicoom (B, I, M) The lone permanent U.S. Army post in the Puget Sound area during the Indian troubles of 1855-1856, Fort Steilicoom remained active until 1868. Today four officers' quarters and part of the old post cemetery remain at the site which is now part of the Western Washington State Hospital. These four buildings are being restored by private donations, and an interpretive center is now open. The hospital is located 4 miles west of the city of Steilicoom on Steilicoom Blvd.
Fort Townsend (M, C, SP) Fort Bellingham's companion post on the other side of the sound was also established in 1856, but remained Army property until the barracks burned down in 1895. Nothing remains at the site today, which is now a state park, except interpretive signs. The park is located 5 miles south of Port Townsend off of State Hwy 115.
Leschi's Hanging Site (M) The Nisqually chief and nominal leader of the Puget Sound hostiles was hanged at the northern end of Lake Steilicoom in 1858. A small monument commemorates the event in the Chamber Shopping Center parking lot off of Steilicoom Blvd., just to the east of the Fort Steilicoom.
Leschi's Grave (M) Leschi's remains now rest in the Pullayup Indian Reservation Cemetery, which is next to the junction of Interstate 5 and State Hwy 167 in Tacoma.
Medicine Creek Treaty Grounds (M) The first of Isaac Stevens's Washington Territory treaties took place in late December 1854 in a clearing near the mouth of Medicine (now McAllister) Creek on the Nisqually River delta. There are two monuments there on side roads in the vicinity near where Interstate 5 crosses the creek near its junction with the Nisqually River, just south of the city limits of Tacoma.
Mukilteo Treaty Grounds (M, P, SP) Point Elliot was site of the second Stevens treaty is commemorated in a small state park, which contains the historical Point Elliott lighthouse, next to the Whidby Island ferry landing at the landward end of State Hwy 525 in Mukilteo.
Naches Pass (I, P, SP) The pass remains to this day a narrow trail through the Cascades, though now maintained by the U.S. Forest Service. Federation Forest State Park Interpretive Center, which is near the western end of the pass, contains some historical information, as well as exhibits on forest ecology. The park is located near the town of Greenwater on State Hwy 410.
Point No Point Treaty Grounds (M) The site of the treaty with the western sound tribes is marked by a small monument on the eastern tip of Kitsap Peninsula.
Port Gamble (M) The cemetery in this picturesque and historic company town contains the grave of the first Navy casualty in the Northwest. The young marine was killed when the frigate USS Massachusetts battled with warriors of the British Columbia Haida tribe in 1857. The town is on the northern tip of Kitsap Peninsula on State Hwy 104.
Ebey's Landing (Whidby Island Historic District) (B, M, P, C, NPS, I) The area surrounding the town of Coupville on Whidby Island is a National Historic District. Two historic blockhouses from the 1850s as well as the site of the Issac Ebey homestead, who was beheaded by Haida warriors in 1857, is in this area. An interpretive center is being developed. Follow Hwy 20 from Anacortes or Hwy 525 from the Mukilteo ferry crossing.
White River Massacre Site (M) The homestead sites at Brannon's Prairie along the White River (today known as the Green River, due to changes made by flood control projects) are now a part of modern urban Auburn. Two markers in a small park commemorate the Indian attack on the settlers' homes on October 28, 1855 and the location where Army Lieutenant William A. Slaughter was killed in December of that year. Auburn was originally named Slaughter, until squeamish inhabitants changed the name (the hotel was named "Slaughter House"). The park is just to the north of downtown Auburn next to the river along the old Kent-Auburn Hwy. at the junction of 30th Street NE and Auburn Way N.
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