The Mountain Tacoma Tried to Take

The active controversy over the name of the magnificent mountain that dominates the whole Puget Sound basin dates back to the year 1882. Prior to that date the Tacoma newspapers, and such authorities on early Washington history as Judge Elwood Evans, had from time to time published statements that the original name of the great peak was Tacoma or Tahoma, the significance of which, as nearly as could be made out, is 'the mother of milky rivers,' or 'the nourishing breast.' Their appeals for a restoration of the beautiful Indian name made no impression, however, outside of their own town, which was at that time little more than a sawmill village in a wilderness. In the summer of 1882 two Eastern magazine writers met at Tacoma and made the tour of the Sound together. One was Helen Hunt Jackson, the famous poet and novelist who died a few years ago. She was at the time traveling with her husband and was writing a series of articles on the new Northwestern regions for the Atlantic Monthly. The other, now the editor of the Northwest, was then a contributor to the Century Magazine. They talked over the nomenclature of the region and agreed that it was a pity that the old, musical name of the principal mountain peak of the Cascade range should have been abandoned for the name of a British lord of the admiralty who never saw it. In their articles they told the story of the naming of the peak by Vancouver, the discoverer of Puget Sound — how he sought to compliment the ruling power of the British navy by assigning a mountain to each of the three lords of the admiralty: Hood, St. Helens, Rainier — and they made a plea for the restoration of the genuine old American name. When these articles were read by Thomas F. Oakes, then general manager and now president of the Northern Pacific railroad, he directed that in all future advertising literature and maps issued by his company the mountain should be called Tacoma. This has been done ever since, with the result that throughout the East the mountain is generally known as Tacoma, and eastern tourists usually hear for the first time when they visit the Sound that it has another name. The old settlers of Washington outside of the city of Tacoma still call it Rainier. The people of Seattle have always strenuously opposed a change in the name. They call their principal hotel 'The Rainier,' and their leading club and minor institutions bear the same appellation, in protest against the effort of the city of Tacoma to attach its name to the peak.