Nestled in downtown Tacoma in a narrow park stands a totem pole. At one point, it was brightly painted, but the paint is faded. Graffiti is carved into the base. At the top sits an eagle with wings spread, as if surveying the port below.
Want to take home a Tacoma girl, a Tacoma pearl? At first glance it seems Phil Baxter did, although his lyrics to a 1930's song about our lovely Tacoma ladies were nearly lost for good.
When Mark Twain arrived in Tacoma in 1895 he was broke, smoking 10 cigars a day, and seemingly unimpressed by the area. Much like our summer of 2017, wildfires were wreaking havoc in Washington and most of our beautiful scenery was completely hidden from view.
December 21st is the winter solstice and, according to a cryptic sidewalk plaque in downtown Tacoma, sunrise on that day at 19th and Market is the time and place to be if you want to take a peek into the world of the dead.
Allen C. Mason arrived in Tacoma with $2.85 in his pocket. The year was 1883, and by the 1890s he'd become a millionaire.
What’s the best Christmas present you ever received? For Job Carr, it was probably finding the 138 acres that would become the city of Tacoma, which he claimed on Christmas Day of 1864.
Say the words "Steve's Gay '90s" and you're sure to confuse anyone new to Tacoma or born in the 1980s and beyond. For those in either group, we're talking about a restaurant that used to rock South Tacoma Way — and the 1890s.
Tacoma may not be Nashville or Detroit, but it's got its fair share of music history. The argument could be made, in fact, that the Grit City is the figurative birthplace of garage rock, and it's inarguably the literal birthplace of one of America's most beloved music celebrities
In 2009 rumors began to circulate that Never Never Land's statues were being stored in a secret underground location. Three years later Sharon Styer, a Tacoma resident who'd seen the storybook characters just before they all disappeared from Point Defiance, jumped at the chance to take a one-time-only tour beneath downtown.
Here’s the backstory: People talk a lot about busted roads in Tacoma but this 500 foot strip of awful is literally more patch than road at this point. The potholes are so deep you can actually damage your chassis if you don’t navigate them properly. Its infamy is so widespread that, in years past, whenever there was a paving project elsewhere in the city that ended up with surplus asphalt, the crews would bring the extras here to dump into the potholes.
The term “hidden gem” gets thrown around a lot but Salmon Beach really exemplifies it in every way. It’s one of the most wonderful parts of Tacoma and it’s about as hidden as you can get while still being in the city.
Spin the dial back on what Saint Patrick's Day has been like in Tacoma history and you're as likely to find a triumph as a tragedy. Here we take a look at bits of our past, ranging from the start of a tradition to an old-ass cat with no fucks left to give.
