1. U.S. Army Capt. Bennett Hill's Company M of the First Artillery arrived in late August 1849 at the nearby British trading post at Nisqually, currently the City of DuPont, to scope out potential sites for a U.S. fort.
Six miles to the north of the British Fort was an English sheep farm. Joseph Heath had been the farmer, but he had died six months earlier and the farm was abandoned. The U.S. government negotiated a lease for the land at $50 a month. That lease marks the first international agreement in the region. It would not be the last.
2. Thus, Fort Steilacoom was the first American government presence in what is now Washington State. Hill and his troops had come to protect the growing number of American settlers already in the area. The fort predates the first city in the area, Steilacoom, by five years and brought hard currency, rule of law and legitimacy to the region which was previously settled by English fur traders.
3. On Oct. 2, 1849, Chief Justice William P. Bryant of Oregon Territory convened the first criminal trial in the future Washington Territory at Fort Steilacoom to try six members of the Snoqualmie tribe for murder following an incident at the British trading post of Fort Nisqually. Leander Wallace was an American settler caught and killed in the crossfire during a scuffle between tribes. Several people were turned over to authorities following payment of a bounty of blankets. Two men, Kussus (sometimes referred to as Cussus) and Quallalwowt were convicted of murdering The jury of American settlers found the other four not guilty. U.S. Marshal Joe Meek hanged the two prisoners the next day, the first legal executions in the history of Washington. Justice Bryant tallied the cost of the trial at $2,379.54 including travel expenses, jurors fees, and the value of the 80 blankets.
4. After Fort Steilacoom was founded, road construction quickly followed as a way for military and civilian products and personnel to better travel throughout the region. Roads networked and webbed from Bellingham to Vancouver to Spokane and Walla Walla. If all roads in Italy led to Rome, every road in Washington eventually led to Fort Steilacoom.Many of them are still in use today. Angle Lane in Lakewood, which continues into Fort Steilacoom Park, was once the main road to Olympia.
5. War between the settlers and Native Americans arrived on Oct. 29, 1855, when Indians attacked several white settlers in response to the lopsided treaty of Medicine Creek signed the previous year. During the "Indian War" of 1855-56, Fort Steilacoom served as headquarters for the Ninth Infantry as well as about 80 settlers who stampeded from around the Sound to the fort for safety.
Click here for more reasons why Fort Steilacoom is significant
