Fort Steilacoom - Lakewood, Washington
Posted by: 
Hikenutty
N 47° 10.748 W 122° 33.828
10T E 533051 N 5225163
Fort Steilacoom was established as a military fort in 1849 by the US Government in response to the growing British presence in the area. In 1868 is was abandoned and the Washington Territory turned it into a mental asylum in 1871.
Waymark Code: WM18X1
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 02/26/2007
Views: 140
The Fort is now part of the Western State Mental Institution grounds. The grounds are open to the public and you are welcome to visit the yellow clapboard restored fort buildings near the front entrance. However, to protect patient's privacy no photos are allowed on the campus, even at the fort. To log this waymark we will accept a photograph of the area taken from outside the entrance. The fort buildings can be seen from there.
The marker is located at the above coordinates on the wall of one of the officers' quarters. It was placed by Governor Edward Digges Chapter of the Colonial Dames XVII Century. The fort is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The following text is from the Fort Steilacoom website listed below in the variable section:
The U.S. Army founded Fort Steilacoom in late August of 1849 in hopes of establishing an American presence in the area. There were British fur trading forts in the area, most notable being Fort Vancouver to the South and Fort Nisqually to the Northeast in what is now the Point Defiance area of Tacoma.
During the "Indian War" of 1855-56, the fort served as headquarters for the 9th Infantry Regiment. About 80 settlers stampeded from around the Sound to the fort for safety. A friendly Indian by the name of Abram Salitat had tipped off local settlers to a pending attack. The some 80 settlers fled their farms and headed toward the fort or other safe locations in the dark of night with whatever they could carry. The handful of log buildings and a flagpole at the fort provided more security than their lonely farm houses that were scattered around the prairie.
Fort Steilacoom was abandoned as a military post in 1868. The Washington Territory received the 640-acre fort and farm, and used it as an insane asylum, which opened in 1871. The military barracks housed mental patients and hospital staff. The hospital is the second oldest set of governmental facilities in the state and predates statehood by almost a generation. The buildings were used, remodeled and mostly abandoned or removed as the hospital grew. The Historic Fort Steilacoom Association formed in the 1970s to save the remaining buildings from the wrecker as the hospital sought ways to expand.