Welcome to Kalama.info
Near the present day location of
the Kalama Marina, on March 19, 1871, the Northern Pacific Railroad began construction of the first mainline rails in the northwestern United
States.
Kalama was selected because NP engineers determined it was down-river
from ice, the Columbia River channel depth
was the same as at the river's bar at Astoria, and it was close to Portland
and the Willamette Valley.
The railroad would go northerly down the Columbia River, follow portions
of the Cowlitz River, and then on northward
toward the Olympia area. At that point
in time, the Puget Sound terminus was undetermined.
When Tacoma was finally selected as the NP's western terminus, final
track alignments were determined near the Nisqually River and track work was completed into Tacoma on December 27,
1873. The first regularly scheduled trains between Kalama and Tacoma began January 5, 1874.
The
Northern Pacific Railroad staff overcame many serious challenges during this
time, including a huge landslide
near Pumphrey (eight miles north of Castle Rock, Washington) and serious
financial problems just as the
rail approached Tacoma.
This
western rail would ultimately connect with work started, at least in ceremony,
on February 15, 1870 near Carlton,
Minnesota, creating a transcontinental line across the northern portion of the
United States. It would be hard to overstate the long-term economic, social, and even strategic
importance of this Northern Pacific Railroad
route… which started east in Kalama.
The Labor to Build the Northern Pacific
Two hundred and fifty men from Scotland, Ireland, Sweden and
Germany joined 700 Chinese laborers when construction
started in Kalama. Unskilled white workers were paid $2 per day; Chinese were
paid $1 per day. Mechanics made $3 and gang foremen were paid $70 per month.
The Chinese lived apart from white workers in a Chinatown - a section of
Kalama known as China Garden. Little remains of the Chinese presence in Kalama, though the road that
lead to this area still bears the name.
Minnetonka
Engine was first
locomotive to operate on the rails in Kalama.
Rail bed
excavation south of
Kalama.
Northern Pacific Railway