Murray Morgan (1)

Spectacular narrative history of Tacoma & South Puget Sound

Published in 1979 by a writer born the same year as my grandparents, with a perspective of a life-long Tacoma resident.

Many 'work' tie-ins for me, from a Leschi hideout in a swamp on the Green River with two mountain escape routes that drove me to check the archeological survey for the GRFF, to a James Swan cameo as Port Townsend's town drunk (from Winter Brothers).

There is a chapter on the Northern Pacific and Stampede Pass. A Coxley's Army appearance at Palmer, and a short description of Tacoma's purchase of the Green River Headworks.… (more)

Puget's Sound tells the history of Tacoma, Washington and the surrounding area from first contact with George Vancouver's expedition in 1792 through the start of the 20th century.

In grade school, I lived just down the street from Morgan and once interviewed him for a school project. During the interview, me and my partner quickly forgot the questions we had and ended up just listening fascinated as Morgan wove a story of the early history of Puyallup, a nearby Tacoma suburb. I brought along my dad's copy of Puget's Sound for an autograph, but hadn't gotten around to reading it until now, more than twenty years later.

Morgan is a great story teller and his history of Tacoma is a series of interwoven stories of the people, both locally and from distant Railroad and Wall Street board rooms, who shaped the city from a marshy rival to Seattle for the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad to a thriving industrial city.

Much has changed in Pierce County in the thirty years since the book was written, but the stories of the early settlement are still fascinating and I'd recommend this for anyone who is interested in the early history of Tacoma.… (more)