KALAMA — The Port of Kalama will reach into its past to help boost its future.
The port, which for years has been one of Cowlitz County’s most potent engines of economic growth, is helping sponsor a celebration of the 140th anniversary of the first spike driven to create the western portion
of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railroad.
Kalama was once the western terminus of that line, which connected the Pacific Northwest to Chicago upon its completion in 1883. It took 13 years to build, as Northern Pacific endured bankruptcies and Indian attacks on survey and construction crews. When if finally opened, the track was a key factor in development and settlement of the Pacific Northwest.
The first spike for the western end of the project was driven near the current Port of Kalama Marina in 1870. The town of Kalama was incorporated the next year.
Kalama remained the end of the line until railroad bridges were built across the Columbia River to Portland, Ore., in the early 20th century. Until 1909, trains from Western Oregon crossed the Columbia at Goble on the ferry Tacoma, and they were reassembled in Kalama before heading north.
“Not many people understand about the history of the first spike and the old ferry that ran across the river,” said Mark Wilson Port of Kalama development manager. “When the line was complete all the territories became states because the population increased. It was a really key piece that started the economic development of the area and shaped everything that happened north of Utah and California.”
On the evening of May 21, the port and several other sponsors will host a 140th anniversary celebration at the Kalama Community Building, built on the former site of the Northern Pacific Railway Hotel.
Sponsors are asking members of the community to bring historical memorabilia — old photos especially of the town’s rail, ship and highway transportation history — for possible use in the port’s developing Kalama Interpretive Center. There will be talks about the town’s railroad history as well as a presentation about the Port of Kalama today.
Northern Pacific surveyors chose Kalama as the terminus because it was far enough downstream to avoid winter river ice and offered a deep-water anchorage. The message the port is hoping to get out is that Kalama still is an ideal place to do business because of its geographic location, availability of water, rail and highway transportation, tax incentives, new industrial and marine parks, and natural beauty.
“Kalama has such a rich history and we invited people to come se how important a community we were then and what we have to offer today – both to families and businesses,” Port Commissioner Jim Lucas said in a prepared statement.
More than 20 businesses are located at the port employing about 900 people.
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