The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-24
1T Is MOUNT RAINIER.
Why Washington's Great Peak
Should Be So Called.
HISTORY AND CUSTOM UNITE
An Early Settler Disposes Thoroughly
Of the Mythical Authority for the
Name Tacoma.

1.-THE endeavors of the representatives Of
Tacoma TO have the name of their city fast
ened on Mount Rainier in the government
maps il only continuance of their scheme
to use the mountain to advertise their
town, said Mr.. Charles Prosch yesterday.
He then proceeded to give the authorities
on which the use of each name was based,
as follows:
the first white men to see Mount Rainier
They saw It from the Columbia river and
named it Rainier after Admiral Rainier,
of the British navy. They saw Mount
Hood ct the same time and named it also
after an English naval officer. In fact,
nearly all the names given to prominent
points in this section are of British origin
and were given by right of discovery.
I'm all the thirty-twO years / have been
here this mountain has not been called by
any other name than Rainier until the
town Of Tacoma was founded, and since
then that name has only been applied in .
narrow circle Of territory. The first man
to give the name Tacoma to this mountain
was Mr.. Ackerson, of Hanson & Ackerson,
who came from San Francisco and built q
mill in the Old Town in 1870 or 1871. For
nearly ten years after that date no man
thought of calling the mountain Tacoma,
until the people of Tacoma adopted it as q
means of advertising their town.
Tacoma is said to be an Indian name,
sometimes spelled Tocoma and Tocomo.
The only Indian language in use here is
Chinook, which was invented by the em-
ploves Of the Hudson Bay Company for
the purpose of intercourse with the In
dians, and is jargon of Eng
lish, French and Latin, with q
little Indian. There was never any
one real Indian language on the
Sound and many Indians know no other
language than Chinook. have met In
dams from east of the mountains who
only spoke Chinook, and they say that the
present generation of Indians know no
other language. If there had been any
such name as Tacoma in the old Indian
districts the Hudson Bay Company's men
would have known it and would have pre-
served it in the Chinook language. But
DR.. William Fraser Tolmie, who was the
first white settler north of the Columbia
river, having come to the Sound in
1886, knew no such name. He used
to run the company's trading post at MIS-
qually and was in my office at Steilacoom
two or three times q week when / lived in
that town and when Olympia and Stella
COON were the only towns on the Sound.
If he had known any stch name. he would
have been sure to mention it in converse
tons with me. but he never did. Edwin Ellis
knows more about the Indians of the Sound
than any other white man, and he knows
of no such name among them as Tacoma
Moreover, if the Indians had had q name
for Mount Rainier, they would have had
names for the other peaks, but they have
not, though they have many legends and
traditions about them. One of these is
that many years ago there was q fight
among the mountains, in which they
threw FIRE at each other, and that Mount
Rainier triumphed.
Mr.. Alderman really gave the name
Tacoma to this mountain, and the people
of Tacoma have been. inventing stories for
the last ten years to support their change
of the name, simply to advertise their
town, just as they tried to have the name
of this state changed to Tacoma. The
name is neither English, American nor In
dian, but is pure invention. The name
of the mountain is Rainier. The explorers
of this country gave it that name by right
of discovery, and that is the name by
which it has been known among the people
ever since"