City of Kalama, Cowlitz County, Washington

City of Kalama Cowlitz County, Washington

Mapped Location

City of Kalama: The mapped location is an approximation and should not be used for navigation or wayfinding.

Information

General information on City of Kalama

Feature Type: Incorporated

Official, historical, colloquial and alternative toponyms for City of Kalama

A brief list of names that this geographic feature has been named

Name	Description
City of Kalama	Official
Kalama	Official

Origin Notes and History of City of Kalama

References to City of Kalama that document the origin of its place name

KALAMA, a river and a town in the southern part of Cowlitz County. The town was named by General J. W. Sprague of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1871. To comply with the law twenty-five miles of road was built toward Puget Sound, and the place of beginning was then named Kalama. (Elwood Evans, in History of the Pacific Northwest, Vol. II., page 47.) Rev. Myron Eells thought the word came from the Indian word Calamet, meaning stone. See Cathlamet. Mrs. E. R. Huntington, of Castle Rock, says the name was spelled Calama in early days. She obtained from Norman Burbee when eighty years of age information that his father took up a claim on that river in 1847, and that the Indians told him that Calama meant pretty maiden. (Names MSS., Letter 158.)

Edmond S. Meany in Origin of Washington Geographic Names

Meany, Edmond S., Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923 University of Washington, pp 126 | Origin of Washington Geographic Names

Cowlitz County

Political Boundaries

Last updated: 2017-07-01