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Fort Steilacoom Park

Cross country running courses in Washington (state)Dog parks in the United StatesLakewood, WashingtonParks in Pierce County, WashingtonParks in Washington (state)
Pierce CollegePierce County, Washington geography stubs
Fort Steilacoom Park playground March 2006
Fort Steilacoom Park playground March 2006

Fort Steilacoom Park in Lakewood, Washington is the largest park in the city. The 340-acre (1.4 km2) park includes Waughop Lake, an off-leash dog park, and several soccer fields and baseball fields. It is adjacent to Pierce College, historic Fort Steilacoom, and Western State Hospital. The area became a homesteader's farm circa 1844, then became Fort Steilacoom in 1849. In 1868, the government purchased it for use as the "Insane Asylum for Washington Territory". Hospital residents grew crops and orchards in the park area, and planted many of the poplar trees that line the lake shore. More than 3,000 hospital residents are buried in the cemetery near the parking lot.The park is the site of high school cross country meets in the fall and Pierce College utilizes it for athletic activities. In September or October the Fort Steilacoom Invite is held, hosted by Lakes High School. It is currently the second largest meet in Washington state.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Fort Steilacoom Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Fort Steilacoom Park
Waughop Lake Trail,

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N 47.17 ° E -122.56 °
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Waughop Lake Trail

Waughop Lake Trail

Washington, United States
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cityoflakewood.us

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Fort Steilacoom Park playground March 2006
Fort Steilacoom Park playground March 2006
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Fort Steilacoom
Fort Steilacoom

For the adjacent park, see Fort Steilacoom Park Fort Steilacoom was founded by the U.S. Army in 1849 near Lake Steilacoom. It was among the first military fortifications built by the U.S. north of the Columbia River in what was to become the State of Washington. The fort was constructed due to civilian agitation about the massacre in 1847 at the Whitman mission. Indians of the Nisqually tribe attacked white settlers in the area on October 29, 1855, as a result of their dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Medicine Creek that had been imposed on them the previous year, particularly angered that their assigned reservation curtailed the traditional fishing economy. The fort was headquarters for the U.S. 9th Infantry Regiment during this "Indian War" of 1855-56. In the course of the conflict, Volunteer U.S. Army Colonel Abram Benton Moses was killed. At the conclusion of the war, Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens brought Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe to trial for the death of Moses during a skirmish at Connell's Prairie on October 31, 1855. Since the death had occurred in combat, the United States Army refused to carry out the sentence of death on the grounds of Fort Steilacoom, maintaining that he was a prisoner of war. The territorial legislature therefore passed a law authorizing Leschi's execution at the hands of civilian authorities. On February 19, 1858, Leschi was hanged in what is today the city of Lakewood. He was exonerated in 2004.Fort Steilacoom was decommissioned as a military post in 1868. In 1871 Washington Territory repurposed the fort as an insane asylum, with the barracks serving as patient and staff housing. Fort Steilacoom is now Western State Hospital. Four cottages from the fort remain on the site, and serve as a living history museum. The post cemetery also remains, containing civilian burials from the fort era. All known military burials were relocated to the San Francisco National Cemetery in the 1890s.