Prairie House Museum in Spanaway will be open from 1 – 3pm on Wednesday April 3. It is their annual Kid’s Day event. This date falls during Spring Break for the Bethel School District. Admission to the event is free; donations are always gladly accepted. The museum is next door, to the west of the Fir Lane Memorial Park.

The Prairie House is a restored 1890’s gable and wing farm house. It has furnishings and articles from the period and other exhibits. Behind the house is a shed with an old board saw and a blacksmith’s shop. A barn behind the house holds more exhibits and photos of Spanaway’s history. Local families often make donations of historical items and photos when their elderly loved ones pass away.

The area around Spanaway was a vast prairie150 years ago. The local native population regularly set the prairie ablaze to kill the fir trees and enhance the camas bulb crop which was a staple in their diet. It was said you could see the Tacoma area from the Bald Hills south of Yelm back then. When the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) started Fort Nisqually in 1832, they quickly  of fur-bearing animals in the area.  HBC turned to raising animals and feed crops in another venture called the Puget Sound Agricultural Company (PSAC). When Washington was officially designated as part of the United States in 1846, PSAC sold the livestock, crops and farm implements to the incoming settlers looking for donation land claims (1850) and later, homesteads (1862). Their farm “stations” were all over Pierce County. The local farming station was called Spanueh, the precursor to the modern name of the community. It was located west of Pacific Avenue somewhere between where 172^nd and 176^th streets and Park Avenue are now.

The local native language, Lushootseed, the word meaning a place to dig roots was spa’du-we. Dr. Tolmie, the factor at Fort Nisqually, was fluent in the native language and likely chose the name intentionally after wapato and camas in the area.

More on the history of Spanaway can be found on this link.

The News Tribune published an article on Prairie House Museum’s Kinds Day in their “Go!” section March 29. Visits to the Museum can be pre-arranged anytime by calling 253-536-6655.

Have a great Spring break!