Pioneers had first settled in the area along the Columbia River by 1847, but Kalama was not officially incorporated there until 1890. Early riverboats stopped in Kalama to obtain timber to fire their boilers. The Northern Pacific Railroad chose Kalama as the site to land its rail-transfer ferry, and it also became the terminus for Northern Pacific Railroad to complete a rail line to Puget Sound. The city grew and flourished around these industries...