In 1882, less than ten years after the Northern Pacific Railroad established a terminus on Commencement Bay and helped create a city called New Tacoma, the community is thriving. Stores, stables, a new hospital, and the beginnings of a hotel to rival San Francisco's Cliff House are going up. In town, horse-drawn street cars are pulled on gravel roads, and there is even the beginning of a new telephone system. In Nell Tanquist's opinion, the town...