Tenino, Washington

Tenino was officially incorporated on July 24, 1906, though it existed as a rural community since the mid-19th century. Initially, American settlers were attracted to the open prairies created and maintained by local natives through controlled burns to cultivate camas root, a staple food source. Records indicate the initial settlers' community centered on the prairie approximately 1/2 mile south of the present town. Early residents named their first post office and school "Coal Bank", in the 1860s, a reference to a nearby coal outcropping.[6] It was later renamed Tenino.

In the late 19th century, a number of sandstone quarrying companies began shipping building stone, used in many regional buildings outside of Tenino, including the Old Capitol Building and the old Thurston County Courthouse in Olympia, the Mason County Courthouse in Shelton, Washington, the First Congregational Church, developed by Cameron Stone, in Tacoma, Washington, Denny Hall and the Theodore Jacobson Observatory at the University of Washington, Seattle, the Pittock Mansion and the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, the Calvary Presbyterian Church (San Francisco) and several US post office buildings, including at The Dalles, Oregon. The US Government also used stone from these quarries to construct jetties at Westport, Washington and elsewhere. The quarries declined in the early 20th century when many builders switched to concrete.

In addition to quarrying, logging, saw mills, and coal mining were also well established industries in the area. However, as the timber played out and railroads switched to diesel in the mid-20th century, these industries also declined.

Tenino wooden money, issued during the Great Depression.

Tenino briefly achieved national fame during the Great Depression. After the local bank closed, the town government temporarily issued wooden money scrip for use locally when cash was scarce.[7] However, most of the wooden money was never redeemed as it became a collector's item.[8] Tenino began printing the wooden currency during the coronavirus recession in 2020 to distribute to residents.[9] The revival of the program was approved by the Washington State Auditor and began in May 2020.[10][11]

In the years before the construction of Interstate 5, Tenino gained a reputation as a notorious stretch along U.S. Route 99. Many motorists considered it a speed trap because of the strict enforcement by police of the abruptly reduced speed limit through town.[12]

While Tenino retains its historic downtown, now a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the town serves largely as a "bedroom community", many of its citizens commuting by car to larger cities such as Olympia and Tacoma for work.

Since the mid-1970s, the US Army has used a geographical map of Tenino as a training aid in map reading, because of the variety of symbols represented on the map.

The origin of the name Tenino, used by the Northern Pacific Railroad for their station when they arrived in 1872, has been debated for over a century.

Recent research published in The Naming of Tenino by the Tenino City Historian, Rich Edwards, chronicles the visit of the Pacific Coast Committee in early October 1872. This committee, including railroad President Cass, traveled up the Columbia River on steamboats of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Earlier that year, the Northern Pacific Railroad had purchased controlling interest in the OSN as part of their goal to connect their Kalama to Puget Sound line, then under construction, to their transcontinental railroad being built westward from Minnesota.[13]

On October 12, 1872, at a meeting in Portland, Oregon where John Ainsworth and other officers of the OSN made a presentation about their common interests, President Cass proposed a resolution that named the momentarily Northern terminus near Hodgden's station "Tenino".

As reported the following month in an Olympia, Washington, newspaper, this connection allowed travel from the "old Tenino" (the OSN steamboat operating on the upper reaches of the Columbia and Snake Rivers as far as Lewiston, Idaho), to "the new town" of Tenino which was the railroad's then current northwest terminus.[14]

In early 1873 the Northern Pacific Railroad and local homesteader Stephen Hodgden filed plats in Thurston county establishing the town of Tenino. By late 1873, the financial backing of the railroad was in financial crisis and their stock in the OSN was sold for debt, ending the railroad's direct connection to the steamboat Tenino.

The steamboat Tenino was itself named after the Tenino native band who once lived near The Dalles in Oregon and whose descendants are now part of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

With the influx of people in Tenino in the 1890s, due to the opening of thriving sandstone quarries, the question of the origin of the name arose. With the steamboat on the distant river gone and long forgotten, locals created mythical stories about its origins. By the early twentieth century, the press were referring to the origin of the name as a mystery.

The two main theories given for a century were that Tenino was a Chinook Jargon word for a fork or branch in the trail, or a form of T9o or 10-9-0 used by the railroad for numbering on a locomotive, survey stake, or train car. Both these theories have been disproven for decades, but keep resurfacing because definitive proof of the actual origin was lacking. The 2019 publication of The Naming of Tenino has now provided an answer.[13]

The name also appears informally as "T-9-O," a shortened variation in use as early as 1873.[15]

Tenino is located at 46°51′24″N 122°51′01″W (46.856745, -122.850290).[16]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 1.44 square miles (3.73 km²), all of it land.[17]

There are 26 historic sites in or near Tenino. Following are some of those properties.[20][21]

Name	Image	Address	Built in	NRHP?	Notes
Tenino Downtown Historic District		Two blocks long, one-half block-deep on either side of Sussex Street; approximately three acres in size.		June 25, 2004	Sussex Street is the main thoroughfare of the community and is also part of State Route 507.
Tenino Depot		Tenino City Park		December 27, 1974	The Tenino Depot, now a museum, was moved from its original site to the Tenino City Park near the Tenino Stone Company Quarry. At the time the Depot was moved, the area of relocation was examined to ensure that no archaeological remains significant to the operation of the quarry would be destroyed or altered.
Hercules Sandstone Company Office					Originally located near the Hercules Sandstone Company Quarry west of Tenino, In 1922, each stone of the building was numbered, moved separately, and reassembled at it current site at the corner of Sussex and Hodgen. It is currently Tenino's City Hall.
Tenino Stone Company Quarry		2712 Huston Street	1891	July 28, 1983	Located in the Tenino City Park, the quarry is now the Memorial Swimming Pool.
Ticknor School		3212 SE Skookumchuck Road now at 399 Park Avenue West	1934	May 10, 1990	Now located in the Tenino City Park, the school was moved from it original location in unincorporated Thurston County to the Tenino City Park next to the Tenino Depot in 2002.
Ticknor Barn		6710 Skookumchuck Road	1860
Colvin Farmstead (Colvin House)		16828 Old Highway 99	1877	June 23, 1988
Hercules#2/Eureka Quarry		4220 SE Old Military Road	1891
Taylor Farm		2400 SE 180th Avenue	1902
Morgan Davies Barn		S Skookumchuck Road of the junction with Johnson Creek	1910
Engstrom House/Weber House		3741 SW 143rd Ave	1910
Violet Prairie Grange		17104 SE Violet Prairie Road	1935
Ada's Resort		4005 SE 120th Avenue	1939
Linklater Ranch		13911 Military Road Southeast
Bronson Resort		4122 SE 119th Avenue	1915		Located on Offut Lake
Offut Lake Resort		4005 SE 120th Avenue	1939

• Wolf Haven International
• Yelm–Tenino Trail
• Monarch Contemporary Art Center and Sculpture Park

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• City of Tenino