Army, sent Captain Richard Park to investigate possible sites for a military post in the Pacific Northwest. Franklin Bell, Commander of the Western Department of the U.S. Other citizens and organizations recognized the value of an Army post near Tacoma. The Chamber of Commerce was interested in establishing a post at American Lake. Baker, publisher of The Tacoma News and Tribune, was one of the leaders in this movement. No one person can be given credit for this idea. The area was called JacksonвЂ™s Prairie, and many Tacoma and Pierce County citizens revived the idea of building an Army post near American Lake. In this area there is every physical condition desirable for Army training and maneuvers.вЂќ State troops used the Lewis area in 1915 for exercises involving the deployment of a regiment. General Murray said, вЂњThere is no finer Arm y post site anywhere in the U.S. Major General Arthur Murray and a party of Army officers visited the prairies and timberland south of Tacoma in 1912 and recommended the area favorably as a potential military reservation.

At the time, however, the Army was more interested in a site in the Spokane Valley. War Department in establishing a federal military post in the American Lake-Nisqually Plain area. As early as 1902, Tacoma businessmen had tried to interest the U.S.

Army biography