Park Interactives
Take our quiz and see how much of a Tacoma history buff you are.
• Point Defiance Quiz
Park Discussion
Point Defiance Park is an essential part of living in Tacoma and the South Sound.
• Park memories
Since even before it became a city park in March 1905, Point Defiance has played a special role in the lives of Tacomans. Attractions, people and festivals have ebbed and flowed over the landscape like Puget Sound’s tides. The constant: A place where people and nature intermingle for fun and for reflection.
Washington State Historical Society
Groups such as the Tacoma Ex-Service Women's Club, shown June 1, 1922, navigated a wooded or sandy path to Point Defiance
Park's Picnic Beach. The promenade is there now.
By JASON HAGEY • The News Tribune merican Indians camped, fished and hunted on its shores and called its imposing banks “near face” or “near cliff.”
U.S. military explorers came across the same landform in 1841 and saw an ideal fortress, a point that would “bid defiance to any attack.” The federal government set it aside as a military reservation.
Decades later, the leaders and residents of a young City of Destiny looked at the peninsula, with its sandy beaches and enchanting forest, and saw something else.
Explore Each Era
Point Defiance was shaped over the decades by changing times and tastes. Go explore the 5 different eras of the park through its 100 years of existence as a Tacoma treasure.
merican Indians camped, fished and hunted on its shores and called its imposing banks “near face” or “near cliff.”
