Big Fish Traditional Cache

I had origonally spied this site from google maps when I was planing a hike through Swan Creek park. My curiosity was peeked and I had to learn more. 

This site was origonally a housing development for WWII soldiers and their families but has since been abandond. The site is slowly being taken back by the surrounding woodland however what still resides are side walks, roads and even utility structures. Makes for a very errie walk through. Here is a blurp from the Tacoma Metro parks site: 

In 1937, Congress passed the United States Housing Act which provided for the creation of local public housing authorities to provide "decent, safe, and sanitary dwellings for families" and to replace slums using Federal funds. The construction of the new housing provided employment and spurred the moribund construction industry. 

On August 16, 1940, the Tacoma City Council created the Tacoma Housing Authority (THA) to implement the Housing Act, but a year later, the five-member board determined that there was no need in Tacoma for low-rent housing. The Housing Authority commissioners did recommend construction of housing for military personnel and war workers. By the summer of 1941, the U.S. was building up its defenses in anticipation of World War II. Thousands were already moving into Tacoma to work at McChord Field, the Mount Rainier Ordnance Depot, Fort Lewis, and in Commencement Bay shipyards. Rents skyrocketed as workers and military families arrived in the area.

In May 1942, the Tacoma Housing Authority accepted the Public Housing Administration commission to build 2,000 units for war workers. The planners looked for a location south of Commencement Bay in order to shift commute traffic away from the 11th Street Bridge and downtown. The first site chosen was on a hill above the Hylebos Waterway, but a property on Portland Avenue, already served by utilities, promised to be $120,000 cheaper to construct. Pierce County and approximately 30 private land owners sold to the government 465 acres east of Portland Avenue from East 38th Street to East 56th Street. This new housing development was to be named Salishan, to honor the area's Native American heritage.

Even before construction began, the THA was notified that funding for the project was not going to be adequate to build 2,000 permanent units. The THA negotiated with the Public Housing Administration resulting in the construction of 1,600 permanent housing units and 400 temporary housing units on the site. (Reports differ on the number of housing units actually constructed. Some reports list 1,600 permanent homes and others list 1,200 permanent homes. All agree that 400 temporary homes were constructed.) The temporary homes were to be torn down at the war's end. Salishan was designed to be a functional neighborhood, not just a temporary living space for war workers.

Unfortunately, due to restrictions on building materials during the war, many of the homes were built of sub-standard materials. In addition, the telephone company was prohibited by the War Production Board from using "any cable or critical materials in connecting new telephone service." No phones were installed in the units themselves. Instead, several outdoor telephone booths were installed throughout the neighborhood. Delays to critical elements of the project, such as sewer installation, threatened the timely completion of the project.

The first ten families moved into the new Salishan neighborhood on May 1, 1943 with the official dedication of the site occurring on February 20, 1944.

Following the end of WWII, veterans and military families continued to reside in Salishan housing.  By 1950 6,700 people lived in Salishan.

On May 24, 1951 the Tacoma City Council voted to convert 900 of the 1,600 housing units to low-income housing and demolish the rest of the houses. (The area of the demolished housing still contains the roads where the homes once stood and is part of Swan Creek Park.)