Kalama is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is share of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,344, according to the 2010 census.

Kalama was first established by Native Americans, particularly members of the Cowlitz Indian Tribes. The first white settler recorded was in 1853. That first settler was Ezra Meeker and his family. Only one year later, Meeker moved to north Puyallup, Washington, but he sold his Donation Land Claim to a Mr. Davenport, who, with a few others, permanently approved in the Kalama area. In to the lead 1870, Northern Pacific Railway scouts came to Cowlitz County to find an ideal terminus along the Columbia River. After a futile negotiation for a Donation Land Claim in Martin’s Bluff, four miles south of Kalama, Northern Pacific officials purchased 700 acres in Kalama for the terminus of the extra railroad as capably as a other headquarters. The population swelled later than employees of the Northern Pacific Railway.

Kalama was no question a Northern Pacific railroad creation. It was unofficially born in May 1870 later than the Northern Pacific railroad turned the first shovel of dirt. Northern Pacific built a dock, a sawmill, a car shop, a roundhouse, a turntable, hotels, a hospital, stores, homes. In just a few months in 1870, the in action population skyrocketed to approximately 3,500 and the town had supplementary tents, saloons, a brewery, and a gambling hall. Soon the town had a motto: “Rail Meets Sail”. Recruiters went to San Francisco and recruited Chinese labor, who moved to their own Chinatown in a part of Kalama now called China Gardens. The population of Kalama peaked at 5,000 people, but in to the lead 1874, the railroad moved its headquarters to Tacoma, and by 1877, only 700 people remained in Kalama.

Kalama was unofficially incorporated upon November 29, 1871. It served as the county chair of Cowlitz County from 1872 to 1922. Kalama was the northern terminus of a railroad ferry operated by the Northern Pacific Railway from Goble, Oregon. This was a essential link in rail service between 1883 taking into consideration the assist began until 1909 following the major rail bridges in Portland were completed. Kalama originated as soon as a stake driven by Gen. John W. Sprague of the Northern Pacific Railway who in March 1870 selected a spot near the mouth of the Kalama river to mark the beginning narrowing of Northern Pacific’s Pacific Division. From that stake, the Northern Pacific began building north to Puget Sound, ultimately reaching Commencement Bay at what was to become Tacoma previously going bankrupt. Construction began in April 1871 taking into account a crew of 800 men, with the official ‘first spike’ being driven in May 1871 Scheduled advance from Tacoma to Kalama began upon January 5, 1874. The Portland-Hunters line was completed more or less the similar time that the ceremonial spike was driven west of Helena, Montana to mark the carrying out of the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railroad in the fall of 1883. The later than year in October 1884, a 3 track, 360-foot (110 m) long railroad ferry marked the introduction of 25 years of ferry utility across the Columbia River.
Hunters was located close the south decline of Sandy Island roughly a mile south of Goble. However the crossing epoch were excessive behind the Tacoma had to work adjacent to the tide, and the ferry slip was soon moved to Goble at the north subside of Sandy Island and directly across from Kalama. The ferry could handle 12 passenger cars or 27 freight cars.

St. Joseph’s Catholic Parish was built in 1874, around the thesame time the railroad amongst Kalama and Tacoma first became operational. This was the first and abandoned Catholic Parish in Kalama.