Fort Steilacoom was founded by the U.S. Army in 1849 near Lake Steilacoom. It was among the first military fortifications built by the U.S. north of the Columbia River in what was to become Washington state. The fort was constructed due to civilian agitation about a massacre in 1847 at the Whitman Mission and was decommissioned as a military post in 1868. (text by Roger Vartabedian) Only a few grave markers remain in this small cemetery surrounded by a fence.