Tahoma Junior High Students Recovering and Disseminating Local History

By: Danielle Pilutik
     As you take that leisurely drive to Dairy Queen to pick up your favorite tasty treat you enter the shopping center of Four Corners. Or at least that’s what it is known as today. But did you know that in the early days, after Maple Valley was first founded, Four Corners was called Summit? Or did you know that the designation Tahoma used to be spelled out TaHoMa? Or that Maple Valley was at one time Vinemaplevalley (all one word)? That’s a long name and in 1885 the post office changed it to what we now know it as, Maple Valley. Many of the original place names of our community have been similarly lost or revised over the long passage of time. That’s why our ninth-grade Honors Summit Pacific Northwest History class has combined with our ninth-grade Materials Technology class to retrieve and publish histories of previously known but now mostly forgotten historic areas such as Hobart, Henry’s Switch, Cedar Mountain, Leary, Georgetown, Lawson, Morganville, Danville, Original Maple Valley Townsite and many more.

     The goal of the classes is to inform the public about these places and the histories behind them and to alert drivers of historic locations through the erection of road signs. Students are contacting and interviewing community elders such as Gary Habenicht, Bill Kombol, Gene Marangon, Don Mason, Dick Peacock, and Keith Watson to preserve their stories and knowledge, some of which cannot be found in books or on the Internet. We have also been working directly with officials of the King County Department of Transportation and the county Sign Shop in the construction of the signs. In fact, the road signs have already reached the finished design stage and are scheduled to go up by the end of the current academic year. Students are also collaborating with graphic design artist Mary Jane Glaser of the Tahoma School District and Christina Dubois of the Washington State Historical Society in the preparation of a commemorative booklet that will contain pictures and stories uncovered during the research. The published booklet will be made publicly available and students will be presenting their findings to the Tahoma School Board, Maple Valley City Council, and King County Council. Oral interviews will be preserved for public access on a student-constructed website as well as on a student created and administered YouTube channel. Those in the community who would like to contribute their knowledge or lend historic photographs to the project are invited to contact teachers Cary Collins at ccollins@tahomasd.us or 425-413-9408 and Scott Newton at snewton@tahomasd.us.