RAINIER

19th century and establishment

By the 1840s, the prairie was used for sheep farming station under the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. Rainier began in the 1870s as a "Prairie Line" stop on the Northern Pacific Railroad track between Kalama, Washington, Tenino and Tacoma. In 1884, the town was named for its view of Mount Rainier.

German immigrants Albert and Maria Gehrke were the first non-indigenous settlers to homestead in Rainier, arriving in 1890. Later that year a store and post office were established by Henry Harmer, who homesteaded with his wife Jessie and children on the Deschutes River near Rainier. Rainier was officially platted by George H. Ellsbury in 1891.

Ellsbury modeled the new town after a settlement he began in the Dakota Territory. The "Rainier Colony" initially began under Ellsbury's idea as a cooperative settlement though it remains uncertain how much of the development was completed or followed. By 1891, Rainier grew to include additional families, buildings, and a hotel. In 1896, the community's first full-time school as well as a Lutheran church were built by Albert Gehrke and his two brothers, Theodore and Paul; the buildings are state historic landmarks.

20th century

The original school was converted into the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church after a new schoolhouse was built in the early 1900s; the church had been founded by German settlers the prior decade. The church was used once again for educational purposes after a fire at the schoolhouse in 1915.

In 1906, the Bob White Lumber Company opened, bringing prosperity to the area through logging and sawmilling. Other lumber companies, such as Deschutes, Gruber and Docherty, and Fir Tree, were soon attracted to the area as well, building mills or railroad spurs in the late 1900s into the mid-1910s. A depot was built in 1910 after the arrival of a line by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, several of these mill operations and many of the local buildings were destroyed by a series of fires, leading many residents to seek work at Weyerhaeuser Lumber at nearby Vail, a present-day ghost town.

A state forest camp, known as Camp Rainier, was built in the town during the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1936, Rainier's third school was built out of brick. The construction of this new school allowed for the 1926 second story to be removed, leaving it as a single story building again.

Rainier's 1940 population was 500. In 1941, the WPA Guide to Washington described Rainier as "the social center for farmers and loggers of the vicinity, although its closed mills and vacant houses mark it as a ghost lumber town." The population was recorded to be approximately 315 during the 1947 vote for incorporation.

Rainier was officially incorporated on October 20, 1947; the incorporation, known as a "city of the fourth class", passed by a town vote of 74 to 31. A mayor-council form of government was approved; Glenn Lund served as the city's first mayor In 1948, Rainier opened its town hall at 102 Dakota Street South; it housed the Rainier town council, police department, and fire department.

On May 4, 1974, Rainier High School was destroyed by a fire caused by an electrical fault in an attic storage space; the state's fire marshal office had previously noted several fire hazards during inspections of the building. Classes were cancelled for the remainder of the school year; a set of 13 portable classrooms were constructed adjacent to the destroyed building by local residents and soldiers from nearby Fort Lewis. The portable buildings had been sold at cost by Seattle Public Schools after they were withdrawn from a surplus auction. A new building for Rainier High School—along with a new elementary school—was opened on September 1, 1976. In late 1979, the Town of Rainier considered leasing a portable building from Rainier School District as the existing town hall had grown too small to hold meetings in. While the school board was willing to lease the building, they were only willing to do so for a 1-year term, citing that increasing enrollment numbers could necessitate the use of the building.

In 1990, Rainier's current Town Hall was built at 102 Rochester Street West. It was assembled from several prefabricated pieces, forming the manufactured building that serves as the Town Hall.

21st century

Rainier officially adopted the title of "City of Rainier" in 2001. In the 21st century, Rainier is considered to be a rural, suburban community with a majority of the population commuting to Olympia or Tacoma.