Auburn
Auburn has gone from home of the "Slaughter House" to become the "loveliest village of the plain." Auburn is actually located in something rather unlike a plain, with hills all around it and a river plowing through it. The area is a perfect fertile valley for farmers.
The valley was originally the home of the Skopamich, Smalhkamish and Stkamish Indian tribes. Settlers first came to the valley in the 1850s -- and the natives naturally fought the would-be pioneers to protect their natural homes. On Dec. 4, 1855 -- two months after an Indian ambush killed nine people, including women and children -- Lt. William Slaughter camped in what is now Auburn. He and two soldiers were killed by one of the tribes.
Eventually, a new treaty was signed and the White River tribes combined to form the Muckleshoot tribe, which has the only Indian reservation now within King County.
In 1891, the area was incorporated as Slaughter in honor of the fallen officer. The town hotel was actually called the Slaughter House. Within two years, the town was renamed Auburn, which was taken from the first line of an Oliver Goldsmith poem, The Deserted Village: "Sweet Auburn! Loveliest village of the plain."
The Northern Pacific Railroad was established through the city in 1883, but the Seattle-Tacoma Interurban line in 1902 allowed farmers to sell their goods to the cities. The railroad also brought businesses such as Borden Condensery, which made Borden's Condensed Milk, and the Northern Clay Company. In the post-World War II years, even more businesses were coming to Auburn including The Boeing Co., which built a facility to mill sheet-metal skin for jet airliners. By the '90s, most of the farmland was being paved over as the city looked to commercial and high-tech enterprises to generate tax dollars. Auburn also hosts the Northwest's only High Definition mobile television studio with the company Jonas Jensen.
Although the city has moved past its Slaughter origins, the city still honors the man through a monument erected in 1918 in a local park.
