Fort Lewis, Tacoma, WA – 16 AUG 2011

Named after Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark expedition, it was established in 1917. They have preserved the original entrance arch and moved it next to the main gate.

It started as Camp Lewis, a gift from Pierce county of 70,000 acres to the federal government for use as a permanent military installation (just in time for WWI).

In 1927 there was an additional gift to establish an airfield just north of Fort Lewis. It started as Tacoma Field but was renamed McChord Field in 1940.

And a wonderful tree it is:

These markers were all around the gate:

When the Air Force was created in 1947, McChord Field separated from Fort Lewis as McChord Air Force Base. In 2010 they were merged into a Join Base Garrison, currently one of 12 in the US, making it our largest military installation. The Fort Lewis Museum is closed for renovation and is due to open in 2013. I did make it over to the McChord museum covered in a later post.

It wasn’t until the second day that I noticed this mountain…Mount Rainier, considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world…I thought how could I have missed that yesterday? The fourth day I got the answer…because on that day the view looked like this:

Found this art work in an old section of town: