Situated on the deep head waters of the Cowlitz River, the town that became Kalama Washington had long been settled by the Chinook. The first recorded white settlers appear there in the 1850s courtesy of a land claim lottery as the Northern Pacific Railroad planned to become the first Transcontinental Railroad.

The Civil War changed all of that and by the time the first track was laid in 1871 (also the year of incorporation) the company town had boomed to 3000 residents including a section called China Gardens built to house the immigrant labor brought in from San Francisco. 

Passersby often referred to the city as Calamity Washington, for the number of tragedies, floods, fires it suffered as much as it’s reputation as one of the last of the lawless pioneer towns. Until the early 1900s, Kalama served too many railroads to count as what we now know as the Pacific Northwest took shape making Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Portland & Vancouver accessible even through the Rocky Mountains for the first time. 

(2) 7 x 9” & (1) 8 x 10” photographs record the Kalama Nine as it evolved through these years, evident not only in their more professional uniforms but in the literal editing of the only Native American member from the images. 

The first image (dated 1897) is entirely identified w/ at least one city council member & presumably the young son of the mayor as bat boy. The Native American man here too appears to be identified as John Sorters. 

In the second image, he has been very conspicuously hidden in the back w/ only his head showing between two shoulders. He is entirely absent from the third image. 

Important to the history of Pacific Coast baseball as well as culturally significant, it is miraculous that these have survived together for over a century. Corner wear to mounts w/ edge chips to the dated image.