Editing Gig Harbor, Washington (section)

==History==
[[File:Boats in Gig Harbor.jpg|thumb|Boats in Gig Harbor]]

The S'Homamish or Homamish ({{Langx|lut|sxʷəbabš}}), an ancestral band of the modern-day [[Puyallup people|Puyallup]] people, have inhabited Gig Harbor, known in Lushootseed as {{Langx|lut|txʷaalqəɬ|label=none}}, meaning "place where game exists"<ref>{{cite news |last=Hutchinson |first=Chase |date=March 1, 2021 |title=Estuary has new name, honoring tribe; you'll need to watch a video to pronounce it. |work=[[The News Tribune]] |url=https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/gateway/g-news/article249532025.html |accessdate=April 25, 2023}}</ref> for millennia. There was a Puyallup settlement at the mouth of the harbor that included six houses, and a large longhouse. This village existed until the late 19th century, with the longhouse finally being torn down by settlers in 1915.<ref name="HistoryLink">{{cite web |last=Kershner |first=Jim |date=December 29, 2012 |title=Gig Harbor — Thumbnail History |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/10271 |accessdate=April 23, 2023 |work=[[HistoryLink]]}}</ref><ref name="Bridge-History">{{cite web |title=Crossing the Narrows: Idea & dream, prehistory to 1937 |url=https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/TNBHistory/crossing.htm |publisher=[[Washington State Department of Transportation]] |accessdate=April 23, 2023}}</ref>  The band was later relocated to the [[Puyallup Indian Reservation]].

During a heavy storm in 1840, Captain [[Charles Wilkes]] brought the [[captain's gig]] (small boat) into the [[harbor]] for protection. Later, with the publication of Wilkes' 1841 map of the [[Oregon Territory]], the sheltered bay was named in English as Gig Harbor by George Sinclair for his boat.

In 1867, fisherman Samuel Jerisich came to the Gig Harbor area, along with many other immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Croatia. The town was [[plat]]ted in 1888 by Alfred M. Burnham, the owner of a local [[general store]] and native of [[Albert Lea, Minnesota]], where he advertised opportunities in Gig Harbor.<ref name="HistoryLink"/><ref name=majors>{{Cite book| last = Majors | first = Harry M. | title = Exploring Washington | publisher = Van Winkle Publishing Co | year = 1975 | page = 81 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CoWrPQAACAAJ| isbn = 978-0-918664-00-6}}</ref>

Commercial fishing, boat building, and logging dominated the economy of the Gig Harbor area, which developed two business districts in the 1920s on opposite sides of the harbor.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> Transportation between Gig Harbor and Tacoma was primarily handled by the "[[Puget Sound mosquito fleet|Mosquito fleet]]", a network of mostly-passenger steamships that traversed various points on Puget Sound. Automobiles were required to drive {{convert|107|mi|km}} through Olympia to reach Tacoma; the [[Washington Navigation Company]] later launched a Point Defiance–Gig Harbor ferry service in 1927 that could carry 80 vehicles.<ref name="Bridge-History"/><ref name="HL-Ferry">{{cite web |last=Chase |first=Katie |date=October 24, 2016 |title=Skansie Shipbuilding Company of Gig Harbor launches the new ferry Defiance on January 16, 1927. |url=https://www.historylink.org/file/20171 |work=HistoryLink |accessdate=April 23, 2023}}</ref> The [[Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1940)|first Tacoma Narrows Bridge]] was completed in July 1940 to replace the ferry crossing, but collapsed a few months later.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> The ferry service was restored until the modern-day [[Tacoma Narrows Bridge (1950)|westbound bridge]] was completed in 1950.<ref name="HL-Ferry"/> A [[Tacoma Narrows Bridge (2007)|third bridge]] opened in 2007 to carry eastbound traffic on the expanded [[Washington State Route 16|State Route 16]] freeway.<ref name="HistoryLink"/>

Gig Harbor was officially incorporated as a town on July 12, 1946, after a previous attempt in September 1945 was rejected by 13 votes. The town had 803 residents in 1950, but soon grew due to the ease of access afforded by the replacement bridge that turned Gig Harbor into a [[bedroom community]] for Tacoma workers.<ref name="HistoryLink"/><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/TNBhistory/Connections/connections2.htm|title=Tacoma Narrows Bridge|access-date=October 15, 2017|archive-date=April 7, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407211244/http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/TNBhistory/Connections/connections2.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Gig Harbor was re-incorporated as a city in 1981.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> By the 1980s and 1990s, substantial residential and retail development had pushed the city's boundaries west to State Route 16, which had been upgraded to a partial freeway. The downtown area shifted towards tourism to compensate for lost business and attract new development.{{citation needed|date=April 2023}} The city's historic boat building industry declined, but its facilities remain preserved as historic landmarks.<ref name="HistoryLink"/> A fleet of commercial fishing boats is based in Gig Harbor and make annual trips to Alaska for the summer season to harvest salmon.<ref>{{cite news |last=Webster |first=Kerry |date=September 23, 2021 |title=Record Alaska salmon catches buoy Gig Harbor fishing fleet with 'best season' in years |url=https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/community/gateway/g-news/article254270273.html |work=[[The News Tribune]] |accessdate=April 23, 2023}}</ref>

===Skansie shipyard===
In 1905, the Skansie brothers were the first in the area to build a gasoline-powered fishing boat. They did so at first by refitting boats with a gasoline-powered engine. Usually the motors were quite small, between 6 and 8 horsepower; the Skansie brothers originally used a 7-horsepower engine.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/File/20170|title=Skansie Shipbuilding Company (Gig Harbor)}}</ref> Although these were powerboats, neither masts nor a turntable to hoist in the nets were used. This work was all done by hand. However, with the introduction of a motor, the boats were not able to go as far as Alaska. Skansie shipyards built fishing vessels from the late 1910s to the early 1950s.