Editing Orting, Washington (section)

==History==

The first recorded claims for land in Orting were made in 1854 by William Henry Whitesell, Thomas Headley, Daniel Lane, and Daniel Varner. Streets in the modern city are named after the four men, and a monument in Orting City Park commemorates them.{{cn|date=October 2024}} The area was named Gunson's Prairie by early settlers and later known as Carbon.<ref name="TPL"/> The townsite was renamed Orting by a [[Northern Pacific Railway]] superintendent in 1877 during construction of the company's railroad to [[Wilkeson, Washington|Wilkeson]].<ref>{{cite news |date=March 12, 1912 |title=Orting, Good to Look at, Organizing for Progress |page=12 |work=[[Tacoma Daily Ledger]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tacoma-daily-ledger-orting-good-to/157978235/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |accessdate=October 27, 2024}}</ref> The name is claimed to be an indigenous word meaning "prairie".<ref name="TPL">{{cite web |title=Orting |url=https://cdm17061.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p17061coll4/id/7291/rec/1 |work=Washington Place Names |publisher=Tacoma Public Library Online Digital Collections |accessdate=October 27, 2024}}</ref> Orting was officially incorporated as a city on April 22, 1889.<ref name="TNT-1959">{{cite news |date=February 15, 1959 |title=Borders Of Orting Now Are Extended |page=C16 |work=[[The News Tribune]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-tribune-borders-of-orting-now-a/157978184/ |via=Newspapers.com |accessdate=October 27, 2024}}</ref>

Early growth surrounded the area's production and logging industries. Later, Christmas tree and [[flower bulb]] farms also became part of the local economy. Orting was also a supply town for the coal mining towns [[Wilkeson, Washington|Wilkeson]] and [[Carbonado]] <!-- [[Carbonado, Washington|Carbonado]] ? -->. The first railroad in the city was built in 1877 by the Northern Pacific Railway, called "Whitesell's Crossing" because it ran right through the Whitesell property. Because railroads eased transportation, Orting's population quickly increased. Remaining parts from the railroad are part of the [[Meeker Southern Railroad]], which runs between [[Puyallup, Washington|Puyallup]] and McMillin.

Orting's boundaries remained unchanged until its first [[annexation]] was completed in February 1959.<ref name="TNT-1959"/> The city became a suburban [[bedroom community]] for commuters from Tacoma and Seattle in the 2000s; several residential subdivisions were constructed in the areas surrounding Orting's historic downtown. In March 2008, the city's weekly newspaper, ''The Gazette'', ceased publication.<ref>{{cite news |last=Green |first=Sara Jean |date=March 25, 2008 |title=Orting faces another loss: its newspaper |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/orting-faces-another-loss-its-newspaper/ |work=[[The Seattle Times]] |accessdate=October 27, 2024}}</ref>