Editing Tenino, Washington (section)

==Etymology==
The origin of the name Tenino, used by the [[Northern Pacific Railway|Northern Pacific Railroad]] for their station when it was completed on October 8, 1872,<ref name="FSATT"/> has been debated for over a century. The two main theories given for a century were that Tenino was a [[Chinook Jargon]] word for a fork or branch in the trail, or a form of T9o or 10-9-0 used by the railroad for a locomotive number, survey stake, or train car. Both these theories have been disproven for decades,{{by who?|date=October 2024}} but keep resurfacing because definitive proof of the actual origin was lacking.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

According to city historian Richard A. Edwards, the name "Tenino" was used by a steamboat of the [[Oregon Steam Navigation Company]] (OSN) on the [[Columbia River|Columbia]] and [[Snake River|Snake]] rivers. The company had transported a Northern Pacific committee in early October 1872 prior to the town's founding; Northern Pacific had also acquired a controlling interest in the OSN earlier that year.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://www.cityoftenino.us/media/166|title=The Naming of Tenino|last=Edwards|first=Richard|publisher=Arkeep Press|year=2019|location=Tenino, WA}}</ref>

On October 12, 1872, at a meeting in [[Portland, Oregon]], shortly after their tour up the Columbia River, [[John C. Ainsworth]] and other officers of the OSN made a presentation about their common interests, President Cass proposed a resolution that also named the momentarily Northern terminus near Hodgden's station "Tenino". As reported the following month in ''[[The Washington Standard]]'', this connection allowed travel from the "old [[Tenino (sternwheeler)|Tenino]]" (the OSN steamboat which held the record for traveling the farthest east up the Snake River), to "the new town" of Tenino which was the railroad's then current northwest terminus.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Washington Standard|date=November 16, 1872}}</ref>{{page missing|date=October 2024}}

In early 1873, the Northern Pacific Railroad and local homesteader Stephen Hodgden filed plats in Thurston county establishing the town of Tenino. By late 1873, the financial backing of the railroad was in financial crisis and their stock in the OSN was sold for debt, ending the railroad's direct connection to the steamboat Tenino. The steamboat [[Tenino (sternwheeler)|Tenino]] was itself named after the Tenino native band who once lived near The Dalles in Oregon and whose descendants are now part of the [[Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs]].

The name also appears informally as "T-9-O," a shortened variation in use as early as 1873.<ref>"The Territories" ''Sacramento Daily Union'', May 28, 1873.</ref>