Pierce County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 921,130, up from 795,225 in 2010, making it the second-most populous county in Washington, behind King County, and the 59th-most populous in the United States. The county seat and largest city is Tacoma. Formed out of Thurston County on December 22, 1852, by the legislature of Oregon Territory, it was named for U.S. President Franklin Pierce. Pierce County is in the Seattle metropolitan area.
Edgewood is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 12,327 at the 2020 census. Neighboring towns include Fife to the west, Milton to the northwest, Federal Way to the north, Sumner to the east, and Puyallup to the south.
Fife is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States and a suburb of Tacoma. The population was 10,999 at the 2020 census. Fife is contained within the Puyallup Indian Reservation and bisected by Interstate 5. It is east of Tacoma and the Port of Tacoma.
Frederickson is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 24,906 at the 2020 census.
Midland is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington. The population was 9,962 at the time of the 2020 census.
Orting is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 9,041 at the 2020 census. It is located between the Puyallup and Carbon rivers in central Pierce County, approximately 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Mount Rainier.
Puyallup is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. It is on the Puyallup River about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Tacoma and 35 miles (56 km) south of Seattle. The city had a population of 42,973 at the 2020 census.
South Hill is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington, immediately south of Puyallup. The population was 64,708 at time of the 2020 census, up from 52,431 in 2010. The area primarily consists of suburban housing and shopping with several retail shopping centers, residential neighborhoods, and apartment/condo complexes throughout. Because South Hill is unincorporated, its addresses are part of the Puyallup "postal city" or ZCTA.
Spanaway is a census-designated place (CDP) in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 35,476 at the 2020 census, up from 27,227 in 2010. Spanaway is an unincorporated area near Tacoma, and is often identified together with the more urban, less wealthy Parkland.
Sumner is a city in northern Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 10,621 at the 2020 census. Nearby cities include Puyallup to the west, Auburn to the north, and Bonney Lake to the east.
The Puyallup River is a river in the U.S. state of Washington. About 45 miles (72 km) long, it is formed by glaciers on the west side of Mount Rainier. It flows generally northwest, emptying into Commencement Bay, part of Puget Sound. The river and its tributaries drain an area of about 948 square miles (2,460 km2) in Pierce County and southern King County.
State Route 410 is a 107.44-mile (172.91 km) long state highway that traverses Pierce, King, and Yakima counties in the US state of Washington. It begins at an interchange with SR 167 in Sumner and travels southeast across the Cascade Range to a junction with U.S. Route 12 (US 12) in Naches. While the western part of SR 410 is a freeway that serves built-up, urban areas, the remainder of the route is a surface road that traverses mostly rural areas as it passes through the mountains.
Naches Pass is a mountain pass in the Cascade Range in the state of Washington. It is located about 50 miles (80 km) east of Tacoma and about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Yakima, near the headwaters of tributary streams of the Naches River on the east and the Greenwater River on the west. The boundaries of Pierce, King, Kittitas, and Yakima counties come together at the pass. The pass lies on the boundary between the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Wenatchee National Forests, about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Mount Rainier National Park. There are no roadways or railways crossing the pass.
Tehaleh, formerly known as Cascadia, is a master-planned unincorporated community to the south of Bonney Lake in Pierce County, Washington, United States. Construction began in 2005 with an estimated timeline for completion of 20 years. The town was designed by Patrick Kuo, who had purchased the land in 1991. Included in the original plan for Cascadia were 6,500 homes, a commercial district, an industrial park, schools, and recreational parkland for residents to enjoy. Construction halted in 2008, prior to the construction of any homes or commercial properties. After foreclosure proceedings in 2010, Homestreet Bank repossessed much of Kuo's land, intending to find another developer.
The Naches River is a tributary of the Yakima River in central Washington in the United States. Beginning as the Little Naches River, it is about 75 miles (121 km) long. After the confluence of the Little Naches and Bumping River the name becomes simply the Naches River. The Naches and its tributaries drain a portion of the eastern side of the Cascade Range, east of Mount Rainier and northeast of Mount Adams. In terms of discharge, the Naches River is the largest tributary of the Yakima River.
State Route 162 (SR 162) is a 17.37-mile-long (27.95 km) state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, serving rural Pierce County. The highway travels from an interchange with SR 410 in Sumner and travels south along the Puyallup River to Orting and northeast to South Prairie, ending at an intersection with SR 165 near Buckley. SR 162 was established in 1964 as the successor to Secondary State Highway 5E (SSH 5E), codified in 1937. The highway crossed the Puyallup River northwest of Orting on the McMillin Bridge, which opened in 1934 and was replaced with a newer bridge that opened in 2015.
Mount Rainier, also known as Tahoma, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest in the United States. The mountain is located in Mount Rainier National Park about 59 miles (95 km) south-southeast of Seattle. With an officially recognized summit elevation of 14,410 ft (4,392 m) at the Columbia Crest, it is the highest mountain in the U.S. state of Washington, the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States, and the tallest in the Cascade Volcanic Arc.
The Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System consists of two separate components, operating in tandem: Acoustic Flow Monitors (AFM) and the All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) sirens. The AFM system was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1998 and is now maintained by Pierce County Emergency Management. The purpose of the warning system is to assist in the evacuation of residents in the river valleys around Mount Rainier, a volcano in Washington, in the event of a lahar. Pierce County works in partnership with the USGS, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), Washington Military Department's Emergency Management Division, and South Sound 9-1-1 to monitor and operate the system.
The Bridge for Kids is a proposed bridge across the Carbon River in Orting, Washington, about a mile upstream of where it joins the Puyallup River. It would provide an emergency evacuation route for school children to escape a future lahar flow from Mount Rainier, consisting of an up to 10-meter (33 ft) high flood of mud, rock and boulders. As of 2016, the $40 million bridge was still in the planning phase.
The Osceola Mudflow, also known as the Osceola Lahar, was a debris flow and lahar in the U.S. state of Washington that descended from the summit and northeast slope of Mount Rainier, a volcano in the Cascade Range during a period of eruptions about 5,600 years ago. It traveled down the west and main forks of the White River, passed the location of present-day Enumclaw then reached Puget Sound in several areas, including near the present day sites of Tacoma and Auburn.
