Kalama, Washington
"Kalama, a river and a town in the
southern part of Cowlitz County. The town was named by General J.W. Sprague of
the Northern Pacific railroad in 1871. To [c]omply with the law twenty-five
miles of road was built toward Puget Sound, and the place of the beginning was
then named Kalama....Rev. Myron Eels though the word came from the Indian world
Calamet, meaning stone....Mrs. E.R. Huntington, of Castle Rock, says the name
was spelled Calama in early days. She obtained from Norman Burbee when eight
years of age information that his father took up a claim on that river in 1847,
and that the Indians told him that Calama meant pretty maiden."
Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923