In 1858, under Territorial charter, John Carson built a toll bridge here, but floods carried it away during the winter of 1862-63. One night in October 1855, Abraham Salatat, an Indian, rode through the Puyallup Valley warning white settlers that a war party of Indians was coming. In February 1856, U.S. soldiers erected Fort Maloney here to protect the John Carson ferry, and in the summer of 1861 Mrs. E.L. Carson taught school at Fort Maloney. In 1864, the Military Road from Steilacoom to Bellingham crossed the Puyallup River here, and the first telegraph wire through the state of WA was strung over this road.