In 1833, the British Hudson's Bay Company established the first Fort Nisqually as a fur trading post in the area now known as DuPont, Washington. When the second Fort Nisqually closed in 1870, its last commander, Edward Huggins, homesteaded the old fort site. In 1906, the DuPont Company, founded in 1802 by E.I. DuPont, purchased land from Huggins and other small farmers and constructed a powder works plant to manufacture explosives. In order to house plant workers and their families, the company created a village, named DuPont. At its height, the company employed approximately 400 people at the plant, with 600 living in the village. In 1951, the town incorporated. Due to a waning need for powdered explosives, the DuPont Company closed the plant in 1976 and sold its property to the Weyerhaeuser Company. A period of rapid growth in business development followed, and DuPont now confidently faces the future as a modern city.

Jennifer Crooks earned a bachelor of arts in history at Saint Martin's University and a master of arts in history at Central Washington University. She is particularly interested in 20th-century American social history, including the story of DuPont. Her father, Drew Crooks, has researched South Puget Sound history for over 35 years and written extensively on the subject. A majority of the historic photographs in this book are courtesy of the DuPont Historical Museum's collection.