Auburn

Auburn, city, King county, western Washington, U.S., in the White River valley, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Tacoma. It was laid out in 1887 by Levi W. Ballard, an early local settler, and named for W.A. Slaughter, an army officer killed in a conflict with area Indians 30 years earlier. Local residents, disliking the name Slaughter (the hotel was named Slaughter House), petitioned the legislature to change the name, and in 1893 it was designated Auburn after the city in New York.

The city developed as an agricultural trade centre and as a division point for the Northern Pacific Railway (now Burlington Northern Sante Fe). Manufacturing, chiefly the production of aircraft parts, is important. A Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centre that serves the northwestern region was established there in 1962. The city is home to Green River Community College (1963), the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, the Evergreen City Ballet, and Emerald Downs, a Thoroughbred racetrack. The White River Valley Museum houses documents and artifacts relating to the region; one of its permanent exhibits is a Japanese American farmhouse (c. 1915) that presents aspects of the immigrant experience. A monument just north of Auburn marks the site of the White River Massacre (October 28, 1855), in which nine members of three pioneer families were killed by Indians. The Green River (salmon) Hatchery and Mount Rainier National Park are nearby. Inc. 1914. Pop. (2000) 40,314; (2010) 70,180.