- Gig Harbor — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Gig Harbor is a city in Pierce County located on a picturesque Puget Sound bay – also called Gig Harbor – across Tacoma Narrows from Tacoma. For centuries, the Twa-Wal-Kut band of the Puyallup Tribe had a longhouse and permanent camp at the head of the harbor. Explorers from the Wilkes Expedition discovered the harbor’s well-hidden opening in 1841 and named it Gig Harbor because they had entered the bay in a small captain’s gig…