In 1877, Ezra Meeker platted a townsite and named it Puyallup after the local Puyallup Indian tribes, 11 years after departing from Indiana. The first European settlers arrived in the 1850s. Native Americans numbered about 2,000 in what is now the Puyallup Valley in the 1830s and 1840s. The Puyallup Valley was originally inhabited by the Puyallup people, known in their language as the spuyaləpabš, meaning 'generous and welcoming behavior to all people (friends and strangers) who enter our lands.' The first white settlers in the region were part of the first wagon train to cross the Cascade Range at Naches Pass in 1853. History Ezra Meeker (near lower right) at the 1926 dedication of his own statue by Alonzo Victor Lewis in Puyallup's Pioneer Park, on the site of his original cabin
The name of the city is notably used in mailing addresses for adjacent unincorporated areas, such as the larger-populated South Hill. The city's name comes from the Puyallup Tribe of Native Americans and means 'the generous people.' Puyallup is home to the Washington State Fair, the state's largest fair. It had a population of 42,973 at the 2020 census. Puyallup ( / p juː ˈ æ l ə p/ ⓘ pew- AL-əp) is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States, located about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Tacoma and 35 miles (56 km) south of Seattle.