In 1906, the E.I. duPont deNemours Company began building an explosives factory and company town in what was then a remote piece of land surrounded by Fort Lewis on three sides and Puget Sound on the fourth side. 

The Nisqually-Sequalitchew people lived here for thousands of years. The Nisqually People own land in and around DuPont and continue to fish and collect shellfish in the region. The first South South outpost for Hudson's Bay Company - Fort Nisqually - traded with First People here from 1833 until the late 1850s.