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The origin of the name Tenino, used by the Northern Pacific Railroad for their station when they arrived in 1872, has been debated for over a century. Recent research published in The Naming of Tenino by the Tenino City Historian, Rich Edwards, chronicles the visit of the Pacific Coast Committee in early October 1872. This committee, including railroad President Cass, traveled up the Columbia River on steamboats of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Earlier that year, the Northern Pacific Railroad had purchased controlling interest in the OSN as part of their goal to connect their Kalama to Puget Sound line, then under construction, to their transcontinental railroad being built westward from Minnesota. On October 12, 1872, at a meeting in Portland, Oregon where John Ainsworth and other officers of the OSN made a presentation about their common interests, President Cass proposed a resolution that named the momentarily Northern terminus near Hodgden's station "Tenino".