Known by the Puyallup and Muckleshoot people as the "land of three rivers” (White, Carbon, and Puyallup), the Carbon River corridor was the most  direct route to the Tahoma (Mt. Rainier) hunting and gathering territories. The greater Puyallup Watershed is still important culturally as native peoples resided along all the three rivers. The native peoples of this land, including the Puyallup and several tribal bands ancestral to the Muckleshoot Tribe, were displaced after the Treaty of Medicine Creek and the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1854. The tribes still retain some rights  regarding hunting, fishing, gathering native plants and sacred sites in the region.

This area of NE Pierce County borders the Mt Rainier National Park along the White River to  Greenwater, over parts of the Osceola Mudflow. Buckley, situated at the historic railroad crossing of the White River, was a commerce center for the logging industry and farms. The  Carbon River Corridor had many coal mining and logging sites ,as well as the Wilkeson stone quarry. The Corridor has the existing towns of Carbonado, Wilkeson, Burnett, and South  Prairie. 

The history of the area includes sites of Pittsburg (Spiketon), Fairfax, Montezuma, Melmont and  Crocker coal mining and coke oven operations. The Foothills Rails-to-Trails uses the old Northern Pacific Railroad track lines. Manley Moore, a logging and lumber mill site, is now inside Mt Rainier National Park near the Carbon Ranch entrance.