Living in the south end of Tacoma, I always knew there was a smell when ever I was in the north end. The city of Tacoma Washington just had an overwhelming funk, that it just could not shake. The Sulfuric odor was due mostly to the Simpson Tacoma Kraft pulp and paper mill, but the city also had a copper smelting plant that helped contribute to the stench.

In 1984 the rocker, Bruce Springsteen, a native of another smelly place, New Jersey, played a concert in Tacoma, but postponed his concert for the next day in Tacoma, because he thought the smell was just way too overwhelming. Saying to the media that the smell made him sick, and that he would never perform there again till they fixed their shit.  So Joe Stortiti, the county executive, decided he was going to clean up the smell and created a task force to make sure no one would ever leave his town because of the smell.

It took several years, and with the closing of the pulp mill, and shutting down of the old furnace, in which nowadays, they just recycle cardboard. Now city officials will tell you that Tacoma, is 70% less pungent.  So lets put it into perspective, if the city used to smell like a room that had 10 dead skunks filled with rotten eggs and rancid cottage cheese. Now Tacoma smells like a room filled with 3 dead skunks filled with rotten eggs and rancid cottage cheese.