CHIEF SEALTH

Having traveled through the scenic coastal shores of Highway 1 from Big Sur all the way up Mendocino County, one can only surmise that the further north you head the more trees you'll see. True enough satellite photos of Oregon shows a lengthy forested area along its Pacific side from Humboldt, California all the way up to the Washington cascades.

Touring Oregon crossed my mind decades ago, but never the state of Washington. I guess life has so many surprises that one can never really expect to happen.

I've always confused "Washington state" to Washington D.C., the home of the U.S. policy makers. But after seeing both places I have clearly  marked one has having green forests and the other with stone cold monuments. 

Washington's land ownership was under dispute with the British until 1846 when they ceded paving the way for its 42nd place in the Union in 1889.  Named after Pres. George Washington, It is nicknamed “Evergreen State” due to its lush evergreen forests filled with Douglas fir, Ponderosa and white pine, spruce, cedar, and others. Washington is bound in the north by Canada, Montana to its east, Idaho southeast, Oregon on the south and the Pacific Ocean to its west.

60% of Washington's population rests in the Seattle metropolitan area, nicknamed the "Emerald City".  The largest of its cities, Seattle is situated on a narrow isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the North Pacific Ocean) in the west and fresh water Lake Washington to the east. Beyond these waters lie two mountain ranges, the Olympics to the west and the Cascades to the east. Seattle's sierras causes its climate to have a dry-summer with mild wet winters. Light snow falls on the city for a few hours and rarely receives heavy snow similar to the January 1880 snowstorm leaving 6ft of snow.

Seattle also sits within the Cascade Volcanic Arc,  a part of the Pacific Rim of Fire. Five volcanic vents dot Seattle's Cascades: Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Adams. St. Helens whose recent eruption was in 1980 has the most number of eruptions followed by Glacier Peak. The city is also located in the long Cascadia Fault line which stretches from mid-Vancouver Island down to California. This zone can produce a very strong earthquake to the magnitude of 9.0 or greater. 

Seattle has about 650,000 residents majority of which are Caucasians followed by Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and others.  Seattle is a port city ranked 8th largest in the United States of America and 9th in North America in terms of container handling.

The Native Americans had lived along the shoreline and hillsides of the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years before the first Europeans set foot. In 1851, Arthur A. Denny and his group landed on the shores of the Duwamish River mouth. Traveling further north from the landing area Denny claimed a site which was first called New York. Later to be renamed Alki (a Chinook word meaning someday or by-and-by).  In 1853 Denny’s party decided to resettle east across the Puget Sound. This site was an island called Jijilaetech or "little crossing over place". During low tide the surrounding was exposed allowing people to walk towards the island and back This area is now called Pioneer Square. Denny called the island Dewamps later to be changed to Seattle. David Maynard was one of the proponent’s in renaming Dewamps to Seattle after Chief Sealth of a local Duwamish tribe.

Logging was Seattle's first major industry. Henry Yesler's lumber mill located at the foot of Yesler Way served as the main source of economy of the city. Its products provided lumber to the booming city of San Francisco and the growing towns along Puget Sound.

In the 1870s coal was discovered near Lake Washington and was also exported to San Francisco. Consequently, the Northern Pacific Railway Company built its transcontinental railroad western terminus in Tacoma, forty miles south of Seattle which was later connected to the city in 1883. Having lumber and coal as the primary industries, other businesses grew such as fishing, wholesale trade, shipbuilding, and shipping contributing to
the town's economic expansion and population growth.

During this period, Seattle was gaining 1,000 new inhabitants per month. In a particular month, there were 500 buildings under construction built of wood. In 1889 the expansion was halted temporarily by a devastating fire which leveled the wooden buildings in the heart of the city's business district. There was no record of any fatality in the fire.

This destruction provided the Satellites an opportunity for extensive municipal improvements. A more professional fire department was established, wharves were upgraded as well as the municipal water works. New building codes were enforced requiring structures to be built of bricks and steel. The finance company Washington Mutual (now absorbed by JP Morgan Chase) was founded during this period.

The original land area on which the first settlers built their camps and dwelling places continued to expanded over the surrounding wetlands. Trees were cut, hills were flattened, houses relocated or buried along with filled ravines and reclaimed wetlands.  

The streets of Pioneer Square were elevated between 10-40 feet high from its original grade creating underground walkways alongside business establishments. These were illuminated during the day with skylights imbedded with glass blocks or tubes.


Sewer systems were installed beneath the roadway solving Seattle's perennial sewage outfall which depended entirely on the incoming tide of the sound.

In 1897, the Klondike Gold Rush gave Seattle an economic boost serving as the miners outfitting hub earning the name "Gateway to Klondike". Around 100,000 miners passed through and many chose to stay and invest their hard earned money in Seattle. Famous of these were John Nordstrom (Nordstrom's) and George H. Bartell (Bartell Drugstore).

In the early 1900s, two more transcontinental railroads, the Union Pacific and Milwaukee Road systems reached Seattle and reinforced the city's position as a trade and shipping center with Asia and the North Pacific. It was also in this period when American Messenger Company (now UPS), Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer was founded.

In 1909 a large portion of the Duwamish river mouth expanse was reclaimed building the 350 acre Harbor Island where the Port of Seattle now operates. 

By 1910, Seattle was one of the 25 largest cities in the United States of America. The population became increasingly diversified employing Scandinavian workers in the fishing and lumber business, Japanese running produce or truck gardens and hotels, and African Americans as railroad porters and waiters. Italians, Chinese, Filipino migrants, and Jews who all lived together in a place known today as  the International District.

In 1914 the iconic Smith Tower was completed having 38 floors standing 149 meters high, the tallest office building west of the Mississippi river until 1931.

WorldWar I transformed the city's shipbuilding industry, producing 20 percent of the nation's wartime ship tonnage.

However, the Great Depression did not spare Seattle’s shipbuilding and the lumber trade. Nearly 1,000 unemployed men grew up at an abandoned shipbuilding yard south of Pioneer Square called Hooverville after President Herbert Hoover. 

Growth returned during and after World War II, due partially to the Boeing Company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The war's end, however, brought an economic slump again to the area that persisted until the mid-50s.

By the late 19th century the city had become a bustling commercial and shipbuilding center as a gateway to Alaska serving as a supply point for prospectors during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Seattle is the birthplace to internationally known companies such as the global coffee company Starbucks founded in 1971, membership only wholesale club Costco (1983), the electronic commerce company Amazon.com (1994). It is home base to REI, Raleigh Bicycle, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Alaska Air Group, among others. Not to forget Darigold founded in 1918 became a household butter brand name in the Philippines during the late 50's.

Seattle has a colorful musical history. It's jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and other talents. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock legend Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock music style known as grunge. 

Actor and Jeet Kune Do founder Bruce Lee lived and is buried in the city's Lake View Cemetery.

Seattle also extends to its local artists opportunities to display their unique talents all over the city whether it be in visual or musical arts. Artists have been commissioned to create art pieces or perform for various government projects.

A very small hilly city compared to San Francisco, Seattle's major points of interest are all accessible by just walking or taking the affordable and efficient Metro system. Art museums, unique sculptures and art pieces are literally littered all over the city making one wonder if the city is an artist's haven.