Changing the Flow
On October 14, 1913, straightening began on the Duwamish River south of downtown Seattle. Its course carved out by glaciers and volcanic mudflows, the river was originally used by Native Americans for fishing, trade, and transportation. When homesteaders arrived in 1851, Luther Collins, Henry Van Asselt, and Jacob Maple (or Mapel) selected Donation Land Claims along the river's edge, making them King County's first non-Native settlers -- predating the Denny Party by two months.
Chief Seattle and the Duwamish Tribe welcomed the settlers, and Collins's daughter Lucinda went so far as to learn the complex Salish language. But after Luther was implicated in two separate lynchings of Indians suspected of murdering whites, relations with the area's original inhabitants turned sour. During the Indian War of 1855-1856, the settlers built a 22-foot-square blockhouse on the Collins's claim, which they called Fort Duwamish.
In 1860 Collins and his wife Diana divorced, and she received half of their donation claim. She rented a portion of her property to Seattle saloonkeeper John Pinnell for a race track, a precursor to The Meadows. Seattle's first railroad to attempt to reach Eastern Washington traveled just east of the Duwamish River, and its route is still the main line for all rail traffic from the south. The Duwamish Valley and other nearby locations also proved ideal for growing hops for beer, which led to the establishment of what would later become the world-famous Rainier Brewery, located in Georgetown.
Seattle began eyeing this prosperous land to the south, and although Georgetown incorporated in 1904, it was annexed to the city only six years later. Almost immediately, Seattle City Engineer Reginald H. Thomson began formulating plans to dredge the Duwamish River, transforming it into the straight and angled waterway seen in the image above. The "new" river allowed for easier transport of products and building materials, and what was once bucolic farmland became home to steel mills, the Boeing Airplane Company, and later, Boeing Field. But industrialization of the area came with a price and caused problems that are still with us today.
What Lies Below
October is Washington Archaeology Month, and we invite you to dig deep into our state's past through some of the articles on HistoryLink. The earliest human remains so far discovered in the state belong to the so-called "Marmes Man" -- actually a whole community -- that predates the more controversial remains of Kennewick Man. Other finds in Washington that have intrigued archaeologists include a cache of Clovis points found near East Wenatchee, Jaco Finlay's grave at old Spokane House, the remains of a Klallam village near Port Angeles, and what might possibly be the oldest continually occupied human habitation in the state.
Our essays go even farther back in time, beginning in the late Mesozoic era when the Okanogan terrane docked against the North American continent. From there, we fast-forward 100 million years or so to the end of the Ice Age, which carved out much of the Pacific Northwest -- and unearthed some interesting items -- approximately a dozen millennia ago, give or take a few thousand years. In the grand scope of Earth's history, it almost seems like yesterday.
