The Lost Islands Of Seattle
Gone But Not Forgotten
I love being a map dork. Not only do I get to travel the world exploring different places, I also get to time travel, taking dips in landscapes past. One thing, of course, that stands out, is the constancy of change, as people shape and reshape their worlds. Certainly this is the case in Seattle.
For instance, local maps show that Seattle used to have more islands than it does at present. Those that disappeared fell to the cloak of progress though at least one island name persists to the present despite the loss of island-status. Plus, if you look carefully, and a bit imaginatively, you can see that Seattle has been an island twice in its history. Here’s my take on these infamous and not so infamous islands.
Shortest Time in Existence - On May 16, 1962, an island emerged in Lake Union. Measuring six by eight feet, it rose two feet out of the water. Two UW students quickly staked a mineral claim, elected a mayor, and named it Chelan Island. Then Chelan, like Brigadoon, disappeared. Two months later, seven more islands arose, one of which required a navigation buoy, before they, too, vanished. The Army Corps of Engineers eventually determined that fill from the construction of I-5, which was being dumped in the lake, had created the islands. No islands have appeared since dumping stopped.
Most Annoying - Because of the challenging topography, the first substantial buildings (including an early house of ill repute) in Seattle were built on a low mound of land that rose about twenty feet out of the water. Behind the mound was a tidal marsh, to the south lay the tideflats of the Duwamish River, and to the west, Elliott Bay. All was hunky-dory on the mound until very high tides washed over an area known as the Neck into the marsh and the mound became an island. Never ones to be thwarted by time or tide, early Seattleites eventually filled in the Neck, preventing any further island living. The mound/island still exists, buried under more fill, streets, and buildings.
Most Artificial Island - Like the island above, Ballast Island lives on under the city built atop it. I have written extensively about the island so will simply link to a previous newsletter about it.
Most Overlooked - Some might quibble, and nearly everyone, but serious cartographic nerds, tends to overlook that the city of Seattle was an island for the second time in its short existence—if you define an island as a body of land completely surrounded by water—from 1885 until 1916. Lake Washington and Elliott Bay/Puget Sound formed the east and west boundaries, respectively. The south boundary consisted of the Black River, Lake Washington’s outlet, which flowed three miles from the lake to the Duwamish River, which formed the southwest border. At the north were the two narrow canals completed in 1885 by the Wa Chong Construction Company, which linked Lake Washington to Lake Union (Montlake Cut) and Lake Union to Salmon/Shilshole Bay (Fremont Cut). With the creation of the ship canal in 1916, the Black River dried up, and Seattle was no longer an island.
Most Named Island - Lake Washington used to have three, and occasionally four, islands. The most southern was known to Native people as TlúTlatSas (Small Island) and to settlers as Young’s Island, after its first owner Andrew B. Young. Young sold the island in 1900 to Alfred James Pritchard. He and his wife Emma built a house and spanned the gap to the island with a small footbridge. When the lake dropped in 1916, Pritchard’s Island ceased to be. Pritchard tried to cash in on the newly created property by platting it with 120 properties and three roads. His advertisements in the Seattle Times promoted “some of the richest tracts of land anywhere about Seattle.” All one had to do was pay $16 down with monthly payments of $16, interest included.
And Then There Was 1/8 An Island Remaining - Prior to the filling in of the tideflats of the Duwamish River, seven islands, or eyots, had formed at the river’s mouth. I assume that the eastern most, Phinney, was named for Guy Phinney, of Phinney Ridge and eventually Woodland Park Zoo. David Kellogg filed for a claim on the island (the only vestige of the many eyots) that now bears his name in 1865. I have no clue who the Edwards/Edward was of Edwards Island, aka Kellogg Island. Any info would be ducky.
An Island…Barely - Sitting under SR-520 at the north end of the Arboretum, Foster Island qualifies as an island but is certainly not nearly as islandic as it was. Like Pritchard Island, Foster’s status correlates with the lowering of Lake Washington in 1916. Prior to then, Foster was clearly an island, and after, barely so, isolated by only a ten foot wide channel. You could also argue that the island is actually anchored to the mainland by SR-520. Known by the Duwamish Tribe as Stitici, the islet was a burial ground prior to European settlement. I have seen various sources for the name Foster but none with good documentation. Let me know if you know.
The Seasonal Island - Seward Park, formerly known as Bailey Peninsula, used to connect to the mainland by a narrow finger of terrain. Harold Smith, who grew up in the neighborhood in the late 1800s, told an early historian that during high water in winter, the peninsula “often was an island and the isthmus could be crossed in canoe or rowboat.” With the lowering of the lake, the isthmus expanded and the peninsula no longer was isolated by the winter lake level change.
Words of the Week - Eyot and Isthmus - An eyot is a small island, especially one in a river. The word is an alteration of ait, a word that can be traced back to Old English in the 800s. An isthmus is a narrow stretch of land connecting two larger bodies. It has a Greek origin from the word for neck, or passage between two seas.
Can you provide some sources on the Wa Chong Construction Company pertaining to the Montlake and Fremont cuts? I can't find any mention elsewhere