Native American Roots Archaeological
records date the first inhabitants of the Seattle region to
11,000-12,000 years ago. Tribes included the Suquamish, Duwamish,
Nisqually, Snoqualmie, and Muckleshoot, who, despite their harsh
environment, evolved into complex societies that traded with other
tribes. Denny Party In
1851, Chief Sealth of the Duwamish Tribe greeted Arthur A. Denny and
his group of European settlers at West Seattle’s Alki Point .
Subsequently, Denny served as a delegate to the Monticello convention,
which gave rise to the states of Oregon and Washington. Northern Pacific Railroad Seattle’s
neighbor, Tacoma, was the original terminus of 1873’s Northern Pacific
Railroad, linking the region to the rest of the country. By 1893,
another transcontinental railroad, the Great Northern Railway, extended
into Seattle, eventually supplanting Tacoma as the Puget Sound region’s
main rail depot. Lumber Mills When
timber baron Frederick Weyerhaeuser purchased nearly a million acres of
railroad land in 1900, Seattle’s mushrooming logging industry turned a
corner for even more rapid growth and exploitation of natural resources.
Until then, entrepreneurs such as Henry Yesler ruled the wharf, and
erected the pioneer town out of lumber from ancient old growth forests. Great Fire of 1889 Natural
resources created a boomtown whose rapid growth drew more than 1,000
new residents every month. Seattleites learned the impermanence of
wooden structures in 1889, after a catastrophic fire destroyed much of
the downtown area. Klondike Gold Rush The Alaska Gold Rush
officially kicked off in 1897 after a gold-filled steamship docked at
Seattle’s waterfront. As the last gas for prospectors and suppliers
bound for the gold fields, this city prospered as never before.
Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park
Boeing’s Beginnings Recognizing
the need for airplanes as the United States entered World War I in
1917, William E. Boeing hired pilot Herb Munter to design a seaplane for
the Navy. The rest of the giant Boeing Corporation’s success is
history. Rise of Microsoft In
1975, Harvard dropout Bill Gates and his high school friend Paul Allen
founded Microsoft. From the suburb of Redmond, they launched a personal
computer revolution and have never looked back. Today, Microsoft’s
Windows operating system is the dominant computer platform, and the
company employs more than 50,000 people worldwide. Nisqually Earthquake If
Seattle is a boom and bust town, it certainly felt the boom in a
magnitude 6.8 earthquake on the morning of February 28, 2001 .
Workers escaped their offices, if they could, to see the earth rolling,
pavements cracking, and cars violently swaying. The region suffered
more than $1 billion in damages. Green River Killer Caught The
Seattle area lived under a dark shadow of brutal serial killings as
dozens of women became victims of the Green River Killer. Twenty years
of intense investigation led to the capture of Gary Ridgeway in 2001. He
was convicted in 2003.
Top 10 Famous Seattleites
Chief Sealth (1786–1866) Seattle draws its name from the Duwamish leader. John Nordstrom (1871–1963) Originally a shoe seller, the Nordstrom family empire is now a chain of upscale department stores. Eddie Bauer (1899–1986) The inventor of the goose-down parka opened his first store of clothes and sporting goods in Seattle. Bruce Lee (1940–1973) This Kung-Fu legend and movie star lived in Seattle. Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) A self-taught and innovative electric guitarist, Hendrix’s original compositions continue to influence today’s music. Ted Bundy (1946–1989) The serial killer of the 1980s admitted to 30 murders and was executed in 1989. Howard Schultz (b. 1953) Schultz turned a few local coffee stores into the global Starbucks Empire worth billions of dollars. Bill Gates (b. 1955) Co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s richest men, he continues to run the company today. Jeff Bezos (b. 1964) This Internet billionaire founded giant web retailer Amazon.com in 1995. Gary Locke (b. 1949) The first Asian-American governor in the US, Locke was elected in 1997.
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