From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Union Bay is that part of Lake Washington
in Seattle that is west of a line drawn between Webster Point in
the Laurelhurst neighborhood to the north (its
southernmost point) and Foster Point in the Madison Park neighborhood to the south (its
northeasternmost point). It ends at the eastern opening of the Montlake Cut of the
Lake Washington Ship
Canal.
History
When the level of Lake Washington was dropped nearly nine feet
in 1916 as a result of the opening of the Ship Canal,[1] a good
portion of Union Bay and Union Bay Marsh and wetland became dry land, furthered by landfill and, belatedly, sanitary landfill. The marsh
and much of the bay was filled from 1911 to 1967. The Montlake Landfill (in use from
1926 to 1967) was the fictional home of television clown J. P. Patches,
resident 1958 through 1981.[2] The University Village shopping center (1956) and most of the east
main campus of the University of Washington (UW)
but for Husky
Stadium sit on this land today. What remains of Union Bay Marsh
is the restored remnant within the Union
Bay Natural Area of the UW.[3]
As well as providing the outlet for Lake Washington, Union Bay
receives the water of Arboretum Creek, and Ravenna
Creek via pipeline from Ravenna Park
through south Ravenna, daylighted past the restored
Union Bay Natural Area.
The shores of what is now Union Bay have been inhabited since
the end of the last glacial
period, about 10,000 years ago. Ancestors of the Native American
Duwamish
tribe today, until the 1850s the
Dkhw’Duw’Absh, "the People of the
Inside", of the (Skagit-Nisqually) Lushootseed Coast Salish nations
had villages around Union Bay.
The village of hehs-KWEE-kweel ("skate") was of the
hloo-weelh-AHBSH (from s'hloo-WEELH, "a tiny hole
drilled to measure the thickness of a canoe"), for the narrow
passage through then-large and resource-rich Union
Bay marsh. Traces of the marsh survive as the Union
Bay Natural Area and the Foster Island area of north Washington Park Arboretum.
The trees and the island of Stitici (Stee-tee-tchee) were
their ceremonial burial ground. Stitici, Little Island, is
now called Foster Island.[4] The
village was at the northeast tip of what is now Madison Park. One of the longhouses (forerunners of
cohousing for tens of
people) may have been used as a potlatch house. The Duwamish Tribe
is today leveraging the sacred site in the path of substantial
enlargement of State Route 520 through
south Union Bay between Redmond and Interstate 5, in their quest for
recognition.[5]
The prominent village of SWAH-tsoo-gweel ("portage")
was on an abundant and much larger Union Bay, and what is now Ravenna was their backyard before the
arrival of European settlers,[6]
Laurelhurst in summer.[7] The Seattle, Lake Shore
and Eastern Railway was built around 1886 along what is now the
Burke-Gilman Trail, following what
was the shoreline past where the UW power plant and University
Village are today.[8] A
longhouse was near the present UW power plant (across Montlake
Boulevard from the IMA building), others were around the north
shores which were about mile farther north than today, and shores
east of what is now the Union Bay Natural Area, with a
longhouse or two between what is now the Center for Urban
Horticulture and Children's Hospital. Villages were diffuse.[6]
Cheshiahud or Lake
John and his family were among the memorable residents around Union
Bay in the early decades of Seattle.
See also
Neighborhoods of Ravenna Creek
References
- ^
Phelps, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project 1913-1916, pp.
67–69
- ^
(1) Fill sites 1911, 1920, 1926; last acreage, in the University
District, closed 1966 or 1967).
(1.1) Phelps, pp. 208, 210; "HISTORY @UBNA", below.
(2) Stein
- ^
(1) ""HISTORY @ UBNA"".
Center for Urban Horticulture. Departments, University of
Washington. n.d., 1999 per "Montlake Landfill Information
SumMarchy, January 1999" on page). http://depts.washington.edu/ubna/history.htm. Retrieved
2006-04-21.
(2) ""Ravenna"". Seattle
City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas. Office of the Seattle
City Clerk. n.d., map.jpg c. 17 June 2002.
http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/~public/nmaps/html/NN-1085S.htm. Retrieved
2006-04-21.
(3) ""University District",
map". Office of the Seattle City Clerk. n.d., map.Jpg [sic]
dated 13 June 2002. http://clerk.ci.seattle.wa.us/public/nmaps/S/NN-1120S.htm. Retrieved
2006-04-21.
- ^
Thomas Speer quoted in Switzer
- ^
Switzer
- ^ a
b
Dailey, 26 and 27, ref. 2, 8)
- ^
Rochester
- ^
Phelps, p. 25
Bibliography
- Dailey, Tom (n.d.). ""Duwamish-Seattle"".
"Coast Salish Villages of
Puget Sound". http://coastsalishmap.org/new_page_6.htm. Retrieved
2006-04-21.
Page links to Village Descriptions
Duwamish-Seattle section.
Dailey referenced "Puget Sound Geography" by T. T. Waterman.
Washington DC: National Anthropological Archives, mss. [n.d.] [ref.
2];
Duwamish et al. vs. United States of America, F-275.
Washington DC: US Court of Claims, 1927. [ref. 5];
"Indian Lake Washington" by David Buerge in the Seattle
Weekly, 1-7 August 1984 [ref. 8];
"Seattle Before Seattle" by David Buerge in the Seattle
Weekly, 17-23 December 1980. [ref. 9];
The Puyallup-Nisqually by Marian W. Smith. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1940. [ref. 10].
Recommended start is "Coast Salish Villages of
Puget Sound"
- "HISTORY @ UBNA". Center
for Urban Horticulture, Departments, University of Washington
(n.d., 1999 per "Montlake Landfill Information
Summary, January 1999" on page), retrieved 21 April 2006.
- Phelps, Myra L., Public works in Seattle. Seattle:
Seattle Engineering Department, 1978. ISBN 0-9601928-1-6.
- "Ravenna". Seattle City
Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas (n.d., map.jpg c. 17 June 2002),
retrieved 21 April 2006. Note caveat in footer.
Maps "NN-1030S", "NN-1040S".jpg dated 17 June 2002.
- Rochester, Junius (2001-06-09,
revised 2002-11-20). ""Seattle Neighborhoods:
Laurelhurst – Thumbnail History"". HistoryLink.org Essay
3345. http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=3345. Retrieved
2006-04-21.
Rochester referenced Christine Barrett, A History of
Laurelhurst (Seattle, WA: Laurelhurst Community Club, 1981,
revised 1989);
Paul Dorpat, Seattle: Now & Then, Vols. II and III
(Seattle, WA: Tartu Publications, 1984 and 1989);
Lucile McDonald, The Lake Washington Story, (Seattle, WA:
Superior Publishing Co., 1979);
Brandt Morgan, Enjoying Seattle's Parks (Seattle, WA:
Greenwood Publications, 1979);
Harry W. Higman and Earl J. Larrison, Union Bay: The Life of a
City Marsh, (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press,
1951);
J. Willis
Sayre, This City of Ours (Seattle, WA: Seattle School
District No. 1, 1936);
Sophie Frye Bass, Pig-Tail Days in Old Seattle (Portland,
OR: Binfords & Mort, 1937);
Roger Sale, Seattle: Past to Present (Seattle, WA:
University of Washington Press, 1976).
- Stein, Alan J. "Patches, Julius
Pierpont", HistoryLink. 2 March 2003, retrieved 21
April 2006. Stein referenced Jack Broom, "The J.P. Generation,"
Pacific Magazine, The Seattle Times, 4 April
1993, pp. 6–11,14-17;
Bill Cartmel, "Hi Ya, Patches Pals," Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 11April 1971, pp. 6–7;
Erik Lacitis, "Patches Understands – and Survivies," The
Seattle Times, 23 February 1978, p. A15;
[no title], The East Side Journal, 31 May 1962, p. 3;
Ibid. 14 May 1969, p. 19.
- Switzer, Jeff (2005-02-20). "Duwamish Tribe seeks
protection for Foster Island". King County Journal. http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050220/ARC/502200321&SearchID=73248737302215. Retrieved
2006-07-21.
- "University District".
Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas (n.d., map.jpg 13
June), retrieved 21 April 2006. Note caveat in footer.
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