Lake Union - By Dick Wagner
The first step in the Transportation grant project is to document and identify the unique history and stories of Lake Union that could be shared through exhibits and interpretative activities.
The founder of The Center from Wooden Boats, Dick Wagner, is documenting many of the compiling stories and the history of Lake Union, from his unique perspective of living and working on Lake Union for over three decades. These narratives are in draft form, and should be considered a work in progress. We welcome any thoughts, comments or stories you may have.
The Lake
Lake Union is an urban planner’s dream. Hidden by the hills of our city is a deep, clean and weather protected lake in the middle of Seattle, connected to the inner sea of Puget Sound on one side and on the other side, two lakes, nestled between ridges of greenery. Both the salt and fresh water neighbors have sensitively developed shorelines. There is probably no other city core area that can compare with Lake Union.
The unique setting of this lake and its special natural and cultural history needs to be preserved. We have an opportunity to become Lakes Union’s Curator.
In many ways the lake is a prism offering shafts of enlightenment about the area surrounding the lake. From its geologic formation to its fern bars the lake is a microcosm of the evolution of Puget Sound. Each month this report will deal with the different facets of this city jewel, Lake Union.
The lake was scoured out by the Vashon Glacier about 13,000 years ago. It was about 900 acres, 40’ deep. Glaciers did things like that. Vashon Island is a glacial moraine. It is composed of the gravel dropped as the glacier retreated. Today the lake is about 700 acres, due to man made infilling of the shore lands. The city halted filling in 1963, finally drawing to a close the last of the earnest, creative and often monumental efforts of Seattle citizens to improve what Mother Nature provided.
The first people hardly scratched the surface. And rightly so. The natural features of the environment were the resources of their lives. They were the Duwamish “people of Duwamps River.” They came here more than 5000 years ago. We know that Lake Washington was an inlet of Puget Sound until about 5000 years ago. The Cedar River delta sealed off the saltwater inlet where Renton is now. The Sammamish River then proceeded to fill up what we now call Lake Washington. Shore side forests were submerged. The Duwamish have myths of the lake swallowing the shoreline. When Lake Washington was dropped 9’ to match the level of Lake Union in 1916, campfire hearths were uncovered.
There were 18 home sites on Lake Washington a few on Lake Sammamish and three on Lake Union. Three creeks, likely salmon spawning streams, flowed into Lake Union on the eastside, at the NOAA base site. Another emptied on the south side at Waterway 5, just east of CWB. The Lake Union longhouses were at Portage Bay and the creeks. The total population in the three lakes was about 700. Longhouses were approximately 50’ x 100’ and sheltered 4-5 families. The walls and roof were made from long cedar planks split from ancient trees. The planks were fastened to the post and beam structures with lashings made from the inner bark of the red cedars.
There were seven winter villages on Lake Washington and one on Lake Union, a short hop southwest of CWB. Winter villages were places of potlatch and ceremony, shamans, spirits, myths, song and dance. After the spring to fall period spent collecting and preserving food resources the Duwamish gave themselves a three month vacation with live music and dance productions. Every winter village had a burial ground.
The Duwamish were river and lake people. They used weirs and dip nets across creeks to catch smelt, suckers and peamouth fish. In mid summer the salmon arrived. They hunted deer and elk, browsing on skunk cabbage at the marsh margins. There was Kokanee (landlocked sockeye salmon) in the lakes. In fall they hunted muskrats beaver and otter and gathered wapato (“Indian Potato”). Autumn also brought migrating fowl. They set up net walls on tall poles in the marshes. Men in canoes frightened the birds who become entrapped in the netting when they flew away. Canoes also approached the marshes at night with fires lit on earthen hearths in their canoe. The light lured ducks from the marsh and they would be caught by spears thrown underhand with multi-barbed ends, which lodged in the duck’s feathers.
Lake Union was called Ha-AH-Chu in the Lushootseed dialect of the Salish language. It meant “littlest lake.” The people were called ha-ah-chu ASBSH, the “littlest people”. Lake Washington was HAH Chu, “The Lake” and Lake Sammamish was HAHT-hah-chu, “Second Lake.”
Chinook was a trading jargon of the Northwest natives. The Chinook term for Lake Union was Tenas Chuck (“Small Water”); Lake Washington was Hyas Chuck (“Large Water”). A Quilleute Elder, David Forlines, told me his people of the Pacific Coast had legends of trips to the trading spot at South Lake Union where CWB exists. This site was a crossroad of native commerce from time before history.
The salt water people could enter Lake Union from Smith Cove. It was connected to Salmon Bay by a creek that is now the Interbay fill. The canoes could then enter Ross Creek, the outlet of Lake Union. The tide could carry canoes, paddle free, to the mouth of the lake where the Fremont Bridge is now located. The trade landing was only another 1 ½ miles of paddling from Ross Creek.
Most of the longhouses were abandoned and destroyed by 1900 and families had moved to reservations, however, a 1904 photo shows Chief Chi-Siak-Ka, at his longhouse in Portage Bay, in the process of completing a carved cedar lake canoe about 16’ long. The Chief, known to his white neighbors as Lake John and his wife Madeline lived on the site of Seattle Yacht Club. The canoe looks exactly like the Salish canoe we have on display hanging in the Pavilion.
We must never forget the rich and complex first people of the lake and the environment they thrived on.
In many ways the lake is a prism offering shafts of enlightenment about the area surrounding the lake. From its geologic formation to its fern bars the lake is a microcosm of the evolution of Puget Sound. Each month this report will deal with the different facets of this city jewel, Lake Union.
The lake was scoured out by the Vashon Glacier about 13,000 years ago. It was about 900 acres, 40’ deep. Glaciers did things like that. Vashon Island is a glacial moraine. It is composed of the gravel dropped as the glacier retreated. Today the lake is about 700 acres, due to man made infilling of the shore lands. The city halted filling in 1963, finally drawing to a close the last of the earnest, creative and often monumental efforts of Seattle citizens to improve what Mother Nature provided.
The first people hardly scratched the surface. And rightly so. The natural features of the environment were the resources of their lives. They were the Duwamish “people of Duwamps River.” They came here more than 5000 years ago. We know that Lake Washington was an inlet of Puget Sound until about 5000 years ago. The Cedar River delta sealed off the saltwater inlet where Renton is now. The Sammamish River then proceeded to fill up what we now call Lake Washington. Shore side forests were submerged. The Duwamish have myths of the lake swallowing the shoreline. When Lake Washington was dropped 9’ to match the level of Lake Union in 1916, campfire hearths were uncovered.
There were 18 home sites on Lake Washington a few on Lake Sammamish and three on Lake Union. Three creeks, likely salmon spawning streams, flowed into Lake Union on the eastside, at the NOAA base site. Another emptied on the south side at Waterway 5, just east of CWB. The Lake Union longhouses were at Portage Bay and the creeks. The total population in the three lakes was about 700. Longhouses were approximately 50’ x 100’ and sheltered 4-5 families. The walls and roof were made from long cedar planks split from ancient trees. The planks were fastened to the post and beam structures with lashings made from the inner bark of the red cedars.
There were seven winter villages on Lake Washington and one on Lake Union, a short hop southwest of CWB. Winter villages were places of potlatch and ceremony, shamans, spirits, myths, song and dance. After the spring to fall period spent collecting and preserving food resources the Duwamish gave themselves a three month vacation with live music and dance productions. Every winter village had a burial ground.
The Duwamish were river and lake people. They used weirs and dip nets across creeks to catch smelt, suckers and peamouth fish. In mid summer the salmon arrived. They hunted deer and elk, browsing on skunk cabbage at the marsh margins. There was Kokanee (landlocked sockeye salmon) in the lakes. In fall they hunted muskrats beaver and otter and gathered wapato (“Indian Potato”). Autumn also brought migrating fowl. They set up net walls on tall poles in the marshes. Men in canoes frightened the birds who become entrapped in the netting when they flew away. Canoes also approached the marshes at night with fires lit on earthen hearths in their canoe. The light lured ducks from the marsh and they would be caught by spears thrown underhand with multi-barbed ends, which lodged in the duck’s feathers.
Lake Union was called Ha-AH-Chu in the Lushootseed dialect of the Salish language. It meant “littlest lake.” The people were called ha-ah-chu ASBSH, the “littlest people”. Lake Washington was HAH Chu, “The Lake” and Lake Sammamish was HAHT-hah-chu, “Second Lake.”
Chinook was a trading jargon of the Northwest natives. The Chinook term for Lake Union was Tenas Chuck (“Small Water”); Lake Washington was Hyas Chuck (“Large Water”). A Quilleute Elder, David Forlines, told me his people of the Pacific Coast had legends of trips to the trading spot at South Lake Union where CWB exists. This site was a crossroad of native commerce from time before history.
The salt water people could enter Lake Union from Smith Cove. It was connected to Salmon Bay by a creek that is now the Interbay fill. The canoes could then enter Ross Creek, the outlet of Lake Union. The tide could carry canoes, paddle free, to the mouth of the lake where the Fremont Bridge is now located. The trade landing was only another 1 ½ miles of paddling from Ross Creek.
Most of the longhouses were abandoned and destroyed by 1900 and families had moved to reservations, however, a 1904 photo shows Chief Chi-Siak-Ka, at his longhouse in Portage Bay, in the process of completing a carved cedar lake canoe about 16’ long. The Chief, known to his white neighbors as Lake John and his wife Madeline lived on the site of Seattle Yacht Club. The canoe looks exactly like the Salish canoe we have on display hanging in the Pavilion.
We must never forget the rich and complex first people of the lake and the environment they thrived on.