Strawberry Festival 2011

Who Knew? City Fun Facts

Who Knew?

Every city in the Greenway is different, and each has a compelling story as well as fun trivia. Cities in the Greenway range in size from Beaux Arts with 299 residents to Seattle with 608,660. Seattle and Ellensburg were the two earliest cities to incorporate in 1869 and 1883 respectively. Sammamish is the youngest city in the Greenway having incorporated only in 1999. Here is a list of fun facts about each of the 28 cities and towns in the Greenway:

  • Beaux Arts was created as a colony of an arts society.
  • Bellevue has over 50 public sculptures.
  • Bothell is home to one of the most ambitious projects in the Greenway to direct major public and private investment into a renovated downtown district called the Bothell Landing.
  • Carnation was once home to the most productive milk cows in the world, and continues to this day to have strong agricultural roots.
  • Cle Elum’s mayor is a small business owner who produces some of the best cured meats in the Greenway.
  • Clyde Hill’s early residents were strawberry farmers who are now celebrated in the annual Strawberry Festival.
  • Duvall’s annual celebration Duvall Days features a parade, fireworks show, participatory street art, and flea market.
  • Ellensburg was once the frontrunner in the effort to become the State Capitol when Washington was granted statehood.
  • Hunts Point used to be served by a small ferry called Gazelle.
  • Issaquah was recognized in Outside Magazine’s best places to live in 2011.
  • Kenmore was once a hotbed for prohibition speakeasies.
  • Kirkland’s shipyards produced ships for WWII.
  • Lake Forest Park’s Third Place Commons is perhaps the most successful organized community gathering place in the Greenway.
  • Maple Valley’s library is one of the finest examples of Northwest architecture.
  • Medina is part of the Point Loop Trail: which connects Hunts Point, Yarrow Point, Medina, and Clyde Hill.
  • Mercer Island was the first community in King County to begin diverting 60% or more of its residential waste stream through recycling.
  • Newcastle’s mines used to produce 150,000 tons of coal annually.
  • North Bend’s Tollgate Farm used to be the location where tolls were collected from people traveling over Snoqualmie Pass to improve the road.
  • Redmond’s Saturday Market bills itself as the Eastside’s oldest farmers market.
  • Renton’s River Days is a multiple day family festival that is celebrating its 27th year.
  • Roslyn’s Brick tavern claims to be the oldest continually operating tavern in Washington (1889).
  • Sammamish was a resort town in the 1930s.
  • Seattle’s original Bumbershoot (then called Festival 71) had logging shows and indoor motorcycle racing.
  • Shoreline was originally connected to Seattle by the Interurban rail line, which is now a popular multi-use trail.
  • Snoqualmie is a Salish word meaning moon.
  • South Cle Elum is home to the Rails to Ales Brewfest.
  • Woodinville has been a certified Tree City USA for 15 years.
  • Yarrow Point’s annual Fourth of July celebration dates back to 1976.

 

Up next in the series: Celebrating Urban Forestry– learn how cities are protecting this unique type of forest.

 

Gordon Padelford is a Greenway native and recent graduate of Colby College. He works at the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust through the Department of Ecology’s Washington Conservation Corps (an AmeriCorps program).