Jul 2

Jul 2 GLAMNORTHWEST: L for Lore of Lake Washington

Lake Washington, Washington State, Glam Northwest, Washington, travel, sun care, Seattle, review, Pacific Northwest, Landmark, GLAMNORTHWEST, Secret Northwest, History

This post is entirely human written-NO AI

I am writing this sitting at the base of Lake Washington; literally there is a boat 2 feet from me docked…as I have lived here now twice, I wondered what mysteries lie within the waters as something keeps calling me back.

Over the last few weeks, I have been researching various internet posts and articles comparing what the historians have to say.

Way back in the long, long time ago time, this was actually salt water and part of Puget Sound. Archaeologists have confirmed this while digging. This lake is DEEP. I mean SUPER DEEP-214 feet deep (Puget Sound is between 450 and 938 feet deep) and is the second largest in the State of Washington (Chelan is first).

In the deepness are about 400+ boats, steamers (steam engine boats), a whole bunch of coal trains, planes, a Navy bomber, and unfortunately, the Seattle Fault. Salish tribes also have beliefs of supernatural entities lying within, which is what is keeping me from renting a kayak right now….

First, we will start with the ENTIRELY INTACT underwater forests. At the south end of Mercer Island, you can find about 72 fully intact Douglas Fir trees; tales say that dwarves that drive people insane inhabit these trees and took the life of a guy trying to steal it’s bark for his fireplace (the trees belong to the Department of Natural Resources). There are another batch of trees by Seward Park-I think it’s totally weird to look over at the bottom of Mercer and think of a giant FOREST of trees underneath. Some of the batches are at a 45 degree angle fully intact. Rumor has it the Seattle Fault (or A’yahos) struck creating an earthquake of landslides.

Another fact of remnants buried below are the coal mine train cars around the 520 bridge. I got deep researching coal today and apparently Newcastle was once home to a bunch of mines. Fun fact if you didn’t already know, coal is the byproduct of compacted plant matter and fossil fuels over the ages. It was stopped due to its greenhouse gas emissions. But lore has it that there are a bunch of underground tunnels near the Newcastle Golf Club and Cougar Mountain. I guess there were a bunch of explosions and fires underground that are potentially still burning…BUT we are talking Lake WA here, not just Newcastle. Before the infrastructure was developed, coal train cars used to load a barge and float down the lake to the Black River and then to the Duwamish up into Elliot Bay or something or other like that. I guess the coal was sold as far as San Francisco. One day while the 18 coal cars from 1875 were going across on a barge pulled by a steam ship, a rogue storm came and took out the bridge, burying the cars underwater. They are perfectly preserved due to the frigid waters with coal still in them.

In 1990, the newly constructed I-90 bridge collapsed in a rare storm and sunk to the bottom of the lake. Um, hold up-my conspiracy brain just connected 1990 and i90; also what is up with sinking newly constructed bridges and trains in WA (Gertie and that one speed train from Seattle to Portland a few years ago in Nisqually which is also where the last earthquake hit) Because of that bridge collapse, we now have the I-90 floating bridge.

There is an also a Navy bomber (PB4Y-2) perfectly intact with its landing gear in place down there and a bunch of boats including steamboats and other types of planes beneath as well (Boeing is next to me as I type).

It is really hard to find the Native American lore about this lake which is the most intriguing topic for me to learn about (I recently found out I’m 5% native). The dwarves that make people insane, the two headed serpents, A’yahos which is apparently a malevolent and dangerous serpent/elk spirit who produces earthquakes in Seattle…let’s not piss them off, shall we? We thank them so much for their continued peace. In further Native lore, the Thunderbird protects humans from evil spirits so next time we have a thunderstorm, consider that. What if the two were battling and caused each storm?

The Seattle Fault goes directly through the lake….

I crave going out on the water, but I will stick to the shore today; the bald eagle is back on its imaginary perch.

If you are planning a trip outdoors, don’t forget to check out Glam Northwest’s must haves list for a day at any of the Pacific Northwest’s many waterfronts.