- The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southwest and south by the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, and Quintana Roo; and on the southeast by Cuba. The Southern U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, which border the Gulf on the north, are often referred to as the “Third Coast” of the United States (in addition to its Atlantic and Pacific coasts).
- Maple Valley — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Maple Valley, a King County community nestled 10 miles southeast of Renton within the sheer-cliffed Cedar River valley, grew from its outskirts inward toward its center. Originally a hodgepodge of homesteader cabins, its growth can be attributed to the lumber industry, coal mining, railroads, watersheds, and highway development.