Green Lake (wta.org)The quintessential Seattle walk around the perimeter of a 15,000 thousand-year-old glacial lake, this trail is accessible to folks of all ages and abilities. It continues to be a preserve for hundreds of species of trees and plants, as well as numerous birds and waterfowl.
history
Green Lake Park (Seattle) (historylink.org)Green Lake Park is a 323-acre park located in north Seattle, adjacent to Woodland Park. Famed landscape architect John Charles Olmsted included a boulevard around Green Lake in his 1903 plan for Seattle’s park and boulevard system. The Board of Park Commissioners acquired the lake and surrounding land by 1908 and hired Olmsted to create plans for the park in 1908 and 1910. Over the years, the park evolved from a boulevard, to a rustic lakeshore park, to a more formalized park with numerous annual events held on the lake, to a park with fewer water-based events, but a highly used pathway circumnavigating the lake. It is one of the most popular parks in the state.
Clark County — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)Local history buffs call Clark County the “Cradle of Pacific Northwest History,” reflecting the importance of the 628-square-mile southwestern Washington county as the scene of key historical developments. Here the Lewis and Clark expedition arrived in 1805, the British Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Vancouver in 1825, and the town of Vancouver was incorporated in 1857. The county’s location first made it an entrepôt (trading center), then an agricultural area. The region developed in agriculture, lumber, and fishing, and later in shipbuilding and aluminum. In recent times, energy from hydroelectric projects on the Lewis and Columbia rivers has fueled development as a manufacturing center.
