- Seattle’s Mount Baker community lies on Lake Washington southeast of downtown between the Leschi and Lakewood/Seward Park neighborhoods. This gentle hump above the lake, with views of the Cascade Range to the east and north across the lake and of the Rainier Valley and the Olympic Mountains to the west, is named for the North Cascades volcano whose 10,788-foot-high snow-covered dome dominates the distant northeast view.
- Seattle — Thumbnail History (historylink.org)
Seattle is the largest city in Washington state and its economic capital. Settled in 1851, its deep harbor and acquisition of Puget Sound’s first steam-powered sawmill quickly established it as a center of trade and industry. It gained the Territorial University (now University of Washington) in 1861, but was snubbed by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1874 when it picked Tacoma as its western terminus. Despite this, the town prospered thanks to independent railroad development fueled by local coal deposits…