On the banks of the Duwamish

 Duwamish Waterway Park

These past months we've explored more gardens and parks relatively close to home, and discovered some places we never bothered to go before. It's been nice.

This large park is practically in our backyard, a few minutes from the house. Living in West Seattle, we drive over and along the Duwamish River and passed by the park thousands of times.

Yesterday I stopped at Safeway for some chicken wings, and we took a picnic down to check it out.

The river has an interesting and complex history. Seattle is a young city, and 200 years ago the Duwamish wetlands were enormous, a complex of waterways draining major area rivers (White, Cedar, Green, etc.) into Puget Sound.

The wet delta consisted of thousands of acres of habitat, bursting with wildlife and fish. Before the white settlers arrived in 1850 and claimed the land, this was the home of the Duwamish people.

Seattle grew quickly. In 1900, the city dredged a deep trench to straighten the river bed and create an artificial shipping canal.

Square miles of "useless swamps" were filled in and soon covered with houses and farms. The new, narrow Duwamish channel lined with polluting industries for the next century.

The lower Duwamish was proclaimed a Superfund Site by the EPA in 2001, and the long, complicated process of cleaning up the river began, aided by a robust volunteer program.

Kellogg Island, along with this bit of natural shoreline, is all that remains of the natural upper Duwamish River.

However, the evolution of the Duwamish is well-documented with historical images.

We found an extensive network of clean hiking trails in the park, and surprisingly little evidence of homeless camping.

Many interesting views of the Seattle skyline, shipping and industrialization.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and very few people around.

The bottom fish and shellfish are seriously polluted with PCB's and heavy metals, and should not be consumed by humans.  And this guy didn't read the warning signs.

Nevertheless, we've seen people fishing in the river for years. Way back when, people would fish off the old lower drawbridge to West Seattle. 

Anyway, we had an enjoyable walk after lunch.  Interesting birds everywhere, including a large, noisy flock of Caspian Terns feeding on a sandbar.