THE SHOHOMISH RIVER:
INFLUENCING THE “TIDES OF TIME”

Research, compiled, and written by Aileen M. Langhans/February 2012

       When the white man first settled in Snohomish County, the Snohomish River was the center of activity, transportation, and commerce.  And the importance of this river was quite poetically described by William Whitfield in “1926 History of Snohomish County”, where he wrote the following:

“All the functions now fulfilled by railway and public road were the exclusive province of the river…  Its course defined the path and the limits of settlements, for the dense forest, inaccessible by water, was worthless no matter how fine the timber nor how rich the soil.  It was the river which must bear the pioneer’s wares to the market, whether those wares were logs or the products of the farm.  It was the river which must bring him his supplies.  It was the river which gave him his slight touch with the outside world.  It was the river which brought him all that he knew of friends and neighbors and social life of any kind.”     

Any disruption of this river, the lifeline of civilization, caused so much havoc to individual communities that it was tantamount to a famine.  Therefore detailed knowledge of and reliance on the tides and their timing became so crucial to survival that all residents watched every phase of the river with “absorbing interest”.     

Even prior to the white man, the Indians also depended upon this mighty river and respected its forces.  The canoe of commerce, used for hunting, fishing, and other journeys, had to meet stringent qualifications and its rider needed to develop high skills as well, in order to brave the ebb and flow of the river’s waters.  Therefore, the construction of each canoe involved the selection of suitable wood, the heating and burning processes, and the fine chiseling and scraping of the cedar.     

The Snohomish River has always had a dynamic and transient “soul”.  “Her” meandering through the county and its ever-changing course through floods and other natural events made it crucial that any traveler be deft and knowledgeable about many natural forces.  Note that the original habitation along the riverside began as early as 8,000 years ago.  And when the sea levels stabilized about 5,000 years ago, the salmon runs and shellfish beds became established and harvestable. (1)  At that point, the river began to dictate the migration of the native people, as they used their knowledge of “her” ways to feast upon “her” bounty.     

But when the white man entered this pristine land, the Native American Indians - the tamers of this river – signed a treaty in 1855 to exchange this verdant land, with its majestic forest and life-sustaining waterway, for cash and a reservation, called the Tulalip. The Snohomish River now provided a challenge to the newest settlers.  In fact, the first white men known to have ventured on this 12-mile journey up the dark river were the following: Egbert H. Tucker (1833 – 1912), Heil Barnes (1828 – 1910), and Edson Cady.  These men had great foresight when the staked claims on both sides of the river.  Their goal was to give them control over the transportation route needed by the military.  Unfortunately that never occurred.  Instead, the steamship service flourished, bringing loggers and supplies to camps up and down the river, as well as families and farmers.  In fact, about 69 steamships traveled the Snohomish River, moving passengers, freight, and even mail.   These trips were so much a part of the settlers’ lives, that their newspapers were filled with many stories, describing the “idiosyncrasies of the ships, the personalities of their captains, and the moods of the river…” (1)     

Another prominent settler was Dr. Henry Smith, a Seattle physician (1830 – 1915), who was also a writer and a farmer.  (Note: that his name was given to “Smith Island”, the island at the mouth of the Snohomish River where he settled in 1864.)   In 1863, he made a trip north to establish a settlement in the new county of Snohomish.  He wrote a glowing article for the Seattle Gazette on December 10^th, 1863, extolling the virtues of the area, with a passionate description as follows:    

At the mouth of the Snohomish River, “here are thousands of acres of fresh-water tide lands covered with a luxuriant growth of indigenous clover, red top and pea-vine.  These prairies are made by alluvial deposits during the overflowing of the river, and are consequently more of a sandy loam than salt water marshes, and can easily be reclaimed by ditching… The settlers have named this tract of country “New Holland” and expect it to be a garden spot of this territory in a few years.” (7)

He also documented the beginning of vibrant commerce along the river.  Mr. E. H. Thompson, for instance, ran a well-supplied store which carried on a thriving business with Indians and white settlers with various claims. (7)     

Man’s dependency on an intimate knowledge of and respect for the river’s tides was revealed by a story told by Mr. John Harvey (of Harvey Field).  He and a fellow Englishman, Sam H. Howe loaded a scow with oxen, potatoes, and other supplies as the ventured out from Whidbey Island, across Puget Sound, and up the Snohomish River.  Their journey required them to be able to read and time the tides, as they used that information to make their daily plans.  The following was recorded about their journey:     

“They got up to about where the town of Lowell is located, and the water became a bit too deep to move the boat along with the poles, so they drifted up with the tide.  When the tide went out, they would tie up the boat and go ashore, stay the night and wait for the tide to come back in.”   (2)

Eventually, Mr. Harvey built a cabin, in anticipation that his property would become more valuable, that more settlers would arrive, and that a town would eventually arise.  In fact, his cabin, in the area of the future town of Snohomish, soon became a welcome sight to river travelers.     

Even when the town of Everett first began, the river was at its “center of civilization and communication”.  For Mrs. Swalwell, who resided in the Riverside settlement, and Mrs. Hewitt, who lived in the Bayside settlement, their only means of socializing was that mighty waterway, because the direct “path” between their homes was an impenetrable forest with swampland.   In fact, David Dilgard eerily described the area as follows:     

“The Snohomish River was at the time a very weird place, the trees along the banks with their long branches extending out over the river, in many places meeting, with long strings of moss hanging from the branches, which nearly shut out the sunlight.”  (1)  

Therefore, the social visits between these two ladies always involved a day of traveling up or down the river in rhythm with the tides. (6)     

And so, as we look back at these rugged individuals and compare them with our fancy GPS devices, we can only be amazed by their great achievements, their remarkable skills, and their raw determination.   Hopefully, we now have a deeper appreciation of that meandering waterway that so profoundly steered the course of our history.

Article courtesy Historic Everett Newsletter, Spring 2012