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"Mercer Island History: From Haunted Wilderness to Coveted Community" is the all-new, comprehensive history of Mercer Island, Washington, a unique island community in Lake Washington between Seattle and Bellevue. It is published by the Mercer Island Historical Society and based on the previous history books by Judy Gellatly. With text and photos, it chronicles Mercer Island's rich history from the early settlers in the 1880s to today. It has hundreds of black and white and color photos, many of which have never been published before. It includes numerous maps and sidebars, a comprehensive timeline, descriptions of the Island's various neighborhoods, and a chapter of "then" and "now" photos. The appendix is filled with census data, lists of famous and infamous residents and much more. This hardback book is an essential read for anybody who's ever lived on Mercer Island, wondered about it while crossing it on Interstate 90 or aspired to live there.
Mercer Island occupies a unique geographic position situated in Lake Washington, just 15 minutes to Seattle or Bellevue, yet semirural in feel. Pioneers first settled the island in the late 1800s, surviving mainly by their own ingenuity as the island lacked even the most basic services. Wealthy Seattle residents built summer cabins on the island to enjoy its bucolic setting. With the advent of passenger and car ferry services to Seattle, Mercer Island gradually acquired a school, church, and post office, and many other services took root in the community. Residents continued to use rowboats, steamboats, and ferries to get to and from the island. Development was slow and cumbersome, as all supplies had to be transported by boat. However, with the opening of the East Channel Bridge in 1923 and the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, the island gradually evolved into a commuter suburb, attracting new residents to its park-like setting and excellent schools.
The first thorough historical account of the great Washington State city and its hero, Chief Seattle—the Native American war leader who advocated for peace and strove to create a successful hybrid racial community. When the British, Spanish, and then Americans arrived in the Pacific Northwest, it may have appeared to them as an untamed wilderness. In fact, it was a fully settled and populated land. Chief Seattle was a powerful representative from this very ancient world. Here, historian David Buerge threads together disparate accounts of the time from the 1780s to the 1860s—including native oral histories, Hudson Bay Company records, pioneer diaries, French Catholic church records, and historic newspaper reporting. Chief Seattle had gained power and prominence on Puget Sound as a war leader, but the arrival of American settlers caused him to reconsider his actions. He came to embrace white settlement and, following traditional native practice, encouraged intermarriage between native people and the settlers—offering his own daughter and granddaughters as brides—in the hopes that both peoples would prosper. Included in this account are the treaty signings that would remove the natives from their historic lands, the roles of such figures as Governor Isaac Stevens, Chiefs Leschi and Patkanim, the Battle at Seattle that threatened the existence of the settlement, and the controversial Chief Seattle speech that haunts to this day the city that bears his name.