City of Seattle

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Seattle area was home to the Duwamish, a generally peaceable tribe that fished the bays and rivers of the Puget Sound and befriended early white settlers. In 1851, a native New Yorker named David Denny led the first group of settlers across the Oregon Trail with the intention of settling along the Puget Sound. Recognising the area's seaport possibilities, Denny's band staked a claim on Alki Point in present-day West Seattle. After a winter of wind and rain, the group moved the settlement to Elliott Bay, renaming it Seattle for the Duwamish chief Sealth, a friend of an early merchant.


Seattle's first boom came when the ship Portland docked in 1897 with its now-famous cargo: two tons of Yukon gold. Within weeks, thousands of fortune hunters from across the country passed through on their way to the northern gold fields. Local business blossomed as Seattle became the banking centre for the nouveau riche, and the bars, brothels and honky-tonks of Pioneer Square overflowed with pleasure-starved miners.


The city's progressive politics, inventive culture and ready access to outdoor recreation continue to lure restless people like no place else on the West Coast. Recent successes by pro football team the Seattle Seahawks have brought team owner Paul Allen, whom some call the city's patron saint, into a more public view; while his Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, has distributed his wealth far and wide, Allen has concentrated his largesse on his vision for remaking Seattle