Long before the first white man appeared on the eastern shore of Puget Sound, Native American tribes (the Snohomish, Stillaguamish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Sultan, Pilchuck) inhabited this area and traveled its waters by canoe.
The native peoples lived in family groups in cedar long houses and moved up and down the rivers from ocean to mountains in hand-hewn dugout canoes. They had a highly developed culture based on fishing for salmon and foraging for other foods found naturally in the densely forested land. Superb salmon runs, sea mammals, wildlife, and forests provided for all their material and spiritual needs. Modern anthropologists consider these people who lived on the Pacific coast among the wealthiest tribes in all of America, other than the Aztecs. This great natural wealth also attracted the first Europeans.
In 1792, Captain George Vancouver sailed the tall ship Discovery into this region, to claim the Pacific Northwest on behalf of King George III. Vancouver and his crew charted this region and named many of the bodies of water he explored, including Puget Sound and Port Gardner Bay, opening the way for European exploration and development.
White settlement of the region that became Snohomish County began in 1853, the year Washington Territory separated from Oregon Territory. Snohomish County was carved out of Island County on January 20, 1861, and grew slowly during the territorial years of 1853-1889. During this time period, settlements were founded at Tulalip Bay, Snohomish, Mukilteo, Lowell, Tualco (near Monroe), Stanwood, and Edmonds.
Soon after Washington achieved statehood in 1889, the Great Northern Railway brought a major boom down the Skykomish Valley to the new industrial city of Everett. The years from 1891 to 1893, known as the Rockefeller boom years, saw remarkable progress and prosperity. Henry Hewitt, a Tacoma lumberman and investor, formed the Everett Land Company with backing from the wealthy east coast Rockefeller family. Important commercial centers were created at both ends of Hewitt Avenue and rail connections were established.
However, the Silver Panic of 1893 caused a nationwide depression and put an end to this period of prosperity. It took six more years before recovery and steadier growth based on timber and farming began. During this time, Everett won the battle with the City of Snohomish to become the county seat and the large Bell sawmill, later to become a Weyerhaeuser mill, was built.
After World War II, growth quickened in the southwestern part of the county near Seattle adding Lynnwood, Brier, Mountlake Terrace, and Woodway as incorporated cities. In the late 1960s, construction of the Boeing Company's 747, 767, 777, 787 plant near Everett and the development of high technology industries along Interstate 405 and north towards Lake Stevens and Marysville, brought major population increases in those areas. At the same time, both lumber production and farming began to decline, greatly affecting smaller communities and the older mill towns.
The 1980s saw new industries emerge with a high technology base of aerospace, biotechnology, research and development and computer firms, including Microsoft.
The building of the U.S. Naval Station in Everett is bringing a new vitality and prosperity to the Everett area.
The high quality of life and economic growth in Snohomish County is expected to continue well into the 21st century.
A Sense of Place - The Culture and Hertitage of Snohomish County
