The Red Lion Hotel on the Port Angeles Waterfront

Like many of the cities on the shoreline of the Salish Sea, downtown Port Angeles is built mostly on fill, and this fill material underlies one of the most most prominent buildings on the waterfront...the Red Lion Hotel.

Top photo:  Early 1900's photo from the Bert Kellogg collection, courtesy of the North Olympic Library System. Bottom photo: 2014 photo of the Red Lion Hotel on the Port Angeles waterfront. 

The historic photo above provides a sense for how dramatically that fill changed the coastal landscape, and how much the uses of the shoreline have changed.

Of special note in the historic perspective above is the wood cribbing used to buttress Front Street, still the main route into downtown from the east, and the small buildings on the beach.

Looking up Salmon Bay to the Train Bridge and Locks - Now and Then

Here's another now and then view shot from about a block south of Salmon Bay Charlie's place, off 39th Ave W in Magnolia. 

The 1908 view shows why the name Shilshole means "threading the bread" in regards to getting a canoe or later a boat up past the mid-channel sand bars to upper Salmon Bay. 

Top Photo by: Wilse, Neg# 1165

The big sandbar on the Ballard side was titled CHutqeedud meaning "lying curled up" or "lying curled up like a pillow." It was known for great clamming.

As a paddler who loves to play in tidal rapids, this would've been a fun feature to have in the neighborhood. An opposing wind may of created standing waves to surf, or a fun rapid to run from upper Ballard to Shilshole Bay.  You can see some mini current generated river like waves in between the two sandbars. 

Unfortunately, all sandbars here were dredged to allow shipping through the Locks, built in 1916-1917. 

Look for posts in a few weeks showing views of this shoreline from the opposite perspective. 

Google Earth

Learn more about early Salmon Bay in following books:

Native Seattle - Coll Thush, UW Press

Waterway - The Story of Seattle's Locks and Ship Canal - Williams/Ott/HistoryLink

Also good info on the Duwamish and Shilshole people in this Wikipedia link


Post by Rob Casey
www.salmonbaypaddle.com

Salmon Bay Charlie's Home in Seattle

1905 view of Hwelchteed and Cheethlooleetsa's home on the NE point of Magnola, across from Ballard.  Photo by Webster and Stevens. 

The view looks up (SE) Salmon Bay towards the narrow bottleneck where the Ballard Locks and bascule train bridge were built between in 1915-1917. 

Hwelchteed was also known as Salmon Bay Charlie, the last chief of the Shilshole people who once had several longhouses inside the what is now Ballard and the Locks. 

The village was called 'Tucked Away Inside' for its hidden protected view from the Sound.  

Hwelchteed was evicted from his home in 1913 to make way for the Ballard Locks. The little point his house was perched on was removed as were sandbars across the channel. 

The taller of the two trees is often spotted in other photos of the bay during this period. 

See shoreline change in this photo.  Paddling past at lower tides you can see where the shoreline was dredged into a deeper channel. The shoreline only has one non-armored section just beyond where the photo is.  

His home was located near W Sheridian Street. 

Read more about this area in Coll Thrush's book Native Seattle.  

Also check Paul Dorpat's Seattle Times article on Salmon Bay. Lots of 19th century photos and maps.

Posted by Rob Casey