History
From the first peoples to today.
Twenty moments along the Sammamish River, from stone tools more than 10,000 years old to trains across the lake. Scroll, and each one pops up from the page.
The first peoples, first
The Sammamish River runs through the homelands of Coast Salish peoples, who have lived along it since time immemorial. The people of this river called themselves by a Lushootseed name often translated as "willow people".
Their descendants are part of nations here today, among them the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, the Tulalip Tribes and the Duwamish Tribe. Snoqualmie families kept a community longhouse on Lake Sammamish into the 1930s.
The Snoqualmie Tribe asks visitors to its ancestral lands, Lake Sammamish among them, to treat the land with respect: pack out your trash and stay on the trails. Learn from the nations themselves:
Twenty moments
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10,000+ years ago
Tools and salmon by Bear Creek
More than 10,000 years ago, people were already making stone tools beside Bear Creek, and salmon were already swimming up it.
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Time immemorial
The willow people
Coast Salish peoples have always lived along this river. Its people called themselves by a Lushootseed name often translated as "willow people", and they live on in nations here today.
Spawning kokanee, the lake's own form of sockeye, in a creek that feeds Lake Sammamish. U.S. Department of the Interior, CC BY-SA 2.0 -
1855
The Treaty of Point Elliott
On January 22, 1855, at Mukilteo, leaders of the Duwamish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Snohomish and other peoples signed the treaty. They gave up most of their land, and kept the right to fish at their usual places.
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1871
Two settler families
Luke and Kate McRedmond arrived in the spring, and Warren and Laura Perrigo in June.
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1883
Salmonberg, then Melrose, then Redmond
The place was first called Salmonberg, for the chum salmon that filled its streams, then Melrose, after the Perrigos' busy inn. On March 19, 1883, postmaster Luke McRedmond had the post office renamed Redmond.
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1880s
Tall timber
Loggers came for the tall trees, and by the early 1900s lumber and shingle mills hummed along Lake Sammamish.
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1889
The railroad arrives
The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway reached the village. Trains ran through town until 2008, and the line is a trail now.
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1912
A town of about 300
On December 31, the last day of the year, Redmond became a town.
A boat passes under the wooden Redmond bridge over the Sammamish Slough on May 30, 1913. H. Ambrose Kiehl, University of Washington Libraries, public domain -
1913
Bill Brown's brick building
Bill Brown, later mayor for nearly thirty years, put up a red-brick building downtown that still looks much as it did then.
Its neighbour from those years: the old Odd Fellows Hall of 1903, still standing on Leary Way. Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0 -
1916
The lakes drop
From August, Lake Washington was lowered about nine feet for the new ship canal. Lake Sammamish dropped too, and the Sammamish River ran faster.
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1922
A brick school
Redmond built a two-story red-brick school on NE 80th Street, the building known today as the Old Redmond Schoolhouse.
The Old Redmond Schoolhouse, built in 1922. Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0 -
1934
The Slough Race
Every year from 1934, boats raced down the winding river in the Sammamish Slough Race.
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1938
A one-dollar park
The town had bought land for its first park in 1928 for one dollar. In 1938 New Deal workers built its log cabins, and Anderson Park is on the National Register of Historic Places.
One of the park's two log cabins, under the firs. LycheeJelly1, CC BY-SA 4.0 -
1939
The first bicycle derby
In the summer of 1939 the first Redmond Bicycle Derby sent riders around Lake Sammamish, and Derby Days was born.
Racers sweep through a corner downtown in a recent Derby Days race. Sam.Meyer.Marton, CC BY-SA 3.0 -
1962
Marymoor becomes a park
Voters approved a bond to buy the old Marymoor farm, and it became King County's very first park.
The Clise mansion at Marymoor, begun as a hunting lodge. Suslay, CC BY-SA 3.0 -
1966
A river made straight
In the mid-1960s the Army Corps of Engineers straightened the meandering Sammamish River to hold back floods. The work was finished in 1966.
The river today at Luke McRedmond Landing, downtown. HominyGrits007, CC BY-SA 4.0 -
1975
The velodrome opens
The concrete oval at Marymoor opened for racing in the spring, and Redmond's love of bikes got a track of its own.
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2014
A creek given its bends back
Redmond gave lower Bear Creek a new, winding channel and a sheltered meeting place with the river, for the salmon.
Geese and goslings on the bank of Bear Creek, in late May. Steven Pavlov, CC BY-SA 4.0 -
2024
A partner on ancestral lands
In October, Redmond became a city partner of the Snoqualmie Tribe's Ancestral Lands Movement.
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2025
Trains again, and across the lake
On May 10, 2025, light rail reached Marymoor Village and Downtown Redmond. On March 28, 2026, the trains began crossing Lake Washington on a floating bridge, a first for any metro line in the world.
Marymoor Village station on opening day. SounderBruce, CC BY-SA 4.0
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