Magnuson Park

Magnuson Park

The Fin Project (public art at the park)

Magnuson Park is a 350 acre (140 ha) park on Sand Point at Pontiac Bay, Lake Washington, in the Sand Point neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The park is the second largest in Seattle after 534-acre (220 ha) Discovery Park in Magnolia. Sand Point is the peninsula with Pontiac and Wolf bays that juts into Lake Washington, map [1]..

Sand Point-Magnuson Park

The first park at Sand Point was established in 1900 as Carkeek Park, a gift from developers Mr. and Mrs. Morgan J. Carkeek. After World War I, a movement was begun to build an air station at Sand Point, and King County began acquiring surrounding parcels. In 1922 the Navy began construction on the site, which it was leasing from the county, and in 1926 the Navy was deeded the 413 acre field outright. This amounted to a public gift of $500,000 from the county to the Navy, in 1926 dollars; this would be $5,283,000 in 2005 dollars, not including significant real estate appreciation. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce—a commercial entity—had done the same thing for the Army 28 years before with Fort Lawton, much of which is now Discovery Park. Fifty to eighty years later, the city has these two spectacular parks rather than urban development in their stead.

In 1970 the airfield shut down, and negotiations began as to who would receive the surplus property. In 1975 a large portion of the Navy's land was given to the City of Seattle and to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The city's land was largely developed as a park and named Sand Point Park. In 1977, it was renamed Magnuson Park in honor of Washington Senator Warren G. Magnuson. Both names are in use. Fourteen years later, in 1991, the naval installation closed completely, and the remaining land was divided among several entities including the city.

Sand Point provides habitat for the second richest bird habitat of any park in Seattle, with 170 species reported. In addition, Magnuson Park today features several sports fields, a picnic area, a swimming beach, public sailboating, many paths for walking and bicycling, and a dog park or off-leash dog area. Boat launch ramps, large parking lots for cars, trucks, and boat trailers provide access for vehicles, As of Fall, 2005, the City of Seattle has a development plan that features a large sports field complex of approximately ten fields, with seven to be well lit, and this plan has encountered opposition from neighborhood groups, environmental and park advocates.

The park also has a history of unofficial clothing-optional use since the mid 1970s. Sporadic and quiet use is in the northeast part of the Park, east of NOAA. Long-term volunteer efforts continue toward enhancing safe and legal use. Magnuson Park is one of about two dozen locations in Seattle.

Sand Point

Sand Point is the peninsula that juts into Lake Washington between Wolf Bay and Pontiac Bay. It is occupied by Magnuson Park, parts of View Ridge, Windermere, and gives its name to the Sand Point neighborhood to the west. Formerly the easternmost point was Naval Air Station-Sand Point; the former military base is now mostly public park with a portion occupied by NOAA and by city housing.

The area has been inhabited since the end of the last glacial period (c. 8,000 B.C.E.—10,000 years ago). Prairie or tall grassland areas (anthropogenic grasslands) were maintained along what is now Sand Point Way NE (map [2]), among numerous locations in what is now Seattle. The Xacuabš (Xachua'bsh or hah-choo-AHBSH, "the People of the Large Lake", now of the Duwamish tribe) had the village of TLEHLS ("minnows" or "shiners") on the shores of what is now called Wolf Bay in Windermere, on Lake Washington south of SqWsEb, now called Sand Point-Magnuson Park. BEbqwa'bEks ("small prairie"—anthropogenic grassland) was near what is now Windermere. One or three sizable longhouses have been documented. Villages were diffuse. These people may have been associated with the hloo-weelh-AHBSH of Union Bay. Just on the other side of Sand Point, the village of too-HOO-beed was of the too-oh-beh-DAHBSH extended family, near what is now called Thornton Creek at what is now Matthews Beach, so Sand Point was their shared "side yard".

See also

• The Sound Garden

Further reading

• Friends of Magnuson Park
• Magnuson Park, Seattle Parks and Recreation

• Dolan, Maria and True, Kathryn (2003). "Wide Open Spaces: Sand Point Magunson Park" in Nature in the city: Seattle, pp. 224–231. Seattle: Mountaineers Books. ISBN 0-89886-879-3 (paperback)
• Walter, Sunny and local Audubon chapters (updated 10 February 2006). "Sunny Walter's Washington Nature Weekends: Wildlife Viewing Locations - Greater Seattle Area". Retrieved 21 April 2006. Walter excerpted from Dolan, Maria & True, Kathryn (2003). Nature in the city: Seattle. Seattle: Mountaineers Books. ISBN 0-89886-879-3 (paperback).
  [with additions by Sunny Walter and local Audubon chapters.]