At this time, a proposed Ames Lake Country Club threatened our community. It was to be built on the plateau east of Ames Lake. It would have a 27-hole golf course and estates. The board met to discuss this issue on March 12, 1995.
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There are a number of other historical societies around us. Here are their websites, location, and mailing address.
Tolt (Carnation) Historical Society
Website: tolthistoricalsociety.org
Museum: 31523 NE 40th Street, Carnation, WA 98014
Duvall Historical Society
Website: duvallhistoricalsociety.org
Museum: 26526 NE Cherry Valley Road, Duvall, WA 98019
Fall City Historical Society
Website: fallcityhistorical.org
Mailing address: POB 293, Fall City, WA 98024
Redmond Historical Society
Website: redmondhistoricalsociety.org
Mailing address: 16600 NE 80th Street, Ste. 122, Redmond, WA 98052
Snoqualmie Valley Museum
Website: snoqualmievalleymuseum.org
Museum: 320 Bendigo Boulevard S., North Bend, WA 98045
Whenever you moved to Ames Lake, you became part of our community’s history.
Here are some people’s thoughts about what it’s been like to live here:
“I’ve lived here for 59 years. The community and environment enchant me. I plan on staying here. This is my home.”
“The trees made me move here. We’ll probably stay forever. We’re honored to be part of the Ames Lake culture.”
“I like the quiet and peaceful setting. Every season is beautiful. I wouldn’t live anywhere else in the United States.”
“I like the tranquility and sense of a tight community. Everyday feels like a vacation in a postcard-like setting. This is home. I don’t plan to leave – by choice.”
“This is a really special place and unlike any other area of Washington. It’s a beautiful, peaceful setting, and not overdeveloped. I don’t plan on leaving.”
“I’ve lived here since 1970. This is a magical place. I love the community and the lake, and I like being out in the boonies. Ames Lake is my home. I’d be leaving in a box.”
“I’ve lived here for 20 years. The lake is a piece of heaven. It’s hard to imagine we would ever leave.”
Written by Bert Pschunder
Ames Lake was formed at the end of the last Ice Age in the Puget Sound area. At that time, a large ice block sat in a depression. As it melted, the sand and rock got moved by the streams of meltwater. The water flowed off the side of the ice block, as though the lock was a hill, and deposited the sand and rock around the rim of the ice block. These deposits are called ice contact stratified drift. It’s part of the reason we have a rim of higher ground around the lake.
Another reason for the higher ground is the glacial till deposits, which preceded the ice contact stratified drift. The glacial till included a mixture of silt, sand, and rock, which was deposited under the larger ice sheet that moved down from the north. Thousands of feet of glacial ice compacted the till, which is why it’s so hard to dig!
The postwar housing boom caused Washington lumber companies to increase their harvests from 3.3 billion board feet in 1945 to 5 billion board feet in 1951. Weyerhaeuser’s Snoqualmie Mill was the Valley’s largest employer, with about 1,100 employees. There were also dozens of smaller logging companies with only a few employees.
In order to avoid being forced to leave their ancestral lands, some Snoqualmie Tribal Members worked in the logging industry. This allowed them to live on their traditional homelands and access resources on land then restricted by timber companies. Most other logging industry workers were a mixture of older first-generation immigrants from Northern European countries and second- and third-generation European Americans who had moved from the mid-West.
Jobs in the timber industry were diverse. These included building logging roads, falling trees, operating heavy equipment, working in the mill, sharpening blades, selling lumber, working as a mechanic to keep equipment operating, and replanting trees.
The conservation movements of large timber companies and government agencies focused on reforestation, fire protection, and other related issues to mitigate the pollution, ecological destruction, and other dangers the industry was creating. The damage to the ecosystem was irreversible and the old growth forest they logged was irreplaceable.
For many decades, the heavily wooded areas along the Snoqualmie River and its tributaries provided a substantial income for logging and milling companies . As the lowland timber was removed, the cleared land was used for farming.
During the 1870s, the lumber technology evolved from hand sawing and hewing to small water-powered sawmills. Steam donkeys were commonly used for logging operations. The logging companies dumped their logs into the Snoqualmie River, formed them into booms, and had sternwheeler boats tow them to sawmills downstream in Everett.
Siler logging in Ames Lake
The most prominent logging companies during this boom period included Cherry Valley Logging, headquartered in Stillwater, and Siler logging, based in Ames Lake. Both companies harvested and milled timber in the vicinity, employing many local residents.
As late as the 1920s, there were still many old growth trees in the area east of Redmond. Logging was dominated by the Siler Logging Company. Felled trees were taken north by means of a specially built 25 mile railroad, which ran from Ames Lake to Bromart, just south of Snohomish.
From the mid-1880s until the end of World War II, logging and its related sawmilling was the largest industry on the Eastside.