Bothell
Bothell was a popular steamboat stop along the Sammamish River when it became a town in 1908. Logs were felled in the heavy forests north of town, then floated into a North Creek flume toward shingle mills on the river, or rowed via Lake Washington log booms to Seattle and Ballard. The town lay in a fertile valley yielding milk, butter, eggs, potatoes, hay, corn and other crops.
In 1917, when the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks were finished and dramatically lowered Lake Washington, Bothell's identity as a transport point for natural resources began to change. The Sammamish River became known as the much smaller, less navigable "Sammamish Slough."
Growth in the past 30 years has changed the town even more dramatically. Bothell now touts itself as the "gateway to the state's high-tech corridor," home to Immunex (soon to be Amgen Inc.) and other biotech and tech companies along with the University of Washington's Bothell campus and Cascadia Community College.
Tech industries and growth have transformed the valley from fields of crops and clover to office parks and a cloverleaf -- the elevated intersection of Interstate 405 and state Route 522.
Nevertheless, Bothell has preserved its rural character, with popular attractions like the Country Village, and its history, with the log cabin, museum and schoolhouse at Bothell Landing. And walkers, joggers, bicyclists and skaters enjoy the Sammamish River Trail, which begins at Bothell's Blyth Park and connects with Seattle's Burke Gilman Trail.