Walking tour: The Secrets of Seattle's Disappearing Hill
LIMITED TO 15 PEOPLE
Between 1898 and 1930, Seattle completed its most audacious engineering change by eliminating Denny Hill at the north end of downtown. By the end of the project, Seattleites had washed and scraped more than 11 million cubic yards of landscape, reducing the previously 240-foot-high mound to its present pancake topography. David will discuss the full scope of this massive regrade project, point out often overlooked but still existing evidence of the topographic changes, and explain how this reshaping of the Seattle’s landscape continues to shape Seattle and those who call it home.
The walk covers about two miles of flat terrain and lasts between 90-120 minutes, depending on how many questions we ask.
Registration fee: $40 (SGS Members $30)
Event hosted by the SGS Field Trip Committee.
David B. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning books include Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound and Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, as well as Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. His newest book, Wild in Seattle: Stories at the Crossroads of People and Nature is a best of collection from his free weekly Substack newsletter, the Street Smart Naturalist.edc.
