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When timber baron Frederick Weyerhaeuser purchased nearly a million acres of railroad land in 1900, Seattle’s mushrooming logging industry turned a corner for even more rapid growth and exploitation of natural resources. Until then, entrepreneurs such as Henry Yesler ruled the wharf, and erected the pioneer town out of lumber from ancient old growth forests.

Archaeological records date the first inhabitants of the Seattle region to 11,000-12,000 years ago. Tribes included the Suquamish, Duwamish, Nisqually, Snoqualmie, and Muckleshoot, who, despite their harsh environment, evolved into complex societies that traded with other tribes.

If Seattle is a boom and bust town, it certainly felt the boom in a magnitude-6.8 earthquake on the morning of February 28, 2001 (see Pioneer Square). Workers escaped their offices, if they could, to see the earth rolling, pavements cracking, and cars violently swaying. The region suffered more than $1 billion in damages.

Seattle’s neighbor, Tacoma, was the original terminus of 1873’s Northern Pacific Railroad, linking the region to the rest of the country. By 1893, another transcontinental railroad, the Great Northern Railway, extended into Seattle, eventually supplanting Tacoma as the Puget Sound region’s main rail depot.

During Oktoberfest celebrations, Fremont’s brew fest includes the hilarious chainsaw pumpkin carving competitions.

In 1975, Harvard dropout Bill Gates and his high school friend Paul Allen founded Microsoft. From the suburb of Redmond, they launched a personal computer revolution and have never looked back. Today, Microsoft’s Windows operating system is the dominant computer platform, and the company employs more than 50,000 people worldwide.

The serial killer of the 1980s admitted to 30 murders and was executed in 1989.

This upscale venue offers a comfortably dark, nightclub ambience and serves fine wines and cocktails, along with guest musical performers.

A masquerade parade begins its route near the Fremont Troll. This take-off on Halloween ends at a bizarre masked ball with light-shows and live entertainment.

Step in for an enviable selection of poetry, calligraphy, history, social sciences, cookbooks, gardening, mysteries, and children’s literature. They also brew up all kinds of tea, available for tasting, and sponsor readings.