Ballard Fights to Save Its Waterfront
Local mill owners and city officials protest a state contract to fill Salmon Bay tide lands, fearing economic ruin.
George Donworth, Andrew Woods, Mayor Matthew Dow, Eugene Rickaecker, government engineer, and K. M. Carr, for the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern railroad, who went to Olympia to enter protest before Commissioner of Public Lands Forrest against the letting of a contract by the state to Hays and Shay for filling the Ballard tide lands, have returned home. Protests were presented signed by every mill owner in Ballard, by the mayor and all the councilmen of Ballard, and by nearly every merchant of Ballard. C. D. Samson, of the Mill Company, of Ballard, said: 'There is no doubt that the letting of such a contract would at this time be a serious public calamity. It would seriously interfere with the construction of the government canal connecting the waters of Lake Washington with Puget Sound through Lake Union. The filling in of the tide flats on Salmon Bay would cause in all probability a complete paralysis of the shingle and lumber interests on its shores, as the booming grounds of the mills would be destroyed.'
“The filling in of the tide flats on Salmon Bay would cause in all probability a complete paralysis of the shingle and lumber interests.”
The struggle over the Ballard waterfront and the development of the Ship Canal was a defining moment for Seattle's industrial geography. Today, the tension between industrial preservation and new development continues to shape the city's shoreline, though the 'booming grounds' have long since been replaced by recreational marinas and luxury housing.
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