Cottage Lake Photos:1936-2002
See the Historical Photos page for
more pictures. |
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Logging first began in this part of King County in the late 1800s. At
that time the surrounding hills were laced with saw mills and small pony
engines carried the logs to larger rail lines to be shipped into
Seattle. Once the land had been cleared of its timber in the late 1890s,
families began moving in to settle the area, building homes and farming
the land.
The original road through the area came from Woodinville, roughly
following 171st/175th Street NE, and passed along what is now Bassett
Pond before connecting to Avondale Road. A stage line following this
route brought passengers out from Seattle. From Avondale the road went
on to Cherry Valley, passing under a “veritable tunnel of trees”, as one
old-timer recalls. With the construction of the Woodinville-Duvall Road
in the 1930s this area began to open up to tourists able to drive out to
the country. “Motoring to Cottage Lake” became a popular trip from
Seattle and visitors flocked to the area. Cabins provided accommodation
to families that came to spend summer vacations swimming, boating, and
fishing at this lake with its accessible shoreline.
One of the first recreational camps here was begun in the late 1920s
when “Camp Comfort” was built at the south end of Cottage Lake as a
destination tourist attraction. In the 1930s it was rivaled by the
Erickson Lake Resort on the north side of the lake, which was purchased
by Norm Fragner in the 1940s. Norm capitalized on the popularity of the
spot, adding improvements over time and changing the name to Norm’s
Resort, but retaining the basic vacation/recreational aspects of the
camp. This camp site was obtained by King County with Open Space Bond
funds in 1990 and has since been developed as Cottage Lake Park.
During the first half of the 20th century, low-lying land west of
Cottage Lake was farmed and grazed by dairy cows. By about mid-century
wetlands further west of the lake were partially drained using tiles and
ditches, and blueberry bushes were planted. About the same time peat
mining was started in the area of Bassett Pond and the pond itself
resulted from the digging. A one-lane gravel road connecting dry land to
the peat mining operation was built, along with a bridge over Cold
Creek, which does not exist today. The area around Basset Pond was once
groomed to function as a three or four-hole golf course. Numerous trees
(over 20,000) were planted at Bassett Pond Park and the Natural Area to
the east of Bassett Pond beginning in 1962. Flowering plum, birch, and
spruce were planted and many of the latter were harvested for Christmas
trees. |
