Cottage Lake Photos:1936-2002

See the Historical Photos page for more pictures.

History of the Cottage Lake Area:
[taken from the Cold Creek Natural Area Site Management Plan]

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.