The Duwamish River is Seattle's only river and we have not treated it kindly. Besides the normal open sewer issues, Boeing, the Port of Seattle and others were dumping more exotic toxins for many years. Superfund status came in 2001 for the last 5 miles due to the presence of at least 40 different chemicals at levels toxic to human health. By 2015, $200 million in cleanup efforts had dropped the major contributors down by about half. Still, every fish and shellfish in the system is toxic with the exception of salmon who only spend a few hours swimming through to the Green River. Even then, its still recommended to only eat them for a couple meals a week.
It had been almost a full year since I threw a salmon lure and toxins are only a problem for a successful fisherman so I was excited to try the river for the first time. Visit #1 was a rainy September 25th and there were coho jumping everywhere!! They were mostly little guys but it was worth the drive just to watch that vitality for 10 minutes. Despite all of the folks across the way, I only saw one fish caught and all I managed was to hook into a fish for a couple rolls.
- The farm of James Steele (no known relation) in 1885
- Homestead of Michael/Jane Kelly in 1890
- Near Georgetown (now part of Seattle) in 1914
- Boeing Plant in 1918
- West Spokane Street Bridge workers in 1922
