Brackett’s Landing honors the logger who founded Edmonds

Legend has it that George Brackett was paddling in a canoe in search of timber in 1870 when a windstorm forced him to land.

The Canadian-born logger (1841-1927), then 29 years old, was scanning the eastern shores of Puget Sound when the winds swelled and waters roughened. Taking no chances, he made landfall on a gently sloping beach.

Beyond that beach was a heavily forested hillside and marsh that together formed a bowl-shaped valley. It was there that Brackett saw potential for a logging operation.

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Brackett returned in 1876 with $650 (about $15,000 in today’s money) to purchase a half-mile stretch of land along the waterfront. He drained the marsh, built himself a cabin, and then set to work platting land for a logging town that would later become Edmonds.

George Brackett was Edmonds’ first mayor and a city councilman. (Edmonds-South Snohomish County Historical Society)

The place where he made landfall 142 years ago was named Brackett’s Landing in his honor in 1972. Now a popular waterfront park, Brackett’s Landing is the oldest site in Edmonds’ Register of Historic Places.

As the founder of Edmonds, Brackett is the city’s most enduring icon.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Brackett’s return to Edmonds, residents re-enacted the historical event with a paddle boat in 1976. Fourteen years ago, the Beat Brackett 5K was established, in which residents race to the finish line dressed as the gray-bearded founder.

Edmonds residents celebrate the 100th anniversary of George Brackett’s landing in 1976. (Edmonds Historical Museum)

“It certainly speaks well to the image he has,” said Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling.

Re-enactors tell Brackett’s legacy from the steps of the former Andrew Carnegie Library, now the Edmonds Historical Museum.

Yet Earling says Brackett’s impact goes deeper than historical re-enactments and running impersonators.

Because people know the history of Edmonds and George Brackett, they feel connected to their community, Earling said.

In the late 1870s, Brackett cleared the land by felling trees by axe and then walking a team of oxen. It was long, hard work. With those logs he built Edmonds’ first store, post office and school. He also built a sawmill and loading dock next to the current site of the Edmonds-Kingston ferry slip. He and his wife, Etta Jones, raised six children during this time.

George Brackett poses with the team of oxen he used to log the old-growth forests around Edmonds. (Edmonds Historical Museum)

Brackett named Edmonds after Senator George Franklin Edmunds of Vermont. Note the spelling. Due to a governmental error, the U in Edmunds was changed to an O.

Legend also has it that Brackett listed two of his oxen — Simon and Bolivar — as residents to meet the population requirement (300 people) to incorporate in 1890. The minor fraud helped make Edmonds the oldest city in Snohomish County.

Brackett became Edmonds’ first mayor and was later elected to the City Council, where he oversaw the town’s development into a modern city.

Brackett’s push for automobile ferry service at Edmonds became reality 2½ years before his death in 1927. He was 85.

By then, the place where Brackett made his landing was dominated by a dozen shingle mills turning old-growth forest into lumber around the clock. Plumes of woodsmoke obscured the view of Puget Sound. The lumber was transported via railroad and water up and down the West Coast.

The Edmonds waterfront circa 1895. (Edmonds Historical Museum)

The mills helped keep Edmonds viable during the Great Depression, but by the end of World War II, the city was running low on trees. Quality Shingle Mill was the last standing in 1951.

The landing received a makeover in the early 1960s. Boathouses, a fishing pier and playgrounds were built where lumber mills formerly stood. For the first time in 90 years, locals could see and enjoy the Sound’s beauty.

An aerial view of Brackett’s Landing in 1966. (Edmonds Historical Museum)

Around the same time, the city also built a jetty with a walkway to give beach-goers a chance to get closer to the water.

Today, Brackett’s Landing, with panoramic views of Puget Sound and the Olympics, divided in half by the Edmonds-Kingston ferry terminal, is one of Edmonds’ most popular destinations. The park draws about 100,000 visitors per year.

“There are just myriad ways that people use it today, and that’s wonderful,” said Katie Kelly, executive director of the Edmonds Historical Museum. “You can walk out on the jetty and experience the water and the views.

“You have that Edmonds kind of day.”

Megan Stinson holds her daughter Bellamie, 2, as they walk out to the lookout point at Brackett’s Landing. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Evan Thompson: 425-339-3427, ethompson@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @ByEvanThompson.

Your hometown’s history

This story is part of an occasional series on buildings, homes and parks in Snohomish County that have been named to local, state and national lists of historic places.