Carkeek Park

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Carkeek Park" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Carkeek Park
Carkeek Park beach beyond the BNSF tracks. Esplanade NW in the distance
Type	Urban Park
Location	Seattle, Washington
Coordinates	47°42′46″N 122°22′42″W / 47.71278°N 122.37833°W / 47.71278; -122.37833
Area	216 acres (0.87 km2)
Created	1920s
Operated by	Seattle Parks and Recreation

Carkeek Park is a 216 acres (87 ha) park located in the Broadview neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The park contains Piper Orchard, Pipers Creek (and its tributaries Venema Creek and Mohlendorph Creek), play and picnic areas, picnic shelters, and hiking trails. A pedestrian bridge across the main lines of the BNSF Railway connects to the Carkeek Park sand beach on Puget Sound. Park program activities are largely out of the Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center.

Carkeek Park’s original location, established in 1918 along Lake Washington’s Pontiac Bay, was short-lived, replaced by a Naval Air Station less than a decade later where Magnuson Park now stands. But Morgan Carkeek, a prominent Seattle builder, wasn’t ready to let his family’s namesake landmark disappear. Using the sale proceeds, he helped create a new location for Carkeek park at the mouth of a creek called kʷaatəb in Lushootseed, meaning "place where people are sent."^[1]

The new Carkeek Park, located in a steep canyon, would remain largely untouched by the rapid urbanization around it. Most of the land was purchased by the City of Seattle in the late 1920s, with 20% donated by Carkeek. Over the years, the park served various purposes: it hosted outdoor performances, provided feed for zoo animals, and even briefly became an Army camp during World War II. In the 1930s, workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps built park structures, only to see them removed by 1938.

Plans for an equestrian academy in the late 1940s were halted by budget shortfalls. An archery field built in 1955 was relocated to Magnuson Park by 1985. Meanwhile, a sewage treatment plant that operated for years was eventually replaced by a Metro pumping station near the beach.

Carkeek Park’s natural landscape has seen significant changes. Originally covered in old growth forest, it was clearcut by the early 20th century. Today, the park features a mature maple-alder forest in a successional stage, with evergreens like Western red cedar and Douglas fir slowly reclaiming their dominance. Wetlands host cattails and sedges, and huge lady ferns fill the ravine between 105th and 110th streets.

The steep terrain has acted as a natural buffer, protecting Carkeek Park from the surrounding urban expansion that reshaped much of Seattle. A century later, it remains a green sanctuary, shaped by a mix of natural evolution and community-driven preservation efforts.

Piper’s Orchard, Seattle’s oldest, was planted by settler A.W. Piper after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Neglected for decades, the orchard was rediscovered in 1981. Volunteers restored the trees and planted new ones, forming the Friends of Piper’s Orchard to preserve this piece of Seattle’s history.^[2]

In the 1980s, chum salmon returned to Pipers Creek after a 50-year absence, following restoration efforts launched in 1979 by the Carkeek Watershed Community Action Project. The initiative, supported by the Suquamish Tribe, state agencies, Seattle Public Utilities, and Seattle Parks, focused on improved storm water management practices to revive the salmon run.^[3] Peak season to see returning salmon is November.^[4][5] In autumn 2023, beavers took up residence on the creek near its outlet into Puget Sound, building a dam, altering the environment, and complicating the maintenance of the salmon run.^[6]

In addition to the variety of program activities and environmental stewardship, the community-driven Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center (ELC) is becoming a model for resource efficiency and protection of human health and the environment. Built to the highest standard of the U.S. Green Building Council, sustainable building features of the ELC include:

• rooftop rainwater harvest for flushing toilets and managing storm water. This is becoming dramatically more attractive for large buildings and as potable water is becoming scarce (and expensive);
• energy-efficient highly insulated building envelope, intelligent lighting, and natural ventilation (some is rediscovery: natural lighting and ventilation were common before electricity);
• solar electric (photovoltaic) panels provided by City Light's Green Power program
• 80% recycling or salvaging of demolition and construction waste;
• salmon-friendly landscaping, meaning drought-tolerant, native species and increased storm water infiltration;
• paints and coatings, adhesives, sealants, wood composites and carpeting which protect indoor air quality;
• recycled content products were used in construction: concrete, backfill, wood composite casework, insulation, and flooring; salvaged materials included peeler logs from a naval building in South Lake Union; and
• regional materials were preferred, supporting the regional economy and reducing the energy, waste, and pollution associated with transportation (one of the biggest components of fossil fuel and energy use).

Due to cuts to the City of Seattle's budget, the ELC closed in 2013.

• Daylighting (streams)
• Vivian Carkeek
• Water resources

• "Carkeek Park". Seattle Parks and Recreation. 2006-08-08. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
  • This page has since been replaced by "Carkeek Park". Seattle Parks and Recreation. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
• "Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center". Seattle Parks and Recreation. 2006-08-08. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
• "Carkeek Park Environmental Learning Center: Summer 2006" (PDF). Carkeek Park. Seattle Parks and Recreation. 2006-06-30. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 26, 2007. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
• Sherwood, Don (2003-06-20). "Carkeek Park" (PDF). PARK HISTORY: Sherwood History Files. Seattle Parks and Recreation. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 11, 2007. Retrieved 2006-04-21.
• "Sustainable Building & Development". Seattle Parks and Recreation. 2006-06-28. Retrieved 2006-08-21.
• "What is Environmental Stewardship?". Seattle Parks and Recreation. 2006-03-01. Retrieved 2006-08-21.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Carkeek Park.

• Seattle Parks and Recreation: Carkeek Park