The Burke-Gilman Trail, a walking-biking corridor which passes through Fremont, is the legacy of early Seattle movers-and-shakers, Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman. The energy and activism of these men characterized the era of the 1870s-1880s when the population of Seattle began to grow and the city sought to make something of itself. Burke & Gilman transformed the city with their promotion of transportation projects.
Early Seattleites had already noted that there was a creek flowing westward from Lake Union through what is now Fremont and on out to Puget Sound. Early Seattleites hoped to widen and deepen this stream to accommodate ships. Known as The Outlet or Ross Creek, the level ground of this area was also an ideal route for a railroad, crossing east-west along the northern shore of Lake Union. But neither objective, a rail line or a canal, could be achieved until the property ownership issues were resolved.
Thomas Burke was 25 years old when he arrived in Seattle in 1875 with a law degree in hand. He became a noted civic activist, joining in with others who were working on trying to get a railroad line into Seattle, and trying to get a ship canal built from Lake Union westward to Puget Sound. Both the railroad and the ship canal would be used to move raw materials like timber and coal and manufactured items like bricks, to the port on Seattle’s downtown waterfront.
An area of 212 acres centered at what is now North 34th Street & Fremont Avenue, had been the 1854 homestead land claim of a man named William Strickler. Stricker disappeared in 1861 and the legal issues of who actually owned the property, went unresolved. As a result, no one else could acquire the property to develop it, or put through a railroad line, or work on creating a larger channel to accommodate ships.
Finally in 1887 Thomas Burke found a way to break the legal logjam by bringing suit for the property taxes on Strickler’s land. Since the heirs of William Strickler did not take action, the future-Fremont land was put up for auction. In 1888 the Blewetts, investors from Fremont, Nebraska, along with their Seattle co-developers, began laying out streets and house lots in Fremont. At that same time, Thomas Burke and the railroad committee started putting through the railroad line which today is in the same place as the trail named for him and for activist Daniel Hunt Gilman.
Daniel Gilman arrived in Seattle in 1883 with a background of multiple areas of expertise. He was a Civil War veteran from Maine, who’d seen the importance of railroads which had been vital for moving men and supplies during the war. After the war Gilman worked as a merchant in New York and he also gained a law degree. Gilman became the key fundraiser for the Seattle railroad which Burke & the committee wanted to have. They needed investors from “back East” to put up money for the project. Daniel Gilman made several fundraising trips to line up financial backing for Seattle’s home-grown railroad.
By 1888 the railroad, called the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern, was chugging its way through Fremont along the banks of Ross Creek – not yet a ship canal. That ship canal project would not come to completion until it was constructed in 1911-1917.
In 1971, at a time when the railroad era was ending, a group of activists in the Wedgwood neighborhood came up with the “rail to trail” idea. Their efforts successfully preserved the rail line which is now called “Seattle’s longest park,” and was named the Burke-Gilman Trail.
For more info:
More background details about the lives of Judge Thomas Burke and Daniel Gilman, a blog article on the Wedgwood in Seattle History page.
The story of William Strickler.
Pioneers of Fremont: John Ross.
The founding of Fremont in 1888.
Wedgwood’s Trailmakers: the Burke-Gilman Trail.
