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34-573: The ravine that is the central feature of Cowen and Ravenna Park was formed when melt-off from the Vashon Glacial Ice Sheet formed Lake Russell and proceeded to cut drainage ravines through new glacial fill. Lake Russell disappeared when the ice sheet retreated north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca , but some features remained, including the Green Lake drainage basin , which continued to empty through

68-490: A careless backswing of his ax. He bandaged his own wound and returned to work. The next year he was in the same area at Keechelus Lake helping a mining company look for gold. But he lived only a few years longer, and died at Licton Springs in 1903. His wife, Louisa Boren Denny, lived until 1916. They are both buried at what is now the Evergreen Washelli cemetery near Licton Springs, land that they once owned and lost in

102-762: A member of the Seattle City Council , a director of the Seattle School District , and regent of the Territorial University of Washington, predecessor to the University of Washington . He was an advocate of woman suffrage (which was won in Washington the 1880s, though later rescinded) and the temperance movement , and opposed the Anti-Chinese movement in the mid-1880s . In the early 1880s, Denny

136-559: A plan that would be 'good for Seattle', and one needed a respectable tone and a willing investor." Denny was born in Putnam County , Illinois . With what would become known as the Denny Party —named after Denny's older brother Arthur Denny —he traveled west by covered wagon in 1851 to Oregon. Along with John Low and Lee Terry, he traveled by boat to the future site of Seattle, arriving September 25, 1851. As Low went to reconnoiter with

170-643: A wading pool, ballfield, trails, and tennis courts. The parks are mostly forested with native Bigleaf Maple , Douglas Fir , Grand Fir , Western Hemlock , Western White Pine and Western Redcedar . Nonindigenous trees include Coast Redwood , Incense-cedar , and Western Larch . There are workparties in the park held by the Seattle Parks Department, particularly in April and May. A volunteer group, Friends of Ravenna Ravine, works to remove invasive species, such as English Ivy and Himalayan Blackberry from

204-415: Is named for geologist , Israel Cook Russell. Forming about 17,000 years before present (ybp) as the ice front began to retreat northward. One version or another of Lake Russell existed from 16,900 ybp until 15,900 ybp. Early Lake Russell formed in the southern basins of Puget Sound . As the glacial ice retreated northward, the geologic troughs, which create the basins of the sound remained blocked from

238-479: Is the result of post-glacial erosion. The bluffs along both sides are seen as evidence of this theory. Black Lake resides in the pass, beginning as a swamp. Black Lake is 2 to 2.5 miles (3.2 to 4.0 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide. It stands 120 feet (37 m) above tide. Withdrawal of the edge of the ice from Thurston County left both the Deschutes and Nisqually Rivers free to flow directly northward to

272-533: The National Register of Historic Places . There is also a rail trail along the southern edge of the park where David Denny 's Ravenna streetcar line once ran. Ravenna Park is a 1 ⁄ 2 mile (800 m) wooded ravine which connects two picnic areas just north of the University District. The park is open to hikers, joggers, bikers, and picnickers. The park also features a play area for children,

306-666: The Olympia area, a low drainage was reached in the eastern Black Hills . Using the Black River as its primary drainage, Lake Russell came into existence was continued after the edge of the ice had withdrawn from the region. Using two channels, the waters drained south to the Chehalis River valley. A northern channel left the Budd Inlet in near Butler Cove. A southern channel passed through Capitol Lake. A third channel may have existed from

340-482: The Chehalis Valley. In the pass is a long, narrow swamp, which drains to both Puget Sound and Grays Harbor . Its altitude is 120 feet (37 m) above sea level. Along the southern margin is a gravel bluff at 150 to 160 feet (46 to 49 m) of considerable size. The northern margin has a gravel terrace at 140 feet (43 m) above sea level, and another narrow terrace is at 160 feet (49 m). The existing valley

374-564: The City of Seattle the twelve acres comprising this park." Cowen (actual surname Cohen, changed upon his arrival to America) was an English native who came from a family of South African diamond merchants. Upon his arrival in Seattle in 1900 he purchased 40 acres of logged-off land around the present day park, later platting the Cowen Park Addition. After the nearby University of Washington campus

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408-584: The Dennys donated the more central 5-acre (20,000 m ) tract as the site of the city's first park, now called Denny Park in their honor. Another donation to the city became the site of the Civic Auditorium (later remodeled as the Opera House and now McCaw Hall) and several other buildings that now form part of Seattle Center. Active in public life, Denny served as probate judge , King County Commissioner,

442-595: The Eld Inlet. They merged where Black Lake now exists, following the Black River southward. Following the south side of a line of hill, the channel is 150 to 155 feet (46 to 47 m) above sea level with a gravel plain 160 feet (49 m) across the outlet. This barrier is thought to be deposits from the outflow. Percival Creek contains the Northern Pacific Railroad route over the pass between Puget Sound and

476-536: The Ravenna ravine into Lake Washington . The deeper pockets of the basin became Bitter Lake , Haller Lake and Green Lake . Many creeks, brooks, and springs fed into Green Lake, whose outlet was on the east side of the route of Ravenna Boulevard , in a deepening ravine which became Cowen and Ravenna parks. Ravenna Creek 's original source was from Green, Haller, and Bitter lakes, then the Cowen Park ravine west wall when

510-521: The Sherlock Delta. David Denny David Thomas Denny (March 17, 1832 – November 25, 1903 ) was a member of the Denny Party , who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington , United States. Though he ultimately underwent bankruptcy , he was a significant contributor to the shape of the city. Roger Sale , in his book Seattle, Past to Present , described him as having been "the pioneer to turn to if one had

544-589: The bank where his brother Arthur was senior vice president. Their only salvation was that in their years of wealth, they had given their daughter Emily a tract of land in Licton Springs (in what is now northern Seattle), to which they now retreated. In 1899, at the age of 67, Denny took a job overseeing improvements on the Snoqualmie Pass road (the route now taken by Interstate 90 ), during which he sustained an injury when an inattentive worker cut his head with

578-519: The city's first non-Indian wedding; they were to have eight children, including Emily Inez Denny . He proved to be adept at languages, and (unlike some of the settlers) maintained generally good relations with the natives of the area. The Dennys' 1853 land claim —640 acres (2.6 km ), standard for a married couple—ran from what is now the Seattle Center grounds (the area where they first settled ) east to South Lake Union ; its south boundary

612-604: The divide at Shelton, Washington into early Glacial Lake Russell. When the ice margin receded northward, the lake expanded. When it reached the Clifton channel outlet, the water levels dropped to 120 ft (37 m) above sea level. The new longer and lower level lake is referred to as Lake Hood. The glacier continued to retreat until the northern outlet of the Hood Canal was reached as the water level equalized with Glacial Lake Russell becoming part of that body of water. Lake Russell

646-687: The entire area of Lake Washington became a catchment for his mill. Denny operated the Western Mill until 1895; his employees and their families were among the first settlers of the South Lake Union area. Seattle's first cemetery (1861) was on Denny's land. In 1876, the bodies were relocated to Washelli Cemetery, which is off of Aurora Avenue North in north Seattle and part of the Evergreen-Washelli Cemetery. The Dennys donated what became Lake View Cemetery , on Seattle's Capitol Hill , and

680-488: The growing body of water in the unobliterated interglacial valleys. The Nisqually carried a large volume of water when it first entered Lake Russell, since the Ohop channel still contributed the drainage of the northern and western slopes of Mount Rainier. It appears to have entered the western side of the interglacial Gate Pathway River valley, and to have contributed considerably toward the obliteration of that valley by deposition of

714-701: The land was owned by mining and real estate magnate William Wirt Beck who, in addition to preserving the ravine's trees for park land, would give Ravenna its name (after Ravenna, Italy ) and would plat one of the first subdivisions in the neighborhood in 1890 around the home he built that still stands East of the park at NE 60th Street and 26th Avenue NE. The trees remained through the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition of 1909, at which they were featured exhibitions. Public controversy about them declined after their gradual disappearance in suspicious circumstances by 1926. Today, none of that size remain anywhere in

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748-651: The mouth of the Nisqually River and Olympia , joining a freshwater lake in the Budd Inlet and Black Lake forming Early Lake Russell. Lake Russell filled the basins of the Eld Inlet , Budd Inlet , Henderson Inlet , and the great curve of the Nisqually Reach, northward to the Tacoma Narrows , and the highgrounds between then up to 160 feet (49 m) above sea level. When the glacial ice receded northward, reaching

782-580: The next year he founded the Rainier Power and Railway Company, providing the first streetcar service from Downtown to the University District . The streetcar line ran from 3rd Avenue and Yesler Way in today's Pioneer Square neighborhood downtown to NE 55 Street and 22nd Avenue NE (northeast of the University), and included the purpose-built Latona Bridge, dedicated July 1, 1891, replaced in 1919 by

816-414: The northward outlets, until the Tacoma Narrows cleared, the basins east of Tacoma remained separate from those to the west. Lake Tacoma is the name given to these eastern waters, until they merged with those of Lake Russell to the west. Lake Nisqually was the name given to the freshwater in the Nisqually Reach, until the ice front retreated far enough north for the meltwaters to cover the land between

850-572: The northwest corner, at NE 62nd Street. In 2006, a section of Ravenna Creek through the southeastern end of the park was daylighted , having formerly flowed into a storm drain. The parks are crossed from north to south by the Cowen Park Bridge , on 15th Avenue Northeast on the boundary between the two parks, and the 20th Avenue Northeast Bridge (also known as the Ravenna Park Bridge ), closed to motorized traffic since 1975. Both bridges are on

884-576: The park and restore native vegetation. Glacial Lake Russell During the Vashon Glaciation a series of lakes formed along the southern margin of the Cordilleran Ice Cap . In the Puget Sound depression, a series of lakes developed, of which Lake Russell was the largest and the longest lasting. Early Lake Russell’s surface was at 160 ft (49 m) above sea level, draining across

918-452: The present day University Bridge . But his fall was as dramatic as his rise: in the years from 1888 to 1895, two of David and Louisa Denny's children died, and they suffered such a major financial reversal in the Panic of 1893 that they lost everything, including their nearly new mansion. Adding insult to injury, among the creditors who forced him into bankruptcy was Dexter Horton and Company ,

952-460: The rest of the group, and Lee Terry headed south on Puget Sound in search of tools, David Denny—too young at this time to stake a land claim in his own right—was briefly left as the sole member of the group at Alki in what is now West Seattle . On January 23, 1853, Denny married his sister-in-law Louisa Boren, also a member of the Denny Party, in a civil ceremony performed by "Doc" Maynard ,

986-409: The watershed to protect and restore the park. Since 1991, the park has seen major restoration by residents of neighborhoods in collaboration with the City. Ravenna Park contains 49.9 acres (20.2 ha) and was purchased from developers in 1911. Cowen Park covers 8.4 acres (3.4 ha). The current source of Ravenna Creek is the west face of the ravine along Brooklyn Avenue NE and a small wetland in

1020-426: The watershed was diverted to sewers (1908–1948). The water table is relatively shallow, held by the extensive layer of clays that underlay the metro region. The creek source is actually seeping from the original west wall of the ravine, even though the gulch has been partially filled at the southwest corner of Cowen Park. The inscription on the gateway to Cowen Park states, "In memory of Charles Cowen, who in 1906 gave to

1054-418: The world. In 1919, after the death of Theodore Roosevelt, the city renamed the park "Roosevelt Park", but Seattleites petitioned to revert to the original name in 1931. In the mid-1960s, the Cowen Park ravine was largely filled using freeway construction spoils. The City of Seattle planned to use the ravine for staging a comprehensive stormwater drainage piping project in 1986, galvanizing the neighborhoods of

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1088-602: Was chosen for the site of the Alaska-Yukon Exposition , the area underwent a rapid urbanization. As well as numerous houses, Cowen built the Ye College Inn , which he strategically located near the exposition's main entrance. For many decades of Seattle city history, the Ravenna Park ravine had been ignored by loggers and farmers and still possessed full old-growth timber rising nearly 400 feet (120 m). Most of

1122-517: Was one of Seattle's wealthiest citizens, his fortune estimated at US$ 3 million. His interests went well beyond his original land claim and Lake Union: he farmed in the Duwamish River valley and platted Seattle neighborhoods, including the Ravenna Park area. In 1890, he moved his family from an already large home at Dexter and Republican Streets to a mansion at the foot of Queen Anne Hill , and

1156-474: Was present-day Denny Way . In 1882, the Lake Union and Lumber Company established a sawmill (the city's largest ) on this land near the southwest corner of Lake Union ; Denny bought the mill in 1884, renaming it the Western Mill. The following year, he cut a weir from Portage Bay at the northeast corner of the lake to Lake Washington . This allowed logs to be floated from that larger lake to Lake Union, so that

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