This story was originally published at HistoryLink.org. Subscribe to their weekly newsletter.

The Taps Run Dry

After the Cedar River was tapped as Seattle’s water supply in 1899, the river’s flow was also harnessed to generate electricity. Things were going swimmingly until November 19, 1911, when floodwaters damaged a timber crib dam on Cedar Lake and drowned  the city of Renton 28 miles downstream. The raging river also demolished a bridge and destroyed  the two water-supply pipelines it carried over the river near the Landsburg headworks.

Parts of Seattle went dark, and there was no drinking water to be had.  A water famine hit, and panicked citizens mobbed water wagons sent around by the city, hauling the precious liquid back to their homes in buckets, pitchers, and tubs. Old pump stations on Lake Washington, long out of service, were returned to use, prompting urgent warnings to boil all water, since the lake was also used as a sewage dump. The health scare brought on by polluted water led to Seattle’s first use of chlorination, which helped avoid any major disease outbreak while the Cedar River pipelines were quickly repaired.

As Seattle grew, more pipelines were built and a new policy was written abolishing bridges as pipeline carriers whenever possible. In 1962 water from the Tolt River was added to the city’s system, ensuring adequate supplies well into the twenty-first century. Today, Seattle Public Utilities provides water to more than 1,400,000 people within and outside Seattle, and studies have shown that this water is the some of the cleanest in the nation.

The Corps Stops By

On November 15, 1805, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and their Corps of Discovery reached the Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River, a year and a half after the group left St. Louis, Missouri. Their travel across America was perilous, especially when crossing the Rocky Mountains, an ordeal they might not have survived without the help of Indian tribes they had befriended. The final leg of their westward journey brought them into the future state of Washington, which must have seemed like a relief in comparison.

The explorers entered the region on October 10, 1805, near what is now Clarkston in Asotin County and Lewiston, Idaho. Six days later they reached the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers, and by October 22 had made it as far as Celilo Falls. More than a week later, they camped at Salmon Creek in the future Clark County, and on November 7, Corps members got a little ahead of themselves and celebrated  their arrival at the Pacific Ocean. Actually, they were 20 miles inland on the wide tidal estuary of the Columbia River and wouldn’t reach their goal until eight days later.

Soon after their arrival, Captain Clark visited the future site of Long Beach and carved his name into a small pine tree. By this time, the weather had worsened and the group had to make a decision. In the first recorded vote in Washington — one that included ballots cast by an African American slave and a Native American woman — the Corps elected to winter in Oregon. They headed home the following spring and left what is now the state of Washington on May 5, 1806.

NEWS THEN, HISTORY NOW

Killer Not Found

On November 19, 1856, Nisqually Chief Quiemuth was resting inside the Olympia home of Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens. Tired of war, Quiemuth had peacefully surrendered himself into custody soon after the capture of his half-brother, Chief Leschi, and was awaiting transfer to Fort Steilacoom. Shortly before dawn he was shot and stabbed by an unknown assailant, and the murder remains unsolved.

Second Time Around

On November 20, 1883, La Conner was incorporated, eight days before the formation of Skagit County. After Mount Vernon was selected as the county seat, La Conner’s citizens decided to disincorporate, but incorporated once again in 1890, this time for good.

Shipwreck in the Sound

On November 18, 1906, the Mosquito Fleet steamer SS Dix — en route from Seattle to Port Blakely — collided with the steam schooner SS Jeanie two miles north of Alki Point, killing 39 passengers and crew. It is the greatest maritime disaster ever recorded on Puget Sound.