North Bend

History

The Snoqualmie Indian Tribe has resided in the Snoqualmie Prairie, including the area now known as North Bend, for thousands of years. This prairie southeast of Snoqualmie Falls was the ancestral home, hunting and forage grounds for the Snoqualmie people and was located in the upper Snoqualmie Valley near the Snoqualmie River fork confluence, Mount Si, and the western foothills of the Cascade Range. One of the first American explorers to the upper Snoqualmie Valley was Samuel Hancock, who arrived in 1851. Hancock traveled upriver with his Snoqualmie guides, fording canoes around the falls to reach Snoqualmie Prairie, searching for coal deposits. He was taken to a "very extensive and fertile prairie" about two miles above Snoqualmie Falls. The beautiful open grassland came to be known as the Snoqualmie Prairie, the heart of which is now known as Tollgate and Meadowbrook farms. The Snoqualmies, led by Chief Patkanim, later sided with early settlers in the 1850s Indian Wars and were one of the signatory tribes of the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, which failed to designate an Indian reservation for the Snoqualmies. Some of the soldiers in those wars, such as the Kellogg brothers, established cabins near abandoned U.S. Army blockhouses; however, the most well known American resident in the valley was Jeremiah Borst, who arrived in 1858. After the Homestead Act of 1862, more settlers ventured to the Snoqualmie Valley, with the first families settling near Borst on the easterly end of Snoqualmie Prairie. In 1865, Matts Peterson homesteaded the site that ultimately became North Bend. In 1879, Peterson sold the property to Borst and moved east of the Cascades. Borst wrote to Will Taylor, who had left the Pacific Northwest to pursue mining in California, and offered him the…

Geography

North Bend is located in the foothills of the Cascade Range, east of Seattle in the upper valley of the Snoqualmie River. The city is bordered to the northwest by the city of Snoqualmie. Both communities lie near the center of the Mountains to Sound Greenway. North Bend is located near the geographic center of King County. Mount Si, the most prominent geological feature nearby, looms over the town. To the south is Rattlesnake Ridge. Mount Si stands at and towers above the town, itself at around . A trail zigzags up to the summit with a vertical climb of . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which are land and are water. North Bend's climate (border between Cfb and Csb in the Köppen climate classification) is warm and generally dry during the summer when high temperatures tend to be in the 70s and mild to cold during the winter when high temperatures tend to be in the 30s and 40s. The town's location in the foothills means that it receives significantly higher annual precipitation than other suburbs to the west, and also translates into heavier snowfall in the winter. The all-time record high temperature is set during the 2021 Western North America heat wave. The warmest month of the year is August with an average maximum temperature of , while the coldest month of the year is January with an average minimum temperature of . The annual average precipitation in North Bend is with of snowfall. Winter months tend to be wetter than summer months.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Mount Si High School
  High · SNOQUALMIE · 2,081 students · 20.4:1 ratio
• Timber Ridge Elementary School
  Elementary · SNOQUALMIE · 621 students · 14.4:1 ratio
• Chief Kanim Middle School
  Middle · FALL CITY · 580 students · 18.7:1 ratio
• Edwin R Opstad Elementary
  Elementary · NORTH BEND · 561 students · 15.6:1 ratio
• Cascade View Elementary School
  Elementary · Snoqualmie · 547 students · 16.1:1 ratio
• Twin Falls Middle School
  Middle · North Bend · 544 students · 17.5:1 ratio
• Snoqualmie Middle School
  Middle · SNOQUALMIE · 503 students · 18.6:1 ratio
• Snoqualmie Elementary
  Elementary · SNOQUALMIE · 482 students · 13.8:1 ratio