SeaTac

History

The earliest people to live in the Highline ridge and surrounding lowlands were Coast Salish peoples for thousands of years before European contact. The area sits between Puget Sound to the west and the Duwamish and Green River valleys to the east. It was used by Duwamish and Muckleshoot peoples for fishing, hunting, and overland travel. In the 1850s, federal surveyors recorded salal and huckleberry across the area, believed to be evidence of deliberate land management through intentional burning and cultivation, rather than pure wilderness. In 1990, a diver discovered two dugout canoes from the bottom of Angle Lake that were carbon-dated to approximately 1678. Both the Muckleshoot and Duwamish tribes claimed the artifacts, which were eventually transferred to the Muckleshoot Tribe for stewardship. The Highline area, which includes modern-day SeaTac, Burien, most of Des Moines, and unincorporated communities such as White Center and Boulevard Park, was settled by European Americans in the mid-1850s. Over the following decades, small farming communities developed around Miller Creek and other drainages on the plateau. One of the more prominent roads of travel from Seattle to Tacoma early in the 20th century is Des Moines Memorial Drive (originally called the High Line road), which passes directly through the middle of the region, particularly through SeaTac and Burien. The construction of Seattle–Tacoma International Airport transformed the area. After the U.S. military took control of Boeing Field following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Port of Seattle accepted a federal grant in March 1942 to build a replacement civilian airport as part of a larger wartime pattern of federal intervention in municipal airport development across the country. The airport was…

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and is water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Kent-Meridian High School
  High · Kent · 2,128 students · 21.1:1 ratio
• Kentridge High School
  High · Kent · 2,034 students · 23.1:1 ratio
• Mount Rainier High School
  High · Des Moines · 1,873 students · 24.3:1 ratio
• Hazen Senior High School
  High · Renton · 1,871 students · 24:1 ratio
• Auburn Senior High School
  High · AUBURN · 1,844 students · 19.4:1 ratio
• Thomas Jefferson High School
  High · AUBURN · 1,797 students · 23.6:1 ratio
• Kentwood High School
  High · Covington · 1,733 students · 21.9:1 ratio
• Federal Way High School
  High · FEDERAL WAY · 1,640 students · 21:1 ratio