David B. Williams "Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography" Wednesday, October 11, 2023 3:30pm-5:00pm PST Sheraton Grand Seattle
Since settlers first arrived in Seattle, the city's citizens have altered the landscape with an unrivaled zeal. The goal: to provide better locations for business and easier ways to move through the challenging topography. In their unprecedented reshaping of the landscape, builders replumbed the hydrology by connecting salt water and freshwater, created more than 2,000 acres of made land along the waterfront, and most audacious of all, completely leveled a hill where hundreds of families lived. In his talk, Williams will address the motivations and political shenanigans, as well as the far-reaching social, economic, and environmental impacts of these projects. And the city is still at it though now planners also understand that earthquakes and rising sea levels have the potential to change us as much as we have changed the land.
Learning Objectives:
Learning Objective 1 Discover the history of Seattle’s massive landscape alteration projects in the early 20th Century.
Learning Objective 2 Identify parts of Seattle’s landscape that have been altered when exploring the city.
Learning Objective 3 Describe the impacts of these projects in the context of pre-contact and post-contact use of the environment.
Learning Objective 4 Discuss the legacy of landscape alterations as we navigate the challenges of climate change and our modern understanding of seismic vulnerabilities.
Bio: David B. Williams is an author, naturalist, and tour guide whose award-winning book, Homewaters: A Human and Natural History of Puget Sound is a deep exploration of the stories of this beautiful waterway. He is also the author of the award-winning book Too High and Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography, as well as Seattle Walks: Discovering History and Nature in the City. Williams is a Curatorial Associate at the Burke Museum and writes a free weekly newsletter, the Street Smart Naturalist. David is a contributing historian to HistoryLink, the online encyclopedia of Washington State history, and serves as Vice President of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild Board of Trustees.
