Defending The Eastside; Small-Town Volunteers Played Key Roles During World War Ii, And Local Missile Sites Sprang Up During The Cold War That Followed

Today's peaceful valleys and hilltops yield few remnants of the muscle and missiles that once made the Eastside a strategic defense site.

Forts were built along the Snoqualmie River to fend off Native American attacks. During World War II volunteers looked for enemy aircraft from watchtowers in Clyde Hill and Woodinville. In the 1950s troops kept missiles poised for launch in Redmond and Issaquah as Cold War tensions mounted.

Eastside forts built in 1850s

In 1855 Native Americans came through Snoqualmie or Yakima pass and attacked the small town of Seattle.

Soldiers from the Northern Battalion were sent up the Snoqualmie River. They followed an Indian trail, building a string of forts along the way: Patterson, Tilton, Alden and Smalley. According to one historian, the forts were named after the officers in the expedition.

Dubbing these hastily constructed outposts "forts" was a generous description. Old drawings of three - Forts Tilton, Alden and Smalley - show log buildings, not the traditional high walls associated with forts of the Old West. Fort Tilton reportedly measured 14 by 16 feet.

Fort Patterson was near Fall City. Fort Tilton was just below Tokul Creek where it runs into the Snoqualmie River. Some historians think there may have been one more fort or stockade near Cedar Falls.

The local Indians, the Snoqualmies, were cordial to white settlers, so the stockades and forts were deserted when the threat from the Eastern tribes dissipated. Within two years, Jerimiah Borst, an early settler in the North Bend-Meadowbrook area, converted Fort Alden into his home. The other stockades were also adopted by settlers.

The home front was quiet during the next few wars - largely bypassed by the Civil and Spanish-American wars and World War I. World War II was another story.

Vulnerable to attack

After the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Eastside residents mobilized like other Americans.

The West Coast was considered vulnerable to a Japanese invasion. The Lake Washington Shipyards in Kirkland and Boeing were major targets. The shipyards geared up to help rebuild the Navy. Naval pilots were trained at Sand Point on the lake's west shore.

People were scared. They worried about bombs from an air attack and about Japanese soldiers parachuting into the area.

An anti-aircraft battery moved onto Cougar Mountain in Issaquah. Two were set up on Mercer Island. Hilltop observation posts or watchtowers were rapidly constructed in several Eastside communities, including Redmond, Clyde Hill, Woodinville and Duvall.

As men marched off to war, women, retirees and high-school students volunteered for round-the-clock duty at the posts, dubbed OPs.

"My grandparents played a special deck of cards, marked on the back with different kinds of airplanes," said Lee Maxwell of Bellevue. "They lived in Duvall and volunteered for tower duty there. The cards helped them learn what the different aircraft looked like."

Called the Aircraft Warning Service, watchers on duty telephoned headquarters when airplanes were spotted. Volunteers and military people at headquarters tracked aircraft throughout the Puget Sound area to be certain they were all friendly.

The towers were cold and drafty. Often two people shared duty, one to pace the deck outside while the other warmed up inside. Nearby residents or restaurants donated sandwiches and coffee.

High winds once blew the roof off the Clyde Hill tower.

It was a time of blackout, meaning lights weren't supposed to be visible after dark. But one military unit could light up the skies.

Near today's intersection of Southeast Newport Way and Highway 900 in Issaquah, troops were assigned to maintain spotlights. In case of attack, they would provide the light for the batteries on top of Cougar Mountain.

"They built barracks out of wooden shipping boxes that had been used to ship airplane engines to Boeing," Issaquah historian Eric Erickson said.

People were warned to be on the lookout for sabotage - spies who wanted to slow down the war effort. Japanese families were sent to internment camps.

The proximity to Sand Point meant training flights crisscrossed Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond and Issaquah. Fighter pilots swooped over Issaquah, learning to handle their planes in the drafts off Tiger Mountain.

Sometime in early summer 1944, a bomber on a training flight crashed on Kirkland's Rose Hill, near what today is the intersection of Interstate 405 and Northeast 85th Street. There were no serious injuries, but military personnel surrounded the site and kept civilians away.

Once the war was over, the towers disappeared and the decks of cards were stuffed in drawers.

Eastside mobilizes again

When the Cold War froze relations between the Soviet Union and the United States, the Eastside again mobilized.

In the 1950s missile bases were built behind massive fences in Issaquah, Redmond and the Bothell area. Other Puget Sound communities housed similar bases.

The U.S. prepared for the worst-case scenario - an atomic attack. Air defense around the country called for Nike missile stations near prime targets, including 11 in the Seattle area.

By 1957 the Eastside sites were fully armed and fully staffed. Guard dogs and handlers walked the fence perimeters at the 23-acre Nike control center on Redmond's Education Hill. A 27-acre launch site was at nearby Novelty Hill.

The military presence was well known. Army soldiers in Redmond, for example, drove a flatbed truck showing off a Nike missile in the annual Derby Days parade.

But the missiles, made obsolete by longer-range weapons based elsewhere, were removed within a decade.

Redmond High School was built on part of the old Education Hill missile site. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's regional office is headquartered in the old Bothell-area site.

The Issaquah Nike missile site and the former World War II anti-aircraft battery land is now part of Cougar Mountain Regional Park. Sources for this article include "A History of the Snoqualmie Valley" by Ada Snyder Hill, "Snoqualmie Pass, From Indian Trail to Interstate" by Yvonne Prater and "Our Town Redmond" by Nancy Way. Sherry Grindeland's phone message number is 206-515-5633. Her e-mail address is sgrindeland@seattletimes.co.