Cedar Butte itself is even less significant historically than it is geologically. But, like the glacial waters that once flowed around and over it, human history has lapped against it on all sides. The Cedar River valley was as significant a trade route prior to roads as Interstate 90 is today, and logging and the railroads were major shapers of settlement. At nearby Cedar Falls Seattle started one of the first municipally owned power systems (a concept worth reviewing in light of the Enron debacle). And of course there was the Boxley Blowout, which was nearly a major disaster, and endures as an example of How Things Go Wrong. Coming out of Cedar Falls is the even more enduring roadbed (now John Wayne Pioneer Trail) of the vanished Milwaukee Road.

Be sure to check what the Watershed Education Center has on the history of Cedar Falls and the watershed.

See also the Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum for history of the Snoqualmie Valley.

And don't forget HistoryLink (www.historylink.org), the "Online Encyclopedia of Seattle and King County History".