A place with something for everyone

In square miles, Snohomish County is larger than Delaware or Rhode Island.

In population, the county is larger than North Dakota, Vermont or Wyoming.

It could be said that the county has it all, as it stretches from Puget Sound on the west to the Cascade Mountains on the east. How many places are there where you can go snow skiing and water skiing the same day, if you want?

Or hike along a mountain trail in the morning and enjoy the sunset with a walk along a saltwater beach?

There are a number of positive things that can be said about the county, but it has its negatives as well.

Consider that roughly half of the county's 2,100 square miles are national forest. An additional 18 percent is considered private forest, still another 18 percent is considered rural, and 5 percent is farmland.

That means most of the county's 705,000 people live on about 9 percent of its land.

And you wondered why traffic is so bad at times?

Here are some snapshots of the county:

The geography

The county is bordered by Skagit County to the north, King County to the south, Puget Sound on the west and Chelan County on the east side of the Cascades.

From Interstate 5, the county may seem like an endless suburban sprawl, but its topography is dominated by the dense forests and mountainous terrain of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, which attracts nature lovers from all over. There are also two major river systems that empty into Puget Sound, those of the Stillaguamish River in the north part of the county and the Snohomish in the south.

To the east, densely wooded hills rise in elevation to alpine wilderness in the Cascades and the county's highest point of elevation, Glacier Peak, which tops out at 10,541 feet and is one of Washington state's tallest mountains.

The Tulalip Tribes Reservation contains some 22,000 acres of federally reserved land west of Marysville and is home to the Tulalip Casino and a growing retail complex that includes the Seattle Premium Outlets mall.

The people

As home to about 705,000 people, Snohomish County is the third-most-populous county in the state, according to the state's February 2008 estimate. It's also one of the fastest-growing counties in the state, as evidenced by an almost 30 percent population jump since 1990. And the forecast is for the growth to continue.

National Census Bureau number-crunchers recently said it was the 15th-largest county in the country.

Everett, the county seat, celebrated a milestone in its growth in 2006 when it surpassed 100,000 in population, according to the state Office of Financial Management.

According to the 2005 American Community Survey by the Census Bureau, median household income in the county was about $55,000, almost 15 percent higher than the national median.

Gender distribution was an even 50-50 between male and female residents, and about 75 percent of residents are 18 or older, with about 7 percent of those at least 65 years of age.

The ethnic makeup of the county is about 80.6 percent white, 7.2 percent Asian American, 5.9 percent Latino, 2.1 percent African American, 1.5 percent Native American and 3.0 percent other, according to the U.S. census. Latinos are among the fastest-growing segments.

Snohomish County has a strong military presence, with some 6,000 military personnel employed at Naval Station Everett, which was built in 1994 and is home to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other ships.

About 2,500 Native Americans live on the Tulalip Tribes Reservation and in the Marysville area. The Tulalip Reservation predates the county; it was formed as a result of the 1855 Point Elliott Treaty, which was drawn up six years before Snohomish County was created. Washington Territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens met with 81 tribal leaders at Point Elliott, now Mukilteo, to devise the treaty with the U.S. government. It was ratified by President Buchanan in 1859.

The history

In the beginning, there was timber. Lots of it. So many trees no one thought the county would ever run out. Timber produced an explosion of mills on the Everett waterfront.

Much of Snohomish County's history gravitates toward Everett, historically known as "the city of smokestacks, where rail meets sail."

Before Everett came alive in what historian Dave Dilgard described as "a jubilation in the streets" with the advent of rail transportation in the 1880s, there was unbridled free enterprise and a long line of notorious businessmen who made use of what they thought was a never-ending supply of resources.

Snohomish County industry was built upon fishing, timber and mining. Images of lawless ruffians and men behind powerful fortunes swinging the chains of their pocket watches are not far from the truth, Dilgard said, but riches came and went as markets followed a roller coaster of booms and busts.

Henry Hewitt Jr., a lumber baron, foresaw the development of the Great Northern Railway that would run through the city. In the early 1890s, Hewitt acquired a fortune from East Coast investors including John D. Rockefeller before a national depression hit in the mid-1890s.

Perhaps the most memorable and certainly most violent event in Snohomish County history, the Everett Massacre, occurred in 1916 during a time of labor hostilities.

Five members of the Industrial Workers of the World and two sheriff's deputies were killed during a demonstration at the Everett docks. Some 30 other people were injured.

The county takes its name from what long ago was the predominant Snohomish tribe. The meaning of the name is debated among language scholars, but according to definitions from the Tulalip Tribes Cultural Resources Department, Snohomish is derived from the root word "sduhub" in the Lushootseed Native tongue. The purest translation is, simply, "man."

Many names throughout the region end in suffixes, -amish or -omish, which mean "people."

The first mining claim in the Monte Cristo area was filed in 1889, the same year Washington became a state, after a miner discovered a vein of gold and silver.

By the early 1900s, though, Monte Cristo was already on its way to becoming a ghost town. There was gold and silver, but not enough to sustain an expensive, large-scale mining operation. Even today, weekend prospectors find silver and gold in the area.

Education

Snohomish County schools reflect the region's mix of urban, suburban and rural landscapes, from the tiny Index School and its 28 students in the Cascade Mountains, to Everett Public Schools in the county's largest city, which boasts 25 schools and a student population of about 19,000.

School buildings range from the historic four-room Trafton School, built in 1912 outside Arlington, to new, multimillion-dollar high schools under construction in Lynnwood, Marysville and Snohomish that will feature state-of-the-art science labs, flexible instruction spaces and the latest in classroom technology.

The more suburban districts of Edmonds, Mukilteo and Northshore encompass many smaller cities along Puget Sound and Lake Washington. Some of these affluent communities are home to the region's top-performing schools.

But many families seek out the county's more rural areas, such as Arlington and Stanwood, which offer more land and open spaces in addition to quality schools.

The county's most rapidly growing areas, such as Monroe, Snohomish and Marysville, are adding schools to accommodate the many families seeking alternatives to the high-priced housing of Seattle and its closer suburbs.

All but the very smallest districts in the county offer programs for gifted students as well as special-education programs and classes for English-language learners. Most high schools have partnerships with the Sno-Isle Skills Center, which runs vocational and technical courses at a campus in South Everett.

Many of the county's largest high schools are breaking into smaller learning communities, the "school-within-a-school" approach, to give students a more personalized education.

The county's smaller high schools say that while they can't always offer the same variety of programs as their urban and suburban counterparts, they already offer learning environments in which students are well-known and unlikely to get lost in the crowd.

Many families considering moving to the area research individual schools or districts on the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Web site: www.k12.wa.us.

The state issues report cards that detail each school's student demographics, test scores, per-student spending and teacher-experience levels. Schools also typically have their own Web sites, which include their educational philosophies and mission statements.

Holly Blake, a real-estate agent who grew up in the area and raised her family here, said she recommends almost all of the schools. But she adds that the key to a good education is parent involvement.

"A lot of a child's success has to do with the parents, even more than the particular school."

The county is also home to two community colleges, in Everett and Edmonds, and is lobbying the state Legislature to build a new four-year college in the county that also would serve residents of Skagit and Island counties.

Getting around

It's not always easy.

Put 90 percent of the county's people on 9 percent of its land, combine that with a network of main roads that were just adequate 40 years ago and a work force that primarily travels to Everett, Seattle or the high-tech corridor stretching from Bothell to Redmond and Bellevue, and traffic can often be slow. Agonizingly slow.

The county has four primary north-south routes: Interstate 5, Highway 99 (which was the main north-south route through the county before I-5 was built), Highway 9 and Highway 522. Going east-west, the only main road is Highway 2, which is one of the state's deadlier highways, with 47 traffic deaths in the past seven years.

Improvements are on the way, but it will be a while before they're finished. I-5 through Everett is being widened, and parts of Highways 9 and 522 will also be expanded.

Transit, including commuter trains, relieves a little of the pressure.

The future

Snohomish County's economy is highlighted by aerospace technology, particularly Boeing's Everett plant, which employs around 23,000 people. Naval Station Everett is the second-largest single employer, with more than 6,000 workers, most of them military personnel. Other growth is in the biotechnology, electronics/computer and wood-products industries.

Employment in the county is steady, with the state Employment Security Department reporting an estimated 4.3 percent unemployment rate in its February 2008 statistics.

A county profile by The League of Snohomish County Heritage Organizations listed Snohomish County as one of the prime targets for relocation across the United States. County officials predict a population spike of about 50 percent by 2025, to just under 1 million residents.