Down Sound?  Racing?                       

In pulling together a name for the website we came up with Down Sound Racing from a history of Puget Sound.  We were looking for something to more broadly roll up the various training and racing groups in the neighborhood (SWEAT, South Whidbey Island Masters (SWIM), Aurora, Half Link, and Ti Cycles, Cascade Orienteering Club, etc.) and be generally more inclusive of our training friends in places like Mukilteo, Bellingham, and Seattle (and Boise, for Hanson's sake).  Use it as you see fit.  Wear the socks if you feel so inclined.

Why Racing?  Because we race like crazy.  More than 5000 miles of racing in 2005.  Are you kidding me?

Why Down Sound?  We were looking for a term to describe the broad area between North Seattle and the Canadian border, essentially, without being too specific to any one location.  Down Sound is drawn from the lingo of the region's early settlers and seemed like a decent solution.  In the mid-to late 19th century, Seattle pioneers Doc Maynard, Boren, Yesler, Denny, et. al. often hired local Indians to transport them around the Sound to visit places like Olympia, Tumwater, Port Townsend, Mukilteo, and what was then known as Whidby or Whidby's Island.  When they traveled our way from Seattle, they called it going "Down Sound".  Towards Olympia was "Up Sound".  Other terms, "North" and "South" for example, don't appear to have been widely used. 

Here's some text from Seattle pioneer Arthur Denny, first published by Charles Bagley in 1888.  Arthur Denny's "Pioneer Days" recounts his experiences on a wagon trail from Illinois, describes his role in the founding of Seattle in 1851, and provides a short history of the early settlement of the city and region.

Pioneer Days on Puget Sound by Arthur Denny

It is now thirty-six years since I came to Puget Sound, and I am more and more impressed with the fact as each succeeding year rolls by that the early settlers of the country will very shortly all have crossed over the river and be soon forgotten, for we may all concede the fact that we shall be missed but little when we are gone, and that little but a short time; but when we have met the last trial and our last camp fire has died out some may desire a knowledge of such facts as we alone can give. I shall therefore give a brief account of my removal to the Pacific coast and my recollections of early settlements on the Sound, in which it will be my earnest endeavor to state nothing but the facts, and I shall confine myself largely to what I know to be true, and when I have occasion to speak of matters outside of my own knowledge of the facts stated. ... In the month of September J. N. Low and my brother, D. T. Denny, drove Low's cattle over to Judge Ford's, on the Chehalis river, for winter range, with the purpose also of examining the country, and while awaiting a report from them I received a visit from Thomas Chambers, father of David and A. J. Chambers, who gave me information which greatly increased my interest in the Sound country. At Olympia they fell in with Lee Terry, and the three there joined Capt. Robert C. Fay, and came down to the Duwamish river exploring. On the 25th of September they went up as far as where H. VanAssalt, L. M. Collins and Jacob Mapel and Samuel Mapel, had shortly before determined to locate. While looking around Low and Terry concluded to locate a town site, and with that view made a joint location on Alki Point, and Low hired my brother to remain on the claim with Terry, while he returned to Portland for his family, and on the 28th day of September, Terry and my brother laid the foundation for the first cabin. When Low returned to Portland, the schooner Exact, Capt. Folger, was fitting for a voyage to Queen Charlotte Island with gold prospectors, and to touch at the Sound with emigrants, and we determined to take passage on her. She sailed on the 5th of November, 1851, and cleared at Astoria, as shown by the custom house records, on the 7th. We crossed out on the same day, and on Thursday, the 13th, our party, consisting of myself and family, John N. Low and family, C. D. Boren and family, Wm. N. Bell and family, and Charles C. Terry landed at Alki Point, added to which were my brother, David T. Denny, and Lee Terry making in all twenty-four persons--twelve adults and twelve children--all at the present time (November 13, 1887,) living but six. The increase has been seventy-nine, all now living but six, making a total of 103 persons, and total number of deaths in thirty-six years, 12. Our first work was to provide shelter for the winter, and we finished the house begun by my brother and Lee Terry for J. N. Low, and all took shelter in it from the rain, which was falling more or less every day, but we did not regard it with much concern, and seldom lost any time on that account. We next built a log house for myself which increased our room very materially, and made all more comfortable. We had now used up all the timber suitable for log houses which we could get without a team, and we split cedar and built houses for Bell and Boren which we considered quite fancy, but not so substantial as the log houses. About the time we had completed out winter quarters the brig Leonesa, Capt. Daniel S. Howard, came to anchor in the bay. Seeing that the place was inhabited by whites the captain came on shore seeking a cargo of piles, and we readily made a contract to load his vessel. We had no team at the time. but some of us went to work cutting the timber nearest to the water, and rolled and hauled in by hand, while Lee Terry went up the Sound and obtained a yoke of oxen, which he drove on the beach from Puyallup with which to complete the cargo, but we had made very considerable progress by hand before his arrival with the cattle. Alki Point had not been a general camping place for the Indians, but soon after we landed and began clearing the ground for our buildings they commenced to congregate, and continued coming until we had over a thousand in out midst, and most of them remained all winter. Some of them built their houses very near to ours, even on the ground we had cleared, and although they seemed very friendly toward us we did not feel safe in objecting to their building thus near to us for fear of offending them, and it was very noticeable that they regarded their proximity to us as a protection against other Indians. On one occasion during the winter Nelson came with a party of Green River and Muckilshoot Indians, and got into an altercation with John Kanim and the Snoqualmies. They met, and the opposing forces amounting to thirty or forty on a side, drew up directly in front of Low's house, armed with Hudson Bay muskets, the two parties near enough together to have powder burnt each other, and were apparently in the act of opening fire, when we interposed and restored peace without bloodshed by my taking John Kanim away and keeping them apart until Nelson and his party left, and he still lives but John Kanim was killed years ago in a similar feud in Tulalip; it, however, was not unusual for them to have a great war of words and no one hurt. Col. G. O. Haller tells a good story which illustrates this point very well, of a difficulty occurring between two opposing parties on Whidby Island, in which he thought it was necessary to interpose to prevent bloodshed. He called on Tom Squi-qui, who spoke English, to interpret for him, while he would talk to them and thus prevent violence. After he had spoken a few words, Tom exclaimed, "Don't be afraid Major, they aint going to shoot. You see if Indian is going to shoot, he shoot before other fellow gets a chance and then talks." Low and Lee Terry, as before stated, had located with a view of holding donation claims and laying off a town, which they did toward spring. The Terrys being New Yorkers, first named the place New York, but afterwards changed it to Alki, which all old settlers know signifies "by and by," "before long." The object of all who came to Oregon in early times was to avail themselves of the privilege of a donation claim, and my opinion to-day is that every man and woman fully earned and merited all they got, but we have a small class of very small people here now who have no food word for the old settler that so bravely met every danger and privation, and by hard toil acquired, and careful economy, saved the means to make them comfortable during the decline of life. These, however are degenerate scrubs, too cowardly to face the same dangers that our pioneer men and women did, and too lazy to perform an honest day's work if it would procure them a homestead in paradise. They would want the day reduced to eight hours and board thrown in. Toward spring Bell, Boren and myself began to look for claims. We had looked up the coast toward Puyallup during the winter and did not like the prospect. In the month of February we began exploration round Elliot Bay, taking soundings and examining the timber. Piles and timber being the only dependence for support in the beginning, it was important to look well to the facilities for the business. After a careful examination of the harbor, timber and feed for stock, we, on the 15th of February, 1852, located and marked three claims in one body. The southern boundary we fixed on the point at what is now the head of Commercial street, and on the north where Bell and D. T. Denny, who soon after located his claim, now join. We had left out stock in the Willamette valley to winter, and our plan was to get the stock over, and then divide and move onto our claims. On the 23d of March the Exact came in on her return from the gold expedition, having failed to find anything of interest. Boren and my brother took passage on her to Olympia on their way to the valley for the stock, leaving Bell and myself in charge of the claims and families. I am under the unpleasant necessity of again speaking of the inconvenience of illness, situated as we were. During the winter we did not shake with ague, but had not fully recovered, and before the return of the boys with the stock we were all down again shaking every other day, and so continued until August, which was a very embarrassing situation for me, but I do not now remember that I ever felt particularly despondent or like giving up the struggle, for struggle it truly was. On the 31st of March Dr. D. S. Maynard arrived at Alki in company with Seattle and a number of his tribe who had been stopping at Olympia during the winter. Their object was to establish a camp for fishing, and the Doctor was intending to pack salmon when the season for them came. After an examination of the point, now called Milton, and other places on the bay they selected the southern point on our claims. Maynard at first declined to take a claim, stating that he only wanted a temporary location to pack fish for the season, but on further consideration he concluded to accept our offer and make a permanent location, and we accordingly moved our boundary north to what is now the south line of Mill street in order to accommodate him with a claim. On April 3, 1852, Bell, Boren's family and Maynard moved over leaving myself and family too unwell to move until a house could be built. Bell camped on the north and Boren on the south side of our territory until they could build cabins for themselves, and they then built one for me on t he bluff at the mouth of the gulch which runs to the bay in front of where the Bell Hotel now stands and moved us over. The front of our territory was so rough and broken as to render it almost uninhabitable at that early time. I dug a well forty feet deep in the bottom of the gulch and only got quick sand with a very limited amount of water. Direct communication with the bay, by which we received all our supplies at that time, was next to impossible, owing to the height of the bluff, and I next built where Frye's Opera House now stands, and we divided the territory so that each could have access to the water and make the claims as nearly equal as possible. In October, 1852, H. L. Yesler arrived form Portland, looking for a location for a steam saw mill. He was pleased with the situation where Boren and Maynard joined, and as there had not yet been any claims filed in the land office. which at this time was in Oregon City, they each agreed to give him a portion of their territory in order that he might also obtain a claim. These several adjustments were all amicably made, as all were anxious to enlarge the settlement as much as possible. The policy of laying off a town, and the name, had been discussed and agreed upon by us before Yesler came, which accounts for the fact that he does not appear as one of the proprietors in the first plat which was filed for record. All had gone smoothly until the time when we (Boren, Maynard and myself) were to record a joint plat of the town of Seattle, when it was found that the doctor, who occasionally stimulated a little had that day taken enough to cause him to feel that he was not only monarch of all he surveyed, but what Boren and I had surveyed as well. Consequently Boren and I, on the 23d day May, 1853, filed the first plat of the town of Seattle. When in the evening of the same day, his fever had subsided sufficiently, the Doctor filed his also. Thus it will be seen that the ground had been occupied for more than a year before the town was laid off. Early in 1853 J. N. Low sold his interest at Alki Point to Chas. C. Terry, and moved to the neighborhood of Olympia. Terry's brother having previously returned East, he thus became sole owner at the Point. On the 18th of April, 1855, he and Edward Lander bought the front half of the Boren claim, and he soon after opened business in and became a resident of Seattle, and on July 11, 1857, exchanged his Alki property for a portion of the Maynard claim, and Maynard took up his residence at Alki. When our party landed at Alki Olympia was quite a village, having been settled in 1847 by E. Sylvester. In 1851 Capt. Lafayette Balch located at Lower Steilacoom, and J. B. and John M. Chapman at the upper town. Of our emigrant party who came by the Exact, James Hews and family settled at Steilacoom; H. H. Pinto and family and D. R. Bigelow at Olympia. John Alexander and family landed at Olympia, where they wintered and in the spring of 1852 located on Whidby Island. Alford M. Miller, who was one of the Exact's party of gold prospectors, also located on Whidby Island, and H. H. Pinto crossed back and settled at Cowlitz landing. On the 16th of September, 1851, Henry VanAssalt, L. M. Collins, Jacob Maple and Samuel A. Maple selected claims on Duwamish river, and on the 27th of the month moved onto them from Nesqually river, where Collins had previously settled and where also Wm. Packwood and George Shaser at the time were living, but I have not the exact date of their settlement on the Nesqually. There were of this party in all seven persons, all now dead but VanAssalt. In the spring of 1851 A. A. Plummer and Charles Bachelor located at Port Townsend. A few days after our party landed at Alki Point, F. W. Pettygrove and L. B. Hastings came across from Portland and camped over night with us on their way to Port Townsend, where they made arrangements to locate, returned and brought their families around on the schooner Mary Taylor, arriving as I have been informed, on the 19th day of February, 1852. Of the other early settlers in the vicinity of Port Townsend now recalled Albert Briggs, A. B. Robinson, J. G. Clinger, E. S. Fowler, John F. Tukey, J. J. H. VanBokkelin, Thomas Hammond, R. Ross, H. C. Wilson, Henry Webber and James Kaymes. T. W. Glascow told me of a settlement he made on Whidby Island in 1848, or possibly not till 1849, but owing to the threats made by the Indians he determined to vacate his claim, and in the fall of 1850, Col. Ebey located on or very near the place he had vacated. Recently I received a letter from R. H. Landsale, who came to Oregon in October, 1849, in which he gives a narrative of his early experience on the Sound which I think worthy of preservation, and I shall give it in his own language. "Reached Tumwater in January, 1851. Founded Major Goldsborough at Simmon's and Col. Ebey at Olympia. Being advised by Ebey, started down Sound February 5th for Whidby Island, with King George, Duke of York, and Duke of Clarence. Steilacoom was just then being settled, a vessel unloading at the time. Reached Port Townsend, saw immense Indian houses, but no settlers yet. Plummer not long after took his claim there. Crossed to Whidby Island and settled at Oak Harbor, February 10th. Made a good garden that year. Col. Ebey told me of Snoqualmie Falls, and I had Indians take me. Saw the Falls; prepared and walked--one Indian carrying baggage--to top of divide in Snoqualmie Pass. In the summer Asher Sargent landed horses at Oak Harbor for Wm. Wallace and family, who settled at Crescent Harbor--so named by myself. I had now been many months alone, the few men being off helping to load piles for San Francisco wharves, so I fastened up cabin, potatoes, etc., and left to spend the winter at Olympia. As I approached Alki Point I saw a white man standing on the beach with a surveyor's staff in his hand looking to see who the white man approaching might be, and the man on the beach introduced himself as Arthur A. Denny. In March, 1852, helped to build a scow to take Crockett and Ebey's stock to Whidby's Island. As soon as we landed, I abandoned my claim on Oak Harbor on account of the mud flats, and took my claim at Penn's Cove. In 1851, there were three settlers at Oak Harbor, Martin Taftson, Clement W. Sumner and Ulric Friend."