Once a camping ground for the Sammamish Indian Tribe, Hunts Point is a town located on the Eastside. Incorporated in 1955, it has a total land area of 185 acres and rests on the eastern shore of Lake Washington just north of the SR520, Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. This city is one of the “Point Cities,” just northwest of Bellevue. It occupies a long, narrow peninsula jutting out into Lake Washington, the deepest fresh water lake on the West Coast. Like the other cities of the Eastside’s “Gold Coast” of Medina, Clyde Hill and Yarrow Point, it is a residential community of single-family homes and claims just under 500 residents. Hunts Point was named after Leigh S. J. Hunt, who owned the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper in the late 1800’s. Mr. Hunt never lived on Hunts Point but across Cozy Cove on Yarrow Point. Trees on the northern end of Hunts Point blocked his view across the lake so in 1870, he purchased the land to remove the trees and improve his view.

Located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Native Americans inhabited Squak Valley centuries before the ar- rival of European settlers. When the first homesteaders arrived in the 1860s relations with the Snoqualmie and Sammamish tribes were mostly peaceable. The town was platted in 1888, and incorporated under the name Gilman in 1892. It was changed to Issaquah in 1899 in honor of the area’s original Indian name. Issaquah is surrounded on three sides by the “Issaquah Alps”, Cougar Mountain on the west, Squak Mountain to the south, and Tiger Mountain to the east. Lake Sammamish is on the north and is popular for boating, fishing and skiing.