History
Squak Mountain first appears in the history of European settlement after the discovery of coal on the mountain in 1859. This helped fuel the establishment of the first commercial coal mine in Issaquah, WA in 1862 and in Renton, WA in 1863. While there is no longer coal mining on Squak Mountain, the dangers posed by abandoned mines are one reason it has been preserved from development.
Squak Mountain State Park was formed in 1972. The initial land grant of 590 acres to form the park was made by the Bullitt family. The initial grant was near the top and specified that the land remain in its natural state. These stipulations can still be seen today in the greater restrictions in park usage at the top of the mountain, on the original Bullitt family parcel. The remains of the Bullitt family home (just a foundation and fireplace) can be found in this original parcel.
Over time, the park has expanded to its current size of 1,545-acres through the acquisition of additional parcels of land.
While generally a quiet and safe park, Squak Mountain has seen mayhem over the years.
- On January 15, 1953 during a heavy storm, a Flying Tiger Line DC-4 flying to Boeing field from Burbank, California was blown off course, clipped trees near the summit and came down near a farm near the Issaquah-Hobart Road in a fiery crash that killed all on board. The fire was so intense it was four days before it burned itself out enough that rescuers could approach and recover the bodies.
- On May 4, 1991, Donna Barensten who suffered from dementia disappeared while hiking with her husband Ron in Squak Mountain State Park. Her body was found nearly one year later on April 27, 1992.
- On April 25, 2004, the body of Alena Stathopoulos, 29 was found on the Squak Mountain trail not far from SE May Valley Road by two hikers. Her roommate Esther Rose Havekost was convicted in December 2004 for murdering her in their shared apartment and for paying a man $10,000 to dump the body. She was sentenced to 27 months in prison.
- On August 7, 2011, Kenneth Blanchard, 53, an experienced paraglider, died after a rigging problem caused him to fall 40 to 50 feet to his death. He had launched from Poo Poo Point on Tiger Mountain with the intent of landing not at the TIger Mountain Flight Park landing point, but instead in a pasture near his home in Renton, Washington. While flying over the High Valley neighborhood on the southwest side of Squak Mountain, his rigging experienced a catastrophic failure that caused him to fall to his death in a pasture.
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