Bothell, Washington

In the U.S. state of Washington, the communities of King and Snohomish counties are home to the city of Bothell. It is located close to the north-eastern tip of Lake Washington and is considered to be a part of the Seattle metropolitan region. It has a total population of 48,161 people as per the census completed in the year 2020.

The indigenous Sammamish people, also known as the "s-tah-PAHBSH" or "willow people," historically inhabited the Sammamish River valley from Lake Washington to Issaquah Creek. The population of this Coast Salish group is estimated to have ranged from eighty to two hundred individuals by the year 1850. Among them were the "ssts'p-abc," also known as the "meander dwellers," who established their homes at the mouth of the river in two separate communities, the biggest of which was known as "tlah-WAH-dees" and was located between what is now Kenmore and Bothell. In the aftermath of the Puget Sound War in 1856, the Sammamish were forcibly taken from their homeland and sent to the Tulalip and Port Madison indian reservations respectively.

In the year 1870, Columbus S. Greenleaf and George R. Wilson submitted the first American claims to the lower Sammamish River valley, which consisted mostly of marshes at the time. In the following six years, eight more families joined them. George Brackett, a Canadian, made his first property purchase in 1876 and established a commercial logging operation there. His camp was situated on the north bank of the Sammamish River in what is now the middle of Bothell's downtown. In the following years, a sawmill, a school, and a shop eventually opened its doors.

Bothell may be found on the banks of the Sammamish River not far from where it empties into Lake Washington's northeastern corner. Both King and Snohomish counties are traversed by the city of Bothell at the intersection of Northeast 205th Street and 244th Street Southwest. One of the six cities in the state of Washington that are located in more than one county is Bothell. The city is bounded to the west by Kenmore, to the north by unincorporated North Creek, to the east by Woodinville, and to the south by Kirkland. Woodinville is the city that is to the east of the city (including Juanita). According to the data provided by the United States Census Bureau, the total area of the city of Bothell is 13.64 square miles (35.33 km2), and the whole area is considered to be land.

The majority of streets in Bothell are numbered rather than named, and the numbers of those streets often change as they reach the county boundary. For instance, as one travels from King County into Snohomish County, 104th Avenue NE in King County changes its name to 23rd Avenue SE.

The majority of the city's storm water empties into either the Sammamish River or one of its tributaries, including North Creek or Swamp Creek. Crows go from the greater Seattle area to roost at Bothell, which is home to a number of wetlands that are inhabited by enormous crow colonies numbering up to 16,000 individuals at any one time.