This is “líqtəd”, commonly known today in Seattle as Licton Springs.
This place is the city’s first indigenous landmark.
In a corner of Licton Springs Park, a couple of wood bridges cross over small creeks. Despite encroachment by urbanization over many decades and the pressure of being squeezed between Aurora Avenue and the Interstate-5 freeway, the water flow has essentially continued from the time before white/European colonization. Four springs and their emergent creeks flowed south into what is now called Green Lake. One of these springs, the “iron sulphur spring”, remains visible with its outflow merging downstream with a larger creek, as iron-oxide mud stains the ground red. The word “líqtəd” in the Lushootseed language means “red paint”. A recently installed cement ring-collar provides some protection around the spring as an attempt to preserving this historic location. As sacred site once used for medicinal and cultural activity, the Duwamish people camped and built sweat lodges near these springs; they bathed in the mineral-rich waters and used the brightly coloured mud to make paint. The second main spring, “white magnesium spring” at the park’s southern end, is no longer visible after having been capped under another existing pond.
On 16 October 2019, the city of Seattle’s Landmarks Preservation Board approved the designation of the indigenous Duwamish site. Licton Springs Park received official historical recognition as the city’s first indigenous landmark.
Above/featured: “Aurora and Mercer” – 4 Mar 2020 (X70).
A favourite place is Seattle, an American city in Washington state, only 2 to 3 hours by car from Vancouver, Canada. For two metropolitan regions close by proximity, their respective evolutions have created very different cities over time. I present below 12 places around Seattle in spring. In this part of the world, there’s every chance for overcast skies and showers, but I assure you of one thing: the light is very good when the sun is out. And when there’s abundant light, I’m all about the superposition of light, shadow, construction, and person.
Above/featured: On the Art Walk trail.
In northeast Seattle, the NOAA Art Walk is contained fully within the campus of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Western Regional Center (NOAA WRC), located at Sand Point next to Magnuson Park. Initially, I’d intended only to visit one sculpture from which a “fairly successful” local band got its name. I explored the entirety of the Art Walk on a breezy sunny early-spring morning for an easy peaceful walk on a trail hugging Lake Washington’s shoreline. Over a two- to three-hour period, I encountered only a handful of other visitors, some of whom may have been NOAA staff.
In thinking about things to do for free in Seattle, I thought about some of the city’s sights labelled with the letter ‘S’. There’s plenty of alliteration to follow.
I could have listed two obvious choices with the Space Needle and the Smith Tower. They are free to admire from the ground, but both require an admission charge to enter and reach the top of each respective structure for sweeping views of the city.
Here below are other arts and culture spots in Seattle that don’t cost a penny to visit or see; all locations are easily accessible with public transport.
Above/featured: Vancouver, 22 December.
I look back at the 2020 year with the following images to address how different locations in both Seattle and Vancouver question the nature and ideas of displacement and belonging, home and travel.
Fotoeins Fotografie 