In the spring of 1889, David and Mary Ann Bothell laid their clam to 80 acres near Brackett’s Landing, a logging camp and steamboat stop. Just south of a swampy forest, the Landing sat in a fertile valley that would, twenty years later, support a town that bore the name of the many Bothells that lived there.
Main Street burned twice in Bothell's infancy. The second fire, in 1911, destroyed all 11 buildings that stood along the thoroughfare. Undaunted, the city rebuilt, formed a fire department, and shouldered on.
The lumber industry, in the form of logging and shingle mills, fueled the town's early growth. The Lake Union locks, however, changed the shape of first the waterline and then Bothell's economy. Shipping along the Sammamish River, already attenuated by competition from the railroad, ceased entirely as the river became too shallow for freight. The sleepy town turned its focus toward farming, and remained mostly rural until the 1980s.
The development of Seattle, Everett, WA, and Bellevue's high-technology business parks in 1980 drew suburban commuters to quiet, charming Bothell, swelling its population. A decade later, Bothell enveloped a bit of neighboring Snohomish County, doubling its own size and boosting its population past 25,000.
Twelve miles north of Seattle, modern Bothell boasts a population of over 27,000 (according to a 1999 census). The city's largest employers are the Northshore School District, Advanced Technologies Laboratories, AT&T Wireless, and Eddie Bauer, Inc.
sources: Northshore Chamber of Commerce and City of Bothell.