History of King County

Today King County has nearly twice the land area of the state of Rhode Island, but in the mid-1800s when it was founded, it extended all the way to the Olympic Peninsula.

Presently, the county spans an area of 2,307 miles; 2,116 of them are land, and the remaining 191 of them are water, with the City of Seattle holding the title of County Seat.

By the time that Europeans arrived in what is now King County, the area was already inhabited by the Duwamish Tribe, the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe, and the Muckleshoot peoples.

It was recorded that in the first winter after the Denny Party landed at Alki Point, the settlement in the area was just a few dozen settlers and more than a thousand Indigenous. It was also said that the local tribes taught the settlers how to subsist in this unfamiliar terrain and climate, and also helped them with construction and labor needs.

King County’s Namesake

On December 22, 1852, the Oregon Territory Legislature approved the formation of King County and the area was named after William R. King, an Alabama man who had just been elected Vice President of the United States under President Franklin Pierce.

This proved to be problematic though, for King County, because William Rufus Devane King was a slave owner, who, according to a motion made by the King County City Council, “earned income and maintained his lifestyle by oppressing and exploiting other human beings.”

In 1986, the King County City Council approved a motion to rename King County’s namesake, keeping the name King County, but instead using it to honor the work of Dr. Martin Luter King, Jr. whose “contributions are well-documented and celebrated by millions throughout the nation and the world, and embody attributes for which the citizens of King County can be proud and claim as their own.”

After a bureaucratic hold-up for nearly the next two decades, on July 24, 2005, governor Christine Gregoire signed into law Senate Bill 5332 which made the renaming official.