 Frontier Fighters. Frontier Fighters. Thrilling chapters in the lives of men and women who dared and won in their fight for the West. The entire Pacific Northwest and the state of Washington in particular are eternally grateful to the vision and courage of Arthur A. Denne and those who helped the state of Washington emerge from a wilderness to earn for herself the title The Amazing Commonwealth of the Northwest. On the 13th of November, 1851, 24 pioneers, 12 adults and 12 children, were among the passenger list of the schooner exact Captain Folger commanding. All but this little group were bound for Queen Charlotte Island to hunt gold. As Arthur A. Denne appears to the mist, he sees the strange, unfriendly looking shore of their future home. Mrs. Denne, bravely fighting back the tears, says to her husband, Arthur. I know. I know what you're going to say, dear. Your homesick for our farm in Illinois. I'm not complaining. But when we left Illinois, you said we'd never have to pioneer again. You said others had broken the trail in this wilderness. Well, dear, it does look pretty bleak, but we can't turn back now. Another hour in Captain Folger will be putting us ashore. My brother David and young me, Terry, landed on Puget Sound last September. There should be at least one cabin up in this new paradise. Paradise? What kind of paradise can anyone make out of nothing but miles and miles of ocean and brush and forest? Coming into Puget Sound! Well, the schooner is entering Puget Sound, dear. Or just wait till the sun comes out. It'll brighten up everything. We'll have to wait a long time for that to happen. Just now I'm not even thinking of you. Louise and Margaret are old enough, I suppose, to bear some sort of hardship. But little Roland is just two months old. Oh, I know, dear, but it's too late to turn back even if we wanted to. Whatever divine providence has in store for us, we must take. When that little, dull, tormented party of 24 pioneers were lowered into the boat from the schooner exact, nothing swept up to them but a forest rising from the grey waste of Puget Sound, over all of which towered snow-capped mountains. The landing was affected and boats were dragged up on the shore. And once on the shore... Oh, Margaret, don't cry. Louise, please behave. Mother knows you're cold and hungry, but Father's doing the best he can. Mrs. Denny, I'll take care of the girls. You have your hands full with little Roland. Thank you, Mrs. Low. If you can find some sort of shelter for the children under the trees, go with Addie Low, children. Go ahead, darling. I'll watch out for them as best I can. Thank you. Come, girls, come with Addie Low. Now we're all hungry and wet, too, but we mustn't get away. Oh, dear God. Dear God, guide and gorder. There, there, there. Steady. Steady, dearest. Arthur, did you see your brother David anywhere? No, I can't find Hyderherobin. You don't suppose that he and Lee Terry have been surprised by Indians and... I pray God that both of them have the same... I'll call to him again. Hello! Hello, David Denny! Hello! We'd better get under these trees. Down in this log. Here, I'll throw this oil skin of mine over your head so it'll shield the babies from the rain. They've unloaded the boats now and they're pulling out. Steady, dear, steady. But this may be the last time we'll see white people till spring. Steady, dear. Here, here's my hand. Hold tight. Goodbye! Good bye, Arthur! Good bye, David! David! Oh, Lord! I don't want to have buried under this gold bit. This is our son, Rawlin. The youngest citizen of this new community. Two months old. Where's Lee Terry? Did you get the cabin up? Lee Terry's off in the woods hunting some gruff, which has been mighty scarce. We got one cabin up, plenty of timber fell for others, brush gathered for fire, springs located, good lot's staked out. Well, dear. Things look a little brighter, don't they? Well, if I could just know there was one cow around here to ensure milk for the baby, I'd be happy, even though I am wet. Well, we're all pretty soggy. I guess we'd better start some good-roaring fires going in. I'll leave the party to where the cabin is. I guess that'll be the center of the town. But surely in this new town there must be at least one cow? No cows, sis. But we've got some mighty fine, meaty clams here. Clams? But you don't get milk from clams? Oh, I'll grant you that. But you do get clam broth from clams. Now you give little Rawlin some of that and he'll get you down his bone fast enough. Author Denny will speak. Thank you, friends. The Lord has carried us through our first winter. That's you and I and our loved ones. But I think it's hard time we got a name for our new town. We've got everything under the sun here for future prosperity. Timber, water power, ocean. And it looks like we've got a harbor, too. A harbor for beaches? Yes, Mr. Bell, Mr. Board and myself took an Indian canoe with a bundle of horseshoes and a clothesline made sounds on the bay to see if it was deep enough for a harbor. And it was. We pioneers have something to crow about now. And we might as well tell the world about it. But first, first a name for our city. All right. Who's thought of a name? Well, who's thought of a name? It's too bad we didn't invite our wives to this meeting or we would have had a dozen names. I reckon we couldn't do wrong to follow in the footsteps of New York. New York has a mighty good sound to me. All right. Charles C. Terry says, New York, what's the little too soon? Time for being some modest. Why not call it New York Alky? New York Alky? Well, what's the meaning of Alky? Short for alkali? I'm downright serious about that name, Alky. It's an Indian word from the Chinoo tribe. It means buying. I'll make it unanimous. And so the city fathers and this wilderness on the shore of Puget Sound declare our town site to be cold. Still a pioneer, Mother, Mrs. Low. Even two years after we have a full-fledged growing town, I never unlock my door until I know who it is. Well, I'm not afraid of Indians anymore. Just the other day, one curious red skin sat cross-legged on the doorstep of my cabin, watching me bake my bread. You mean you didn't even watch him out of the corner of your eye? Hardly out of the corner. I needed the dough facing him. And I suppose put the loaves in the oven still facing the Indians. Oh, my. Just look at the rosy cheeks on that boy of yours. Thanks to Washington milk or clam broth. The girls are thriving, too. More cabins being erected every day. Towns growing. Soon be outgrowing all this pioneer effort. Yes. And it's named, too. I hear that some of the newer citizens don't like New York Alky. They say it hasn't any character. Oh, that's Arthur. Arthur, dear. You look as though you had some wonderful news. I have, dear. Oh, greetings, Mrs. Lowe. Oh, hello, Mr. Denny. Well, I must be going. Oh, no, stay, please. It's great news for everybody. Do you ever remember me speaking of Mr. Henry L. Yesler? Well, yes, I think so. Isn't he a capitalist from the East? Well, I don't know whether he's a capitalist or not, but he's wanting to put up a sawmill, a steam sawmill. The first in the Northwest, mind you. Right here in New York Alky. Wonderful news. Well, I should say so. Well, we'll all have to readjust our boundaries so as to give water frontage to him, but it'll be worth it. That doesn't make this town boom. I don't know what will. Oh, my, my. Before we know it, we won't be pioneers anymore. City folk. Any more news about changing the name of the town? Oh, yes. You know, there's an Indian chief called C. Alp who's been very friendly and a big help to the White Select. It's coming January. There's going to be a vote in the legislature and I reckon they'll want to honor him in some way or another. Looks like our town's going to be the county seat. Oh, and just to think if I'd had my way about it two years ago, John Lowe would have been a gold miner in Queen Charlotte Island. But Mrs. Denny's brave smile helped me through that first winter. Oh, but Arthur and I have a little secret about that smile. It wasn't so brave that morning of November 13th, 1851. Was it, dear? Well, we're all getting on all right. Well, we must be. Or even the legislature is going to worry about us. We're all just wondering on whose land claim the town was really located. But we won't be concerned about that until January 6th, 1853. On this day of January 6th, in the year of our lord, 1853, before the legislature of the Oregon Territory here assembled, a law is passed enacting the following. That the county seat of King County be, and the same is hereby located at Seattle, so named in honor of Chief Seattle, on the land claim of David S. Maynard. With the name Seattle, New York County is no longer officially recognized as the name of said city in King County and Puget House. In the city of Seattle there rises a simple white shaft. On one side of its base we read Birthplace of Seattle. On the other, New York Algae. At this place on the 13th of November, 1851, there landed from the schooner exact the little colony which developed into the city of Seattle. These courageous men and women were indeed frontier fighters, conquerors of a wilderness, guides whose footsteps indeed illuminated the darkness for those who followed in the years to come.