The Denny Party Arrives

Below is a drawing of the arrival of The Denny Party, on November 13, 1851 at Smaquamox. When they arrived, the cabin where they had hoped to live wasn't finished. It had been started by David Denny, with some help initially from John Low, who then left David to return to fetch his own cattle and the rest of the Denny Party. On his own, David accidently chopped his own foot and then lost all his food to racoons in the forest. So, when the Denny Party arrived in November, 1851, the cabin was not finished. The women of the Denny party sat down and cried. They were upset that the cabin was not finished. They were wet and cold in a typical Novemeber Seattle rainstorm. They were afraid of the one thousand Salish who had gathered there to see them.

When the cabin was finished (and a second one), it would have no windows and was not made in the long house style. The settlers would soon learn from the native people who camped all around them how to make plank houses from the many cedar trees that grew all around them. But they were stubborn in clinging to their American ways and it took them a long while to appreciate their native neighbors. They did make a door that split so that light could enter the cabin. But, they grew tired of visits from the local natives and tried to lock them out -- unsuccessfully.

The Denny Party was lucky to have the Salish people. These people taught them what foods were safe to eat. They showed them how to use Cedar bark to make all sorts of useful things. And, they gave the Denny Party children clam juice to drink during their first winter in Smaquamox, when there were no cows to give them milk.