From The Archives - March 2025

 This one is a stinker…literally.  It’s everything you wanted to know about dumps and dumping around Haller Lake past and present.  In the old days ,say, prior to the 1930’s,  people would use fire pits, burn barrels or burial pits to dispose of waste.  No rules applied.  It was also common to dump trash in any vacant lot.  The North End Herald reported  in 1927 that Haller Lake, under King County jurisdiction (before Seattle annexation), would acquire a drive in dump on both sides of 125th just east of North Trunk Highway (Aurora today).  The article says “A man will be in charge and supervise disposal.”

Twenty years later, 1947, a group of Haller Lake residents meet with King County commissioners complaining of the dump eyesore, smoke and stench.  One comment from a Lake neighbor, “We’re ashamed about it, we have to tell our friends  come out Aurora Ave. and turn right at the dump.”  Although the commissioners said they’d investigate, nothing was done.
By 1955 with annexation to Seattle the same dump still existed at 125th. Things had to change with post-WWll massive home development.  A city report outlined that the refuse station was tenable for a short time.  Around 1960  the dump was graded over and ,in time, sold and repurposed.  Incidentally, before the dump vanished, my brother and I spent many a Saturday combing through our “extended yard” just feet from our house.  We brought home treasures to the chagrin of Mom.
No question about it.  HLCC was AWAYS active in city policies.  We now move to the late 1960s when Seattle proposed to put in a garbage transfer station at 125th.  This riled the Club to no end.  My dad, Harry Harkness, was club president at the time.  He, along with others fought city hall over the matter and won.  King County stepped in to build the station in Shoreline.
The legacy of 125th street dump is a little disturbing today.  Surrounding parcels are potentially suspect of tainted ground likely because of graded over refuse.  As a youngster, I remember walking the barren  gray colored, odd-looking soil with a few little holes venting methane gas.  This before Halcyon Mobile Home Park.

Randy Harkness

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